War on Terror and War on Trafficking: a sex worker activist confronts the anti-trafficking movement.

Source
Emi Koyama
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Year
2011

Emi Koyama draws out links in rhetoric and tactics between the war on terror and the war on trafficking. She addresses three key myths of the anti-trafficking movement. Koyama demonstrates the extent to which the ceaseless propogation of these myths constitutes a "wilfull ignorance of reality" best understood as a "tacit conspiracy between the promoters of misinformation and its recipients". She locates this "tacit conspiracy" in a preference for the simple fears of scary "bad people" over the more complex, structural fears of "poverty, racism, sexism, neoliberalistic global capitalism, and its assault on the public safety net, homophobia, transphobia, and unjust immigration laws".

Contents include:

  • Introdution
  • Chapter 1 The Three Most Common Myths
    • Why “facts” presented by the anti-trafficking movement are wrong
    • Myth #1: Average age of entry into prostitution is thirteen
    • Myth #2: 300,000 children are at risk of being sexually exploited
    • Myth #3: 1/3 of 1.6 million annual runaways are sold within 48 hours
  • Chapter 2 Other Myths and Misinformations
    • “Pornland” and other problems with Operation Cross Country
    • World Cup, Super Bowl, and the Olympics: an international panic
    • The censorship of Craigslist: unintended consequences
  • Chapter 3 Examining Economic Arguments
    • “End Demand” approach harms women working in the sex trade
    • Does “economic coercion” equal human trafficking?
  • Chapter 4 War on Terror and War on Trafficking
    • Fiction, Lies, and the militarization of anti-trafficking movement
  • Conclusion

You can download this 40-page PDF above. This resource is in English.