Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters: The Construction of Trafficking

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Sex Slaves and Discourse MastersThe Construction of TraffickingBy Jo DoezemaZed Books LtdCopyright © 2010 Jo DoezemaAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-84813-413-3ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, vi, LIST OF ACRONYMS, vii, Introduction: Positioning trafficking in women, 1, 1 White slavery and trafficking as political myth, 30, 2 The construction of innocence and the spectre of chaos, 49, 3 Metaphorical innocence: white slavery in America, 74, 4 'Prevent, protect and punish', 106, 5 Now you see her, now you don't: consent, sex workers and the Human Rights Caucus, 145, 6 Towards a reinscription of myth, 170, NOTES, 177, PRIMARY SOURCES, 196, WORKS CITED, 201, INDEX, 210, CHAPTER 1White slavery and trafficking as political mythI don't know anything about the so-called white slave trade, for the simple reason that no such thing exists ... it was left for the enlightened twentieth century to create the Great American Myth. 'White slavery is abroad in our land! Our daughters are being trapped and violated and held prisoners and sold for fabulous sums (a flattering unction, this) and no woman is safe ... the belief in this myth has become a fixed delusion in the minds of many otherwise sane persons. – Madeleine, an early twentieth-century prostitute and madam (quoted in Connelly 1980:132)The parallels between the manipulation and misrepresentation of statistics in the campaigns against white slavery and in today's anti-trafficking campaigns are easy to draw. However, to see all white slavery campaigners, and, by analogy, all anti-trafficking campaigners, as deliberately exaggerating to achieve political goals is to impute an undeserved cynicism. With the exception of newspapers eager to increase circulation through sensationalism, or perhaps politicians ready to hop on a bandwagon for political gain, we cannot assume that most of these dedicated campaigners, then and now, were/are deliberately spreading falsehoods. While exaggeration may at times be a political strategy, the depth of commitment among today's campaigners and their historical counterparts attests to their belief in the existence of trafficking/white slavery on a vast scale. Why did so many people believe in white slavery? And if records of the time show so little evidence, how are we to account for white slavery's political potency?Similar questions might be asked of today's trafficking narratives. In this chapter, I draw on some of the theoretical resources that may be useful to make sense of the phenomena of white slavery and trafficking. Drawing on the work of historians of the white slavery era, and particularly that of Grittner (1990), I suggest that the concept of myth offers a useful starting point for an analysis of trafficking. It can move us beyond an empirical focus to an examination of why and how certain groups in society, including feminists, are so invested in the myth. If, as Grittner argues, white slavery was a cultural myth with repressive consequences for women, especially prostitutes, and subaltern men, what are the implications of this for the current campaign against 'trafficking in women'? This chapter argues that an understanding of the ways in which myth is informed by ideology can help us understand not only the reasons for the appearance of the white slave in history but also the reappearance of her mythical successor, the trafficking victim.Myth and ideologyCurrent accounts of 'trafficking in women' vie with 'white slavery' stories in their use of sensational descriptions and emotive language, though the 'victims' are no longer white, western European or American women, but women from the Third World or the former Eastern bloc.Trafficking Cinderella features gut wrenching testimonies of broken dreams, withered illusions, rape and humiliation from six Eastern European girls sold as prostitutes throughout the world. This film was made on behalf of all these lost girls; confused by the crumblin