A Movie Changed My Life.

I recently watched the movie "Taken."

WOW.

It wasn't the action and the twists and turns in the plot that had my nerves shaken. No. What got my attention was that they showed the very disturbing world of women trafficking.

I have always known in the back of my mind that women were being sold to be prostitutes but I don't think it ever hit me how truly ugly and disgusting it is. In the movie the main characters daughter flies, with her friend, to Europe to follow the U2 tour. They had met a man who shared a cab with them to where they were staying. The man they had met was secretly a scout for a women trafficking business that finds young tourist women, kidnaps them, addicts them to drugs, and make them prostitutes.

It may not sound too gross when its put into Lehman's terms but later in the movie you get a view on how disgusting it really is. The scene that hit me the hardest was when the main character is searching for his daughter. He finds clues of her whereabouts that lead him to construction site. He sees a line of workers getting numbers. He himself gets a number and is taken into a warehouse-looking room. In that room are blankets hung up to make smaller rooms. Above the opening to the blanket rooms are a number. In each of the rooms are a bed and a woman. The number the main character had gotten matched the number of one of the rooms that held a women he was supposed to have sex with. The woman was sweating, battered and exhausted from being forced to have sex with whichever man came to her room.

After seeing this movie I decided to do some searching about it. What I found out shocked me. These women, who are sold into women trafficking, are forced to have sex at least 15 times a day. They are expected to make a certain amount of money each month for their "owners." Whats even more shocking is that the women trafficking market made 3.2 BILLION dollars last year.

I cannot wrap my head around that stat. Its bad enough that these women are being bought and sold like cattle and are forced to have sex. It takes it to a whole new level to know that people are supporting this atrocity. They are supporting it 3.2 BILLION dollars worth. That is 3.2 BILLION dollars selling sex, something that is supposed to be shared between a man and his wife.

I was naive to think that this atrocity was only happening in places where prostitution was legal. I was very wrong. Women trafficking is happening right here in our own country. Yup thats right, America.

Women from other countries are led to think that they are coming to America to be nanny's and other related jobs. Little do they know they are going to be sold for sex. This is a long, but informative, excerpt from a research study done on the sex business in America by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women:

Sex businesses in the five regions we investigated are prolific and diverse. Each region had
elements of operation that were both similar and unique. Sex businesses thrive in all areas - urban, suburban and rural, as well as in areas surrounding U.S. military bases. Internationally trafficked women are reported to be present in all of these diverse areas.
Some sex enterprises operate legally or are incorporated as legal. Others operate behind legal
front businesses, such as restaurants or nail salons. Yet others are makeshift ventures, operating out of mobile trailers or warehouses that are converted into brothels. Many sex entrepreneurs are constantly changing not only the location, but also the venues and ways of operating the businesses.
Sex businesses are advertised in a variety of ways including in print media such as mainstream English language newspapers and periodicals, non-English community newspapers and periodicals,pornographic magazines, sex guides, the Yellow Pages, and billboards. The industry is further advertised through electronic media such as television advertisements and on the internet, mobile advertising such as through billboards on trucks and in informal ways using business cards, flyers,matchbooks and word of mouth.
In the Northeast reported sex businesses include street prostitution, escort services, massage
parlors, health clubs, brothels in hotels, rented houses and apartments and legitimate front businesses.In Metro New York, reported sex businesses include street prostitution, strip clubs, go-go bars, peep or fantasy booth shows, massage parlors, after-hours clubs, private apartments, hotels, escort services and makeshift operations in beauty parlors, restaurants and warehouses. The Northern Midwest has high street prostitution activity, saunas, health clubs, strip clubs, escort services, "chicken shacks"(dwellings used for quick prostitution transactions) and brothels in migrant farm worker camps.
Metro San Francisco's sex industry includes street prostitution, strip clubs, bars, adult entertainment
theatres, pornography emporiums, massage parlors, escort services, private residences and rent-bythe-hour hotels. Sex businesses reported in the Southeast include massage parlors and brothels in urban and suburban areas as well as makeshift brothels in gambling halls, houses and trailers in isolated and rural farm worker camps.

U.S. military bases, especially in the South replicate the sexual rest and recreation (R&R) areas that proliferate near military bases abroad. This infrastructure of sex clubs, brothels and massage parlors has been recreated here, with inordinate numbers of Asian women especially trafficked and exploited in the sex industries surrounding the bases.
Controllers and operators of the sex industry vary. Some sex businesses are family owned and
others may be owned or backed by prominent local community members, including judges and
lawyers. Others are controlled or financed by organized crime groups. The majority of law
enforcement agents reported that 76-100 percent of the sex enterprises in the Northeast, Metro New York, the Southeast, and Metro San Francisco are controlled, financed, or backed by organized crime groups. In some cases, trafficking rings supply women to sex establishments.

When I thought that the selling of women for sex without their consent was only a thing in places like Amsterdam and Europe I had clearly been in doubt. This atrocity is happening in our own backyard. People know about it but aren't taking action against it. They are not setting these women free. To me, this shows how corrupt our world has become. The sex business owners are taking pride in forcing women to give up the precious gift that God gave them. They are being abused in every imaginable and conceivable way. Men who are buying these women for their pleasure are supporting women trafficking. Because of them the sex businesses are making huge profits and are thriving.

This is one of the reasons that I am ashamed to be a human being. Not only that but I myself, as a woman, am afraid to be alone and do things independently. I have to be aware of the constant threat of being sexually taken advantage of either by being sold into the sex trade or by being raped. This is not how the world was meant to be. No one should ever have to be afraid of walking down the street or traveling alone. They should not be afraid of living their lives to the fullest in fear of being attacked.

Not only has the movie "Taken" made me very aware of the atrocity of women trafficking, it has made me very very very appreciative of the life that I have been given. I am a free woman, not forced to do anything I am not comfortable with. I am not forced to give my body to strange men in a different country. I am able to protect my virginity. This movie has enforced my belief of only having sex after I am married. The thing that gets me is that I don't think that the director and writers of "Taken" are even aware what an impact their movie has made in my life and perhaps the lives of others.