Welcome to bookworms anonymous! My name is Nicole and I will be your…blah blah blah…
So I don’t know about the rest of you out there but I LOVE to read books. The more time I have to read, generally, the happier I am. I like reading all types of books autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, fiction, non-fiction. Lets be honest the list goes on and on. One of my favorite book series is, I will admit, not the Twilight series, but the Hunger Games! I also love The Chronicles of Narnia and The Great Gatsby. When asked my favorite book I really can never just say one.
Now, with this love of reading I can venture off into other worlds much different then mine and fight with the gladiators or go along the path of a boy soldier from Sudan. The options are limitless, and I like it! But today I was reading a book and came upon a situation, in the book, that would be considered a form of sex trafficking. My first reaction was a huge gasp because I had not seen that coming. My second reaction was to text my good friend Janice, my other blogging buddy and partner in changing the world, and tell her of the discovery I came across in the book. But want to know what also caught me off guard? It was a boy character in the book that was being sold for sex.
After my shock, from the horror of what had just taken place in the book, I stopped for a moment to think on what I just learned. And being the way I am, my mind started to think of the people in the world who are being trafficked for sex. Though it is not a super talked about matter, males are being trafficked all around the world too. Though it is not typically for sex they are normally trafficked for labor. But, sex trafficking is a growing area that is starting to take young males.
Now, do not get me wrong, labor trafficking is still a horrible injustice, for males and females alike. But it still makes me sad to think that even males cannot be 100% safe from sex trafficking. And if we think about it, we hardly ever hear about the female gender being trafficked for sex, what about the males? Though there is still a higher market for women in the sex trafficking business, we can not push aside the men and forget about them, like so many already have, myself including on occasion. Even finding current and useful facts and statistics from male sex trafficking is hard. But, it was found when, “research conduted by Case Alianza in 20 Honduran cities found that, from a sample of 1,019 minors victims of sexual exploitation, 42 of them (4 percent) were male” (Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking 2009).
Crazy to think about isn’t it? That in one country, back in 2009, young males were being taken and its 2013 and what has been done? The statistic for male victims of sex trafficking has gone no where but up. Who has started talking for the boys being taken? Not many people have taken these boys under their wings, because even when you look at it, how many of us really know what is going on for females who are being trafficked, let alone males?
I am not in any way trying to point fingers at people for not being informed on the matter. I mean, in all honesty, I recently found out males were being trafficked for sex as well as females. When there is an issue that is not very talked about, like females being sex trafficked, and we hear about it, we just look at the surface and want to help the girls at the front of the camera lens. I feel we get a drive to help save them because they are at the front of the picture and we don’t take the time to dig deeper into the matter. After all, females are the face of sex trafficking. Look up a picture on Google of sex trafficking and you get a women.
We cannot forget about the young boys out there in the world being sold for sex. It’s a common question I feel, “would you want your younger sister or daughter to be trafficked? Would you just sit around and do nothing?” Well, here is my question for you today. Would you want your little brother or your son to be trafficked for sex? If they were trafficked for sex, would you just sit around and do nothing?
We need to start digging into the information and not just scratching the surface.
Your friends and informers,
Nicole and Janice
P.S. Have you been doing your sticky notes? Let us know because we would love to hear about it! Or if you have any questions email us! askmeaboutsextrafficking@gmail.com
Citation for Quote:
"UN.GIFT." Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Boys and Male Adolescents in Central America. Global Eye on Human Trafficking Bulletin, 4 June 2009. Web. 09 July 2013
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