The Price of Sex

categories: Human Trafficking Awareness, Human Trafficking in Europe and the Middle East, International Human Trafficking and Migration, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Trafficking in Women

Published August 08, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT

Photo journalist Mimi Chakarova has created a great collection of videos and photos of Eastern European women telling their stories of being enslaved in prostitution. Four of the videos tell the stories of individual survivors, and two others are focused on women at risk and how sex trafficking works. You can view all these at: www.priceofsex.org.

This project tells the story of one form of trafficking from one region, affecting one group of victims. The issue of trafficking women into prostitution is, of course, a problem in areas other than Eastern Europe and former Soviet-bloc countries. However, as many of the videos explain, women in this area have been some of the most vulnerable to exploitation in prostitution. Many face the impossible choice of remaining jobless and poor in their home country or risking trafficking by taking a job overseas. It's a risk they know, and they take it because staying and starving is not a viable choice.

It's also important to note that many women who are trafficked knowingly and willingly enter prostitution. While the most publicized stories are about women who thought they would be waitresses or nannies, some take a job in the Netherlands or Germany in what they expect will be legal, safe prostitution on their own terms. Even after making that choice, women can be trafficked one their freedom is removed or their labor stolen and exploited. A woman who took a job as a prostitute and one who took a job as a waitress are equally trafficked once they loose their ability to leave or control their situation. The women from Eastern Europe thought they were taking a number of different kids of jobs, jobs that all turned into slavery.

The price of sex is higher than you think, and Chakarova eloquently tells the stories of just how high it can be.

Image from humantraffickingproject.blogspot.com

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Comments (7)

Thank you for the link. I have bookmarked it to look at later, but right now I am reaching serious burnout on this stuff. Everything here is a trigger, and I am reading too much related material on other blogs, too. How do you keep on track? Don't you put yourself at risk of PTSD if you do this for very long? Or is it just me?

Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 08/08/2009 @ 08:27PM PT
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Hi Anemone,

Thanks for being such a thoughtful and frequent commenter. This is a heavy issue, and self-care is extremely important when you work with it all the time. I'll try and post something more extensive about self-care soon, but the best advice I can give is that when you feel like you need to take a break, take a break. Spend some time relaxing or doing activities you enjoy that have nothing to do with serious issues. You'll come back to activism refreshed and better able to be an advocate because you'll be healthy. I do this all the time, and so does everyone I know who works full-time with issues of sexual violence and exploitation. Here is a link to some suggestions you might fund helpful: http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/5_secrets_to_freeing_slaves_and_yourself

Posted by Amanda Kloer on 08/10/2009 @ 06:58AM PT
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To Anemone: It can seem overwhelming at times. Keep yourself healthy, exercise and working out helps me. Take a break from it every day to do other stuff, hobbies or activities. Stay grounded, stay the course, and know that you're fighting for freedom and justice!

Posted by Danielle Kelly on 08/09/2009 @ 04:54AM PT
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I finally had a look at the videos. I found the first one the most shocking. I was also surprised to see so much mention of hip problems/problems walking in survivors. I can see spinal cord injuries from jumping out high windows trying to escape, but I gather you can get hip damage just from the multiple rapes?

Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 08/13/2009 @ 08:57AM PT
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I am appalled at the amount of this that is going on in the United States, and even more shocked at the ages of the people being abused and the amount of disease being spread because of rampant sex industry. The extent of the damage to humanity is enormous and affects everyone in one way or another.

Posted by irene lehrman on 08/17/2009 @ 03:02AM PT
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This is exactly why we need to legalize the consensual sale of sex in the U.S. It will drive a wedge in between the traffickers and their slaves because it will give the women a safe haven they do not have now; law enforcement. Here is a testimony from a woman who was a victim of trafficking. I know it doesn't suit your agenda Amanda but if you refuse to listen to her and acknowledge that she has a valid point, then you are cold hearted and care nothing about the plight of trafficked women only achieving your own goal of trying to put an end to the trade of prostitution altogether, something that will never happen.

"As a victim of human Trafficking for the purpose of being sold for sex I fully support this! (She is speaking of legalization here) because i was drugged and had ether rags shoved in my face bound and gagged and sold on a college campus and the cops that showed up REFUSED TO HELP ME and instead said that I was drunk and left me with my captors; the next day when I tried to file a report one of my captors showed up and threatned me with a gun! My captor/rapist was a COP! I support this! Let the women that want to be whores do it and do it openly so that 16 year old girls(the age I was when this happened to me) don't get forced into being sex slaves!

Tax them, make them get checked for STDS on a regular basis and make them purchase a lisence to practice."

Posted by Vicki Wyzykowski on 12/08/2008 @ 11:23AM PT

Why doesn't anyone have the **** to contact Vicki and tell her she is wrong? HMMmmm? I'm confused.

Posted by Mike Nichols on 08/26/2009 @ 10:33PM PT
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Indeed...

Also, I wonder why we havent been seeing more of her comments in this section of change.org ?

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 10/12/2009 @ 07:15AM PT
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Author

Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.