Marry Well

Porn and Social Justice

In the Christian community, we spend a lot of timing talking about the moral problems with pornography. Yesterday, Relevant posted an article by Marney McNall titled “The Justice Side of Porn.” Marney begins:

The moral arguments against pornography are well-known. However, even apart from questions of fidelity and objectification, there is an inescapable problem with porn.

The truth is, porn performers might have far more in common with victims of human trafficking than you might think. A growing body of evidence suggests that pornography fuels demand for prostitutes—and therefore, human sex trafficking victims, who often end up ensnared in both trades.

The porn industry is tightly intertwined with the “industry” of sex trafficking, as the Johns Hopkins’ Protection Project has recently investigated. Their research has identified several links:

1) Forced participation in film production

If force, fraud or coercion is used to compel performers to perform for the camera, this can constitute sex trafficking.

Multiple cases document performers promised legitimate jobs, say as models, only to find themselves in front of a camera and told to perform sexual acts. This is known as fraud. And if they are not given the choice to walk away, this becomes sex trafficking. Even if initial consent was given, a performer is within her rights to change her mind. Sadly, in such cases, threats of contract violation—plausible coercion—cause the victim to give in (possible coercion). Many girls have given testimonies of becoming scared once on the film set, but their wishes to stop were ignored and followed with brutal treatment. That is force, and that is sex trafficking.

Too often, victims of human trafficking do not self-identify because they don’t know the law.

Visit Relevant to read the rest of this troubling article.