But regardless of whether or not a large portion of the human population indulges in any given practice, the practice is either acceptable or unacceptable. Pornography is unacceptable. Sociologists and psychologists have studied its effects; among the many sickening effects, a few that stand out to me are: Porn exploits women, men, and children; porn changes the way a person’s mind works—it leads to abnormal sex addictions; porn leads to criminal behavior; porn leads to the breakdown of the family unit (usually beginning with unfaithful husbands or wives). Blatantly obvious from these facts alone, we see that pornography has caused, is causing, and will continue to cause societal decay. (Apparently, though, the "societal decay" part hasn't sunk into people's heads because people are still seeking out porn, including 40 million regular American online viewers. The worldwide industry today is worth 4.9 billion.)
One of the most alarming things I realized about pornography from reading To Plead Our Own Cause: Personal Stories by Today's Slaves is that pornography keeps the human trafficking industry in booming business. It's so obvious, but I guess I hadn't considered it until it was placed right in front of my face in a book.
But really, how many of us actually have even a small idea of what's going on? (If more of us did know, we'd be doing more about it, right?) Many people like me have no idea, so that's why I'm trying to learn more and get the word out. If you want a wake-up call about the human slave trade (and not just the sex trade, but other forms of slavery as well), look into this book. These are testimonies from our brothers and sisters whose voices should be heard.
I typed up one of the accounts because it is so important that each of us read real accounts of real people. Many of us will never know this kind of suffering, so it is especially important that we listen to the actual sufferers so we can know what needs to be done to protect our fellow man--to work to protect all of God's children. This is from a survivor whose name is changed in the book to protect her identity. She is called "Christine." Her words speak for themselves, standing as a powerful voice against the selfishness, filthiness, and absolute inhumanity of pornography and all other human exploitation and torture.
Christine says:
"I was born a slave. I was born into sexual slavery in the state of Minnesota in the United States of American twenty-nine years ago. I was born into a prostitution ring, a family of pimps and pornographers and prostitutes. The men pimped the women and girls and sometimes the boys. They made pornography. They sold us in whorehouses and at live sex shows. The men used me in pornography in basements, barns, houses, warehouses, isolated wooded areas, and public buildings.
I come from the farms and suburbs and cities of the United States of America. I come from the strangled, suffocated, mangled voices of the raped, beaten, and starved. I was trafficked throughout the country, from state to state by car, by bus, and by plane. I am not alone standing here before you today. I am not alone in my testimony, and I am not alone in my spirit. I have many friends and acquaintances who have endured the tortures, rapes, beatings, and degradations that pimps and johns hand out like candy.
In prostitution rings women and girls are taught to be sexually submissive by men who refer to themselves as masters, by men who are so cowardly as to rape, beat, and starve women and girls. Women and girls raised in prostitution rings are sexually abused and otherwise tortured beginning in infancy. They are trained to be prostitutes, to sexually service men. The men are masters of torture and terror who are highly trained in torture techniques. Sometimes these pimp masters are doctors and dentists in the ouside world. They rape girls as young as one and two years old.
I was one such girl. I can tell you some of the things they did to me and other girls and women, but there is still much I cannot speak of. These men gang rape us. They rape us with dogs. They rape us with knives and guns and beer bottles. They tie us down, chain us to bedposts and basement poles and each other. They make us eat shit and maggots and urine. They rape us with masks on their faces. They rape us in the name of Satan and Hitler and De Sade. They rape us in front of our mothers and grandmothers; they rape our grandmothers and mothers in front of us. They play games with us. They force us to choose who will live, which child or aunt or grandmother will live and which one will die. They hold mock executions.
But sometimes they do kill us. You never know when they’re only joking, having some fun, or when they will pull the trigger. These men want us, the women and girls being raped, to feel responsible for their actions. They want us to feel like it is our fault that our mother, sister, daughter, grandmother is being destroyed in front of our eyes…
The men who use us throw us away. We are their garbage to piss on, to pile up in the corner. We are their property, they own us. The rest of you turn your backs, avert your eyes, pretend not to see, go on your way. You leave us to the predators.
But we endure…I stayed alive because my belief in something better than what they offered was greater than their hatred and destruction. I stayed alive because I wanted to be free—more than anything, I wanted to be free. I wanted to live in a world of respect. I wanted to be free from them. I wanted their hands off me; I wanted their bodies off me and their dicks out of me. I wanted to not be sold. I wanted to not be bought. I wanted to not be raped and filmed and forced to smile and beg and plead for mercy. I wanted them to stop telling me who and what I was. I wanted to decide how I felt, what I thought, what I believed, and who I loved. I wanted to eat the foods that I wanted to eat, run the way I wanted, be silly or thoughtful or serious. Quite simply, I wanted a life of autonomy and agency…
It is only recently that I have been free from their sexual and physical abuse, and to be honest, I don’t always know what to do with myself. I was beaten and raped, or at least verbally assaulted, virtually every day of my life. The intentensity of my emotions doesn’t match up to a normal life. Other survivors talk about this, too. Even though we have escaped, we live in the pimp’s world. We have flashbacks and night tremors. The pimps harass us, so we spend much of our time waiting, wondering when they’re going to hurt us again. Our worldview is one of war, constant rapes, and beatings. We may escape, but we will always be isolated, we will never be part of society. We know too much, we have seen too much. The world does not want to acknowledge the truth of women’s lives…
There are many women, strong women brave women all across the world who are rising up to meet and to end the tidal wave of male violence against women. We escape and we organize and we educate and we go back down into the trenches to pull out our sisters. This is war, a battle of life and death…
We must be on the lookout for eachother…As I go back, back into the brothels and porn houses, I will be on the lookout for you. I hope I will never find you there, but if I do, you have my word that I will lend you my hand.”
***
We are not machines. Lets not "turn [our] backs, avert [our] eyes, pretend not to see, go on [our] way" when we see injustice and immorality. We are human beings with empathy. Lets be the kind of humans willing to give up whatever it takes in order to correct something wrong--whether that be personal addictions or time and other personal resources needed to speak up against, combat, and prevent further wrongs against our fellow human beings.
Horrific. We need to destroy this thing. I don't think it can be destroyed by hate and fear, loathing and self-loathing, the passions that feed it. We need to starve it, dry up the market by preaching a gospel of love. We need to teach people to think of their sisters, mothers, grandmothers and daughters; to understand their profound divinity; and then to think of ALL women as their sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and daughters.
ReplyDeleteExactly. You are exactly right. We need the enlightenment that comes from true, Godly love for eachother.
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