According to a February ABC News report, the FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. Some are runaways and victims of abuse, and some are women and men like you.
"Body and Sold" is a play that uses eight stories to give its audience a window into the world of sex trafficking and teen prostitution in the United States. It is an original play by Deborah Lake Fortson based on interviews with prostituted youth, and it allows us to hear the voices of actual women, girls and boys who were who were pulled into the underworld of sex trafficking. The piece expresses the horror of being deceived, kidnapped or manipulated and shackled into a life of slavery, and how some found their way out.
Theater can serve as an effective and underutilized tool for social change and awareness. It provides the possibility for an empathic response and a connection to people we may otherwise not meet. Films or books, because they are more distant, may not touch an audience in the same direct and emotional manner.
Senior and active Africana Center member Nina Joyce has done extensive research on sex trafficking internationally and was interested to know about the scene here in the United States. She interviewed fellow Tufts students to gauge the campus knowledge and opinions.
She asked students, "When you think of sex trafficking, what comes to mind?" One student responded, "I'm really not sure I even know what this is. What comes to my mind is all the horror stories of women sold as sex slaves."
Another opined, "Sex trafficking brings to mind images of women, girls and boys - many of them immigrants or racial or ethnic minorities - who are bought and sold in a world market to provide sexual services. I also think of sophisticated networks of pimps and sex traffickers."
Joyce asked, "What if I told you that new definitions of sex trafficking are including actions such as trading some sexual favor for a service, and that these definitions are being applied to a lot of activities on campus, like 'I slept with him/her just because I needed (fill in object/homework/service)' or 'I just couldn't say no because he/she has been so nice to/done so many things for me'? Does this surprise you? Do you think it's fair to apply the term 'sex trafficking' to this kind of activity?"
A peer responded, "I would be very surprised to learn that those types of acts would be considered sex trafficking. I understand where lawmakers and others might be coming from in trying to include these more everyday instances of 'sex trafficking,' but I think the way that our society is set up makes that boundary really fuzzy."
"Does that mean that wives who aren't in the mood but who feel obligated to perform their 'conjugal duties' are trafficking sex?" the peer continued. "For the record, I would not feel comfortable having sex with someone I wasn't interested in just because they had been nice or because I needed help for a test, but I think it's a slippery slope for lawmakers to push their way that far into our bedrooms."
Another student stated, "This seems like an incorrect classification to me. As I understand it, sex trafficking is the purchase of someone - physical slavery - for sex and any other acts the owner may demand. The person becomes property and can be sold again at any time. These situations occurring on campus do no involve any physical or permanent ownership. Although, the act of bribing someone for sexual favors in exchange for (fill in object/homework/service) may be related and share similar 'immoral' qualities, I don't believe that they are anywhere near the same as the grotesque institution of sex trafficking and should not be classified as such."
"To do so is irresponsible and degrading to the severity of genuine sex trafficking that so many women and children endure," the student continued. "I agree that college students trading sex with a friend or acquaintance for a service (homework, car ride, etc.) is a form of 'sexual traffic' in the broadest sense of the term. However, I think these behaviors are distinct from sex traffic on the global scale and deserve a different label... 'sexual bargaining,' perhaps? I think compared to some other countries it is not as bad."
Locally, survivors of sex trafficking are moments away from this campus. Fortson worked with a local Dorchester agency called A Way Back that was founded by a survivor. Fortson emphasizes that the play's issue is a local issue, and that she has heard of many instances of women on college campuses joining escort services for extra money and unwittingly being drawn into a violent, even fatal world of sex trafficking and drugs.
"The stories in the play open up for audiences a secret in plain view," Fortson said. "An embarrassing secret about American life: Women and girls are not cherished and protected across our society the way we advertise, but rather, many are routinely abused and exploited."
Fortson urges students to become involved by volunteering in literacy programs that offer local girls learned skills and direction so they have more choices and are empowered in the face of false yet alluring offers of money and fame. She urges even savvy college women to listen to their instincts in situations that feel wrong yet are enticing: the car ride, the modeling contract, the gifts, the tuition money...
A staged reading of "Body and Sold" will be performed in Cohen Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Mar. 5. It will be followed by a discussion with Fortson and Carol Gomez, a former staffer at the Tufts Women's Center and an internationally recognized expert on the trafficking of women and girls.
Elaine Theodore is the coordinator of the Women's Center's campus violence prevention project.
