Want to Help End Trafficking? Stop Consuming Porn.
Chains Shall He Break
This piece from Letters From a Catholic Feminist is free for you to read, but it wasn’t free for me to create. The only reason these letters can be written is because of our paying subscribers. Upgrade your subscription now for access to our archives, additional letters each month, our booklists, our summer read-alongs, and more. These letters are truly a labor of love and to be paid for that labor by your gracious hands is a gift. I appreciate it more than you know.
January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Human trafficking can often feel like one of those far-away problems that has nothing to do with your day-to-day life. I certainly feel that way often, like now, as I sip a peppermint mocha and listen to Winter Hogwarts Library ASMR while typing this letter. I live in a land of Bluey and field trip permission slips and sourdough. Nothing spooky here! Isn’t that just in Jim Caviezel movies?
But we know better. We know that we’re brothers and sisters in Christ, and that when one member of our body is affected, we’re all affected. We also know that our small actions can have big consequences.
There are currently more enslaved people in the world than ever before. Here are a few small ways we as Catholic feminists can work towards ending human trafficking and exploitation.
Stop watching porn.
Oftentimes, people view porn as a “victimless” crime—a dirty little secret, yeah, but is anybody really getting hurt?
Yes.
Besides the fact that you’re obviously degrading the dignity of another human being and, if you have a spouse, being unfaithful to your promises to them, you also have no idea if the person/people you’re watching have consented to being filmed. Pornhub has repeatedly gotten in hot water for featuring videos of children or other non-consenting people.
Fight to End Exploitation, a nonprofit seeking to end the sex trade in southeastern Wisconsin, says this: “According to cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2020, pornography moved to the number one venue of where trafficking cases were reported within the United States. Traffickers will often capitalize on the vulnerabilities of victims by using [coercion methods] . . . Some of these vulnerabilities include financial desperation, substance misuse, addiction, unstable housing, ostracization due to LGBTQIA+ status or ethnicity, lack of job opportunities, and immmigration status. Once the traffickers coerce and groom them into performing through desensitization to sexual activity (which can include making the victims watch porn), they might lie and withhold information about what is expected of them which may include being subjected to more violence to meet the demand of users.” Andrew Tate, essentially the godfather of the manosphere movement, boasted about physically abusing women that he forced to appear on webcams.1
Porn also grooms perpetrators of sexual violence—violent porn is one of the most popular categories to consume, and 97% of violent pornography is male-on-female violence.2 Considering the majority of people view porn for the first time by age 133, we’re literally training young boys to become violent men.
Sally Read4 writes that “Pornography [is] no longer a question of a consenting woman and a consenting man being filmed having the kind of sex that could make a baby . . . pornography meant distortion of the norm; it was defined by extremity. Each online image begged another image, a more dangerous image. Each scene paled after several views. The brain needed more, an extra dopamine hit. Like a heroin addict, the more it got, the more it hungered for.”
Read more: Buying Sex
The Free Speech Coalition, however, is a non-profit dedicated to stopping states from imposing restrictions on adult websites—they’re literally against asking websites to prove that their users are over 18. They claim it would be too much of a burden on websites like Pornhub, which they claim are the “safe” porn sites. But similar to how there’s no such thing as a safe abortion, there’s no such thing as a safe porn site. There are more or less safe abortions (ones that harm only the baby, not the mother) and there are more or less safe porn websites (ones that at least pretend to attempt to limit the age of their viewership) but there is always, always someone being harmed: the person behind the camera, who is being exploited to sell their body via digital media.
Some would claim that porn is so old that it’s embedded into our culture, and that the ship has sailed on stopping it. It reminds me of what they call prostitution: the oldest profession.
I prefer the oldest oppression.
Pay attention to where you shop.
In our global economy, it’s incredibly difficult to be a purist about this issue. But forced labor is actually the number one type of trafficking in the world, and it’s frequently reported that about one in five victims are children. The International Labor Organization claims forced labor generates $150 billion in illegal profits every single year.5 Sex trafficking is flashier and gets more headlines but forced labor trafficking is often just shrugged off.
There’s no one reliable website or app I’ve found that can help you figure out what was or wasn’t made in a sweatshop (would love to hear from you in the comments—the ones I’ve found seem to be a little shady or unclear). But you can research each brand individually.
People frequently bemoan the price of ethical clothing, and I get it. I also get being the 6’2” girl whose jean options are very, very limited. The thought of spending significant money on clothes makes me shudder. But buying secondhand can be hugely beneficial to both the ethical fashion industry and the environment. Especially when it comes to children’s clothes; I, too, detest spending a ton of money on something I know will be ripped, spilled on, and outgrown quickly. ThredUp, where you can sort by size and brand, has been an absolute lifesaver in our house. The Instagram influencers (including, I spotted last week, a prominent #CatholicMama) with their Shein hauls should know that these fast-fashion companies have specific methods of getting around US labor laws.
I don’t mean to shame you. I mean to empower you. It’s not about consistently beating yourself up for the occasional fast fashion purchase—it’s about realizing the way our actions impact the world, and doing our best to align our wallets with our values. You are a consumer, with consumer buying power, not just a mindless bystander.
Pray.
As Christians, we believe that prayer is an essential component to our on-the-ground efforts. I love this prayer to end human trafficking and am going to be saying it daily for the rest of the month.
It so often feels like prayer is just a throwaway task on a to-do list—the thing you do to supplement the real work, or the thing you do so that you can make sure God sees what A+ Good Stuff You’re Doing. But we know that God has asked us to pray because he wants to be in relationship with us. He wants us to be an active participant in his works on earth. And he wants us to entrust all of our hopes and dreams to him and his will.
Catholic feminists are the type of people who are suddenly struck with an overwhelming sense of guilt: an I don’t deserve this, an I shouldn’t have this. Don’t waste time allowing that feeling fester into self-loathing; instead, channel it into prayer. Make your very life a prayer for those whose difficulties are different than yours. Use it as a way to remind yourself that we are all members of one body.
Enough with the conspiracy theories.
Someone very close to me has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’ve seen, up close, the way that it’s affected their everyday life, from flashbacks to trauma responses to physical health issues. It’s why I’ve started wincing, just a bit, when someone jokes about having PTSD from a bad day in traffic or a nasty cheeseburger. It also makes me a bit angsty when people claim to self-diagnose PTSD, or insist they have PTSD from, like, reading an opinion piece in a newspaper they didn’t like. It seems to make the seriousness of the issue feel dimmer.
The same holds true for sex trafficking. We live in the age of the conspiracy theory, and honestly—I can’t really blame people who’ve been lied to for a long time by major institutions and news organizations for questioning literally everything around them. But we can’t lose our critical thinking skills. Promoting ideas like pizza gate, or that thing a while ago where people were insisting Wayfair was transporting children under the guise of furniture deliveries, is irresponsible. It also hurts real trafficking investigations.
St. Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!
On My Nightstand
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman: I first read Alice Hoffman at the age of 12, and her books have been such a companion to me over the course of my life. This is the first middle grade book of hers that I’ve read, though. It’s a novel of Anne Frank’s life before her diary. A fantastic read for you or the middle grader in your life—or better yet, a book you could read together! My love for World War 2 historical fiction will never end. As schools continue to ban the Diary of Anne Frank and anti-semitism runs rampant in our world, keeping the memory of this courageous girl alive has become more important than ever.
Peacing the Puzzle Together: A really beautiful piece by my friend
on the tough decisions within motherhood that allow us to chase peace. “Vigilance doesn’t often come from a silent peace within my life as a mother. So, it must be the peace within the pieces. As much as it is enticing to believe that without the pieces I could easily maintain my vigil with Jesus, I’ve been called to an active motherhood. He calls me to vigilance among the pieces of my life, within the unique goodness of my family, a puzzle never to be repeated. It’s His masterpiece I watch over, His pieces. It’s His love I’m called to grow.”The Practice of Expectation: I’ve been so enjoying
‘s series on wintering this year! Just a really bright spot in the dark days of this fallow season. This is her first post in this year’s series—make sure to click through and read the others!
In case you missed these Letters:
Join us in France on the Way of Mary Magdalene! 🇫🇷
This October, I’m leading a pilgrimage to the south of France: the Way of Mary Magdalene. We’ll be traveling to Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, where the remains of St. Mary Magdalene are, as well as other sites associated with women in the gospels. We’re also sipping wine, visiting Cannes, wandering Aix-en-Provence, and so much more. This isn’t a vacation, mission trip, or retreat, but a true pilgrimage, where we’ll journey together and grow in our faith. There are only a small handful of spots left. Sign up today to join us!
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/andrew-tate-custody-arrest-romania-business-allegations-rcna64070
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32661813/
https://fightthenewdrug.org/real-average-age-of-first-exposure/
From my fantastic current read, The Mary Pages: An Atheist’s Journey to the Mother of God
https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/ilo-says-forced-labour-generates-annual-profits-us-150-billion
For those looking for more ethical ways to clothe themselves and their families, in addition to thrifting secondhand, I encourage three things: First, remember that the abundance in the average closet in the West is an historical anomaly, and consider paring back the amount of clothing you own. Second, wear things until they wear out, then patch and wear them even longer. I have clothes in my closet that are 10 or even 20 years old in some cases. You don’t have to buy new things with every season or even every year. Third, consider sewing your own. If that’s a practical impossibility for you, consider if there is a local seamstress or tailor you could support. If entire articles of clothing are prohibitive (would they be if you only ordered once or twice a year?), consider paying for mending services. I’ve taken winter coats with broken zippers to our local dry cleaner, and had the zipper replaced for less than $20, which extends the life of the coat for an entire new user. This both supports your local economy and ensures that the labor going into your clothing is completely ethical since you know the person personally. It also means that your clothing will always fit correctly and be exactly what you want it to be. (Admittedly, other than mending, I don’t exercise the last option myself very often, but it’s worth considering.)
The Diary of Ann Frank is being banned in schools? Why, in heaven’s name?
And where have I been that this is news to me?