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January 28, 2004
Body and Soul
I have been so angry and sad this week. Ever since I read this article in the New York Times about sex trafficking into the U.S. I’ve been unreasonable. Unreasonably angry, overly sensitive and just plain sick and sad.
I realize that this is a problematic article, as this Slate article points out. At the same time, I’m certainly more likely to take the Times article to heart. Numbers are not the most important thing to discuss here. That it’s happening at all is tragic and horrifying and ugly. That it is anywhere nearing commonplace is insufferable.
***
Almost every morning, and absolutely every Saturday, I drive by a women’s health clinic in my neighborhood on my way to work. I only know of two clinics like it in all of Austin. There I face down anywhere from three to thirty men, mostly in khaki pants and practically all carrying signs, grotesque, condemning and delusory. There are no women present. Also, thankfully, none of them have dragged their children away from Saturday morning cartoons to participate in this spectacle (which I’ve seen at other clinics in other cities.)
I cannot convey the trembling anger and fear that overwhelms me each day when I see them. When I think of how practically everyone I know has no health insurance. When I think of how ass-backwards our medical system is run. When I think of these men standing between me and a doctor because they as men, and more importantly, as men “of God,” know what’s best and right for little old me. I want to fucking scream. And shake. And I don’t know what all.
***
Yesterday at work our new delivery driver came in the back door. I don’t like him anyway, but leave it for now. He looks at me and beams from ear to ear. “Guess what I just heard on 101-X?” 101-X is a horrible Clear Channel “alt-rock” station here. I inwardly groan at this point, but have no idea what he’s going to say, just that I probably won’t like it.
“They’re having a contest to figure out what’s the most unattractive part of a woman’s body!” He’s filled with glee, like he’s the one who came up with this delightful little whimsy.
I raise my voice, not screaming yet, but certainly louder than is acceptable for the workplace. “I don’t want to hear this sexist bullshit right now!”
He continues, oblivious. “They (the callers-in) can’t figure it out!”
Louder, I repeat, “I don’t want to hear this sexist fucking bullshit right now!”
Here’s his trump card, “It’s WIDE HIPS!” and he so proud of himself he’s just about to about to start jumping around and beating his chest and hooting.
At this point I am pounding with both hands on my extra ample ass, and just finally screaming the same, “I don’t want to hear this fucking shit!”
***
I don’t want to hear this fucking shit.
Posted by pogo at January 28, 2004 11:34 AM
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Comments
well, the even sadder thing is the sex slave trade happens in many other countries than the u.s.
people tend not to remember the fact that girls in japan used to be bred specifically for the purpose of being sex slaves to people with power/influence/money for many centuries.
Posted by: dante on January 28, 2004 2:28 PM
no, i don’t think that’s the case at all.
if you read the times article, you will note the mention of many different locales, such as the Ukraine, all sorts of countries in eastern Europe, such as Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, and Romania as well as south and southeast Asia and North and Central America. No one has ownership on this. It’s global. I’m not outraged just because this is happening in the U.S. I am outraged that we live on a globe that creates conditions where it happens at all.
I don’t think it’s any sadder in any given circumstance due to its geography. Or maybe I’m not quite seeing your point?
Not only is that the real key here, the fact is that we are not talking about something that has happened historically. This is happening right now. It may have gone on for centuries, sexual servitude may be something that is linked up in all societies’ histories, but this is not the past. This is happening now.
Posted by: tam on January 28, 2004 2:51 PM
Great post, great comment reply too. I can’t tell you all the times I’ve actually screamed to/at innocent bystanders about this, but maybe you can guess. In Japan, I’m in a strange position, because my identity is first Gaijin, and way way way later female, so I’m usually so busy fighting the anti-Gaijin bullshit that I don’t even have time to get to the sexist kind. Japan is far more outwardly and even legislatively sexist than the US has been in decades, but I am not quite a female here you see, just a foreigner (like how racists first don’t see a tall African-American, or an African-American woman, they just notice a black person). My most hated thing about Japan is the mainstream sexualization of young girls. It’s so common that I think Lolita-ism has almost become a fetish popularly associated with Japan itself. For instance, I get huge numbers of hits on my site from people searching Google for, not only “grade school porn,” but “Japanese school girl porn,” which makes me so disgusted and enraged I’ve almost just changed the name of the blog.
Posted by: Karla on January 28, 2004 5:11 PM
I agree that the story in the Times has a lot of flaws, but this is still a big problem. There is a heartwrenching story right now on msnbc (click their “Dateline” link) that hit me hard the other day and made me almost start crying at work when I saw the little kids in these videos. Also, here are some links to stories about local sex slave busts…
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/?SecID=278&ArID=75278
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/?SecID=278&ArID=71599
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?SecID=2&ArID=36199
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?SecID=2&ArID=34885
Posted by: Alan on January 28, 2004 5:24 PM
tam - my point was that it is sad it *is* a global issue and not just a local one. a small problem would be easier to control than a larger, world encompassing one. there are tons of horror stories of kids raised in orphanages in russia to become unwilling porn participants later in life.
truly sick.
karla - yeah i have heard that japan is far worse than the us when it comes to sexist stuff. seems like from what i have heard that japanese are in general more sexually outward/frustrated even perhaps? i do think it’s interesting (despite being tragic) that women will continue to dress and act like little girls in order to maintain sexual attention towards them.
Posted by: dante on January 29, 2004 12:24 AM
from the karmic justice files: today the delivery driver was officially replaced and my workday became fifty times brighter.
Posted by: tam on February 2, 2004 7:47 PM
I’m sorry, but I think I accidentally deleted one of Aaron’s comments while I was cleaning out spam comments this morning. I suck.
Posted by: jacob on February 15, 2004 12:13 PM
Here’s a new comment: if you’d really like to have your blood boil about something that could be called a “gender issue”, but is in fact something that should make us all hang our heads in shame and cry alone at night, read this:
www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040308&s=goodwin
Posted by: Aaron on March 9, 2004 12:08 AM