Readers of The Economist were offered an opportunity to learn about the sex industry and the serious impacts it has on prostituted persons and the world. Unfortunately, The Economist, in the article “More bank for your buck” shares “how new technology is shaking up the oldest business” with statistics on prices sex buyers pay and the physical makeup of prostituted persons. The article takes a look at how changes in technology have enabled sex buyers to specify their preferences and how advertising within the industry is simplified online. What The Economist neglects to adequately examine are the less entertaining but more consequential statistics and details of the sex industry.
It is a principle duty of journalists and journalism to tell the full and complete story – with all of the facts, from all parties, including those who are purchased for sex. As a highly regarded and well-read magazine, The Economist has the ability to share unheard stories and give the millions of victims and survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation a voice. Instead, The Economist chose to feature an article that highlights information such as the average price per hour sex buyers pay for prostituted persons based on their build, hair color and hair length.
As readers, we must demand better, and demand that journalists’ reports include the stories and the voices of those subjected to sexual and physical violence through commercial sexual exploitation. The Economist and news media outlets everywhere must fulfill their journalistic duty by giving voice to the voiceless and informing the public of the aspects of the sex industry that command our attention, because this is a matter of life and death. This issue is about more than entertaining readers with the amusing statistics of prostitution, it is about educating readers on the consequential reality of the sex industry, the reality that will do more than entertain readers – it will change their perceptions. The reach of journalism is far, and the issue of mischaracterizing the sex industry is serious. This issue presents an opportunity to educate and advocate for the marginalized, not to merely amuse readers.
Multiple studies conducted in Asia, Europe and North America determined that forty to seventy percent of all prostituted persons are subjected to physical and sexual violence every year on the job. This is the type of information and detail of the sex industry that often remains overlooked and unreported. The life of a prostituted person is too often glamorized and trivialized by popular culture and news media outlets in the United States. One need not look far to find films, such as Pretty Woman, and television shows such as Entourage and Cathouse that glamorize and neglect to feature the violent and terrifying realities that plague the sex industry.
American news and media outlets shame exploited women— like Ashley Alexandra Dupre, a prostituted person solicited by former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer— while simultaneously neglecting to mention the “unsavory” challenges and trauma prostituted people endure, such as Ms. Dupre’s experiences as a homeless woman and a survivor of past abuse. Ms. Dupre’s situation is not the exception but, rather, the norm for prostituted persons. Between fifty and ninety percent of prostituted women are victims of childhood sexual assault, another statistic The Economist neglected to mention in its piece. Additionally, the International Labor Organization estimates that approximately 4.5 million people across the globe are forced into commercial sexual exploitation, yet the media is not reporting on this aspect.
The desperate, exploitative and intense conditions of the sex industry come with consequences that are matters of life and death. The high rates of abuse and homicide and the inherent danger of commercial sex are factors behind the 34 year average lifespan of prostituted women. The defining feature of the commercial sex industry is physical and sexual violence against women. It is a market driven by the “unsavory” demands of those who buy sex. Millions of women and children subjected to commercial sexual exploitation live in brutal, desperate conditions every day and many lose their lives. These are the statistics unheard by much of the American population. These are the statistics that must be told, and the stories that must be shared.
Ryan Kelly is currently a first-year law student at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ryan is from Springfield, Pennsylvania and received a Bachelor of Arts in Public Affairs from The Ohio State University. After graduation, Ryan hopes to become either a corporate attorney specializing in either litigation or transactional law.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.