When we think of trafficking, we usually think of it as happening some-where-else, usually poor and desperate, and not in ‘enlightened’ Western countries. But that would be wrong: women and girls are traded everywhere. This forceful piece by Rachel Lloyd written for Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US, highlights mainstream corporate support for the normalisation of prostitution through the sponsorship of men who romanticise pimping.
Corporate sponsored pimping plays role in US human trafficking
By Rachel Lloyd
January 11, 2010 
Don Magic Juan and Snoop Dogg arrive with his unnamed female companions on dog leashes for the MTV Video Music Awards in 2003. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day and President Obama recently proclaimed January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Yet when we think about trafficking, we think about it happening to children from Asia, women from the Ukraine, domestic servants brought in from Africa and Central America. All of these examples are real.
But rarely we do associate trafficking and slavery with the girls and young women that we see on HBO specials like ‘Hookers on the Point’, girls sold for sex on the streets, on Craigslist ads, girls on the pole in strip-clubs. The primary face of trafficking in this country looks like an adolescent girl of color trafficked for sex, sold by adult men to adult men.
See also :Women and popular culture: The pimp chic debate
Language matters. Calling that girl a ‘child prostitute’, or ‘teen hooker’ places all the culpability and blame on her. In fact, in most states, even if she’s not old enough to consent to sex, she will frequently be charged with an act of prostitution and sent to juvenile detention or jail.
While firm statistics on this issue are hard to find, Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section estimates that the median age of entry into the commercial sex industry in the US is between 12 and 14 years old. How is it that our American girls are bought and sold every day, right under our noses, yet we don’t see it, acknowledge it? Perhaps it’s because the girls who are bought and sold don’t fit into our neat, little box of who’s a ‘real’ victim; perhaps, because those girls are frequently low income girls, girls of color, girls who’ve been in the child welfare system, girls in the juvenile justice system – girls who aren’t high on anyone’s priority list anyway.
Language matters too when we’re talking about the adult men who seduce, kidnap, torture, brainwash and then sell girls for sex – we call them pimps, and we think they’re alternately benign, smooth, glamorous, or ‘businessmen’.
It would be easy to point to hip-hop culture as the primary culprit of this tidal wave of acceptance towards pimps. Hip-hop clearly needs to take responsibility for its ongoing misogynistic images and lyrics, but rappers could not have achieved what has become a mass acceptance of pimp culture alone. The tipping point came in 2003, when 50 Cent released his platinum selling song P.I.M.P. Several months later, Reebok rewarded him with a 50 million dollar sneaker deal. A few years later, Vitamin Water did the same. Why wouldn’t they? ‘Fiddy’ proved unequivocally that no one was objecting to his blatant degradation of women and girls when P.I.M.P went platinum three times and reached the Top 10 in 18 countries.
50 Cent isn’t alone in his corporately sponsored pimping. Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus) who is infamous for bringing two women on dog leashes to the 2003 MTV Awards, was featured on the cover of the December 2006 issue of Rolling Stone in a Santa Claus red hat and a copy line reading ‘America’s Most Lovable Pimp’. In the article, Snoop brags about his pimping which he claims he took up during his successful rap career because it was a ‘childhood dream’:
“See, that s**t was my natural calling and once I got involved with it, it became fun…Cause pimpin’ aint a job, it’s a sport.”
Snoop’s endorsement deals range from Orbit gum to Boost Mobile cell-phones and he was featured in a General Motors commercial with former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca who called him, “the ultimate pimp.” More recently he has a reality show on VH1 about his parenting skills.
Examples of pimp references permeate every aspect of popular culture. Some argue that the meaning of the word has changed and now reflects something positive. The rapper Nelly had a short-lived scholarship fund called PIMP (Positive Intellectual Motivated Person), ostensibly to promote education but more likely to promote his energy drink Pimp Juice. The word ‘pimp’ has become a verb, as in “Pimp My Ride” or a campaign by a Christian youth organization in Finland, entitled “Pimp My Bible”. Yet when MSNBC reporter, David Shuster, commented during Hillary Clinton’s campaign that it seemed as if Chelsea Clinton was being ‘pimped out’ people were aghast and Shuster, and was suspended for two weeks by the network. The connotation of the word remains the same. It’s the attitude of society towards pimps and pimping that has changed.
In 2006, the Academy Award for Best Song went to Three Six Mafia’s “Its Hard Out Here for a Pimp”, while many people cheered and felt that it was a great ‘step forward’ for hip-hop. It’s difficult to believe that the Academy would’ve awarded an Oscar to a song called ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Trafficker,’ and not only because it would’ve made for a pretty awkward rhyme.
Trafficker conjures one image, and yet in our MTV’d, BET”d, 50 Cent-loving, Snoop-celebrating culture, the word pimp conjures up something different. We call them by different names because it’s more about whom they’re exploiting. Selling girls from Eastern Europe or Thailand makes you a trafficker, selling American girls makes you a pimp and gets you a sneaker deal, a soft-drink endorsement, a Chrysler commercial.
Most of us would probably agree that yes, we’re against trafficking and, of course, we’re against slavery, but a quick look at the music on our iPods or the artists we support might tell a different story. It’s critical that as consumers we begin to call out ‘pimping’ for what it is – trafficking, slavery, an extreme form of violence and abuse against women and children.
As a founder and executive director of GEMS, the nation’s largest service provider to commercially sexually exploited and trafficked girls and young women, I’ve listened to thousands of stories about pimps, seen and experienced firsthand their brutality and violence, visited girls in the hospital who’ve sustained major injuries and helped support the healing of girls who’ve been left with invisible scars, memories and trauma that are simply compounded by society’s continued acceptance and glorification of the men that hurt them so badly.
Frankly, it’s hard out here for a 13-year-old girl who’s under the control of an adult man who beats her daily, tattoos, brands, his name on her body to mark her as his property, who controls her every movement and forces her to have sex nightly with dozens of adult men and then takes her money. If that’s not trafficking and slavery I don’t know what is. I wish someone would make a song about her.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Pimp in the dictionary reads: a person, esp. a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute or a brothel, usually in return for a share of the earnings; pander; procurer. A despicable person.
I don’t know how it happened that a word which represents the selling of women has been adopted by culture as cool, hip and even positive? It permeates young minds and assures them that disrespecting women of all races, and social status is acceptable because their hip hop and rap idols model this.
It is well known that men in the hip hop scene call it the ‘Pimp and Ho’ system. Seemingly, their fame and fortune can somehow justify their actions. And sponsors back up this disturbing trend by giving them huge deals, giving pimps permission to degrade and debase women.
As Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, says “A lot of people seem to think that it’s cool to be a pimp or whore. It’s not cool. The reality is dark, evil and appalling and unregulated. The reality is sex trafficking, which is about young women being forced into rooms to have sex however many times a day so that the pimp can take all the money.”
Unfortunately she was right back then, and she is right now, only things have become even more degrading and dangerous for women.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
It stuns and amazes me that in 2010 women all around the world are still being preyed upon and demoralised by multi national corporations, record labels, well to do business men and anyone out to make a quick buck! When you think of the word slavery and trafficking, you think of marginalised, poor, opressed women being sold and traded because of their social status. Unfortunatley women of all class and stature, young children growing up in happy homes, and women of the western world are caught up in this disgusting world of ‘pimping’. Why, because socially we allow and accept that this has become a cool and accepted behaviour.
Let’s face it, when Hip Hop celebrities make a name for themselves, and lots of money out of defaming women, calling them ‘Ho’s’ and expecting the women to thank them for such a title, it stands to reason that until this is looked upon as disgusting and outrageous, things will not change. Let’s not bury our heads in the sand and allow celebrities to glamourise such behaviour. It is wrong and women all over the world are being hurt, damaged and subjected to abuse in many forms, this being one of them.
You cannot convince me that women who consider themselves or are titled ‘Ho’s” are fulfilled, happy and whole women. It’s time we take a stand and consider what opression today really means. It comes in many forms. Songs regarding pimping as cool, celebrities bragging about their pimping status, wake up world! Do not stand behind these people and allow them to continue the degrading and outrageous exploitation of women. Do not stand by and allow our younger female generations to have this culture in their future. Lets raise our voice against this hideous practice.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Real interesting…and not something I’d given much thought to before reading this post and the comments. Thinking it through though, I have to (unfortunately) admit that the word ‘pimp’ really has permeated our culture and become a socially acceptable word with a variety of meanings. I remember ‘pimping my profile’ on MySpace a few years back and I’d have to admit to using phrases such as ‘you’re pimping yourself out’ in jest with friends.
I suppose reading about a journalist using the word “pimp” in the Chelsea Clinton story makes me realise that mainstream the word has become quite accepted and not considered offensive. Music is so powerful and after reading this I’m left wondering about the correlation between songs and artists mentioned above and the mainstream acceptance of the word pimp…I’m sure that some of these songs have influenced me…I’m not someone that rushes out to buy the next Snoop album, on the contrary, I’m more of a Katie Noonan kind of lass but I flick the radio on in the car every morning and whatever’s playing on the top 100 is bound to end up in my head…I guess if anything this article has made me assess what I unconsciously allow to become ‘okay’ even in my own vocabulary and acceptance of societal views.
January 14th, 2010 at 2:28 am
Great article! Very thought provoking.
January 14th, 2010 at 3:59 am
Terrific article. I’d like to hear more in particular to Australia and Queensland.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:32 am
Great piece.
It’s very easy for us to feel sorry for victims of trafficking, and wish ill upon the perpetrators of such crimes. But our sympathy perpetuates this attitude of, “that’s a problem over there, happening to those people, how very needy and sad”. We might even take some action and sign up for newsletters, even make sure we are buying fairly traded products – all great and we should definitely do those things.
However, I am more and more of the opinion that there must come a point when we acknowledge our complicity with crimes that we think only happen in someone else’s back yard. The fashion – and I use the term loosely – industry is a great example. Not just because the clothes might be made in sweatshops by poorly paid/treated workers, but because the fashion itself screams – “don’t value me, don’t respect me, I’m just a woman” (or whatever). Sure, the t-shirt might actually say “I’m Santa’s Bitch” (excellent work again Supre) but what’s it REALLY saying?? Sure, the top is transparent and I can see her nipples, but what harm does it do? It’s just sexy – don’t be so hung up, right? Yeah, right.
In the industrialised world we have long bought the lie that we have ‘developed’ socially and culturally, and because we have more stuff we are better people. It’s the same lie that denies that the roots of economic poverty lie in colonialism and the continuation of debts laid at the less economically developed nation’s door, and it’s the same lie that believes pornography, marketing and fashion/music industries have nothing to do with why women, men and children are abused and trafficked. The truth is that we cannot escape the global consequences of our local actions. It’s also where hope is – think global, act local.
January 14th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Fantastic article, so important to circulate too, so please post on your social networking sites, share with your friends etc. It really frustrates me that a lot of the music that degrades women have such catchy tunes, “earworms” I think it’s called. They get in your head and before you know it, you’re walking around singing “damn your’e a sexy bitch” in your head. What’s worse is when you hear kids singing it. This is the music they’re growing up with, what hope is there for the next generation of young women? What will they believe of themselves, their role and purpose in life? How will men treat them, how much will women tolerate?
A while back my local pub had a “pimps and ho’s” night. I intended to go down there and confront the manager on the night and hand out flyers, to patrons, but annoyingly it clashed with another event i had to attend. I would like to think that if something like this happened again, there are other women who would join me…hint hint!!!!
I agree with the writer that language is so important. A 13 year old is not a prostitute, she is a victim and survivor of multiple sexual assaults and those committing the crimes need to be held accountable.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:31 am
Human trafficking is the global phenomenon of trade in human lives. Most countries are involved in human trafficking to some extent, either as a place of recruitment, transit or the destination for trafficked individuals – this includes Australia.
People who are trafficked end up in many different exploitative situations, including sexual servitude. Human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation is under-represented in human trafficking statistics for a range of reasons, including underreporting and the clandestine nature of the crime.
What we do know is that human trafficking is the fastest growing form of transnational crime (UNODC, 2009) and is one of the three most profitable transnational crimes, along with drugs and arms trafficking (UNODC, 2007). We also know that companies, governments and individuals each have a role to play in addressing this – starting with the language we choose, or choose not, to use, as the article suggests.
Australians can learn more and can act to combat trafficking at: http://www.donttradelives.com.au.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:42 am
Many thanks for the information. I enjoyed reading it. You have a very well-done blog.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I’m having a little bit of trouble viewing your site in Internet Explorer, but it may just be my computer. Apart from that, I love your site. I plan on browsing around and checking out some more posts!
Training An Older Dog
January 25th, 2010 at 4:00 am
Very interesting article!
Human trafficking is a horrible injustice that needs to be stopped. Imagine if people actually stood for justice and did something to fight human trafficking, instead of using their power and influence to promote a “fantasy” where the suffering of human beings is “pleasurable.” Imagine if, instead of objectifying women, society began to value them and support them, actually promoting the rights of all people instead of stripping them away. I believe that human trafficking can be stopped, but only through people actually taking responsibility of their lives and actions, and committing to doing something to make a difference. It is true that an individual has the capacity to make a significant change…just look at Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. It is also true that every person, regardless of their background, socioeconomic status, or mountain of excuses can in fact make a difference. It is all about committing to doing something, and then actually following through with action. We all have a responsibility as human beings to stand for justice, and we can do this in a number of ways. We are now confronted with the facts about human trafficking. Obviously many people who are “role models” in society are not helping the situation, therefore it is up to us to be the change.
Check out: http://www.thea21campaign.org for more information on how YOU can make a DIFFERENCE.
January 26th, 2010 at 10:29 am
[...] as though a little bit of the pimp cool that’s pushed by Hollywood, MTV, in hip hop and rap (see earlier post ) will rub off on the wearer, just like the wearer of a global brand hopes that some of the [...]
May 27th, 2010 at 3:52 am
I couldent have made the point any clearer than that. Somepeople will still have there own outlooks on this subject.