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Demand &
trafficking
Demand,
pornography & prostitution
ABOUT THE LOGO
ABOUT DEMAND
FAQ
STOPPING DEMAND:
The Swedish vs.
The Dutch Model
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Who are the
demanders?
According to researcher
Donna Hughes, many of the assumptions we make about demanders are myths:
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The men are lonely
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The men have sexually
unsatisfying relationships
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The men are more likely to
have sexual partners than those who do not purchase sex
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They are basically decent men looking
for a bit of fun.
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Prostitution protects good women
against rape.
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Male biology is different from female
biology and requires multiple women for satisfaction. Men have a right to
sex.
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Sex is just like any other form
of work.
So – what do
they want?
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Sex acts their wives will
not do
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The excitement of hunting
for a woman they can buy for a short time
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Sex without relationship
responsibilities
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Sex in contexts where they
can dominate and are not required to be polite or nice; where they can
humiliate, degrade and dominate women and children.
What drives demand?
Men throughout the world are socialised into a model of masculinity.
Men are assumed to be naturally competitive and aggressive, and being “a
real man” is therefore marked by the struggle for control, conquest, and
domination. A man looks at the world, sees what he wants, and takes it. |
How many men purchase sex acts?
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This, according to Robert
Jensen, is the model of masculinity to which every man is exposed. This does
not imply that he accepts it explicitly or without question. (Robert
Jensen, GETTING OFF: -Pornography and the End of Masculinity, South End
Press, 2007, p. 26)
Additional socio-cultural
reasons:
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The systemic preference of men over women as manifested in attitudes of
gender inequality which exist almost universally throughout the world
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The prevalence of pornography, which results in the growth in demand for
sex
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Consumerist behaviour that commercialises and commodifies women's bodies
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Greater acceptance of sex tourism by countries of origin of the
tourists when carried out in another nation and with women and children
who are residents of that country
Economic reasons:
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Desire of employers for an
unskilled and cheap labour market
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Confinement of women’s labour in the domestic and entertainment spheres
and in the informal sector
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Development policies and patterns that depend on temporary migrant workers
Political reasons:
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Military bases with their enormous prostitution infrastructure
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Unequal and exploitative political and economic relations
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Restrictive migration policies
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Sales of arms and increased armed conflicts
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Weak law enforcement mechanisms
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Ineffective and corrupt judicial systems
Catholic Social Teaching
The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking
offence against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human
rights.
The Second Vatican Council has pointed
to “slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, and
disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of
gain rather than free and responsible persons” as “infamies” that “poison
human society, debase their perpetrators” and constitute “a supreme
dishonour to the Creator.” ( Gaudium
et Spes, 27)
Such situations are an affront to
fundamental values shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the
very nature of the human person. ... Attention needs to be paid to the
deeper causes of the increased “demand” that fuels the market for human
slavery and tolerates the human cost that results.
Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of
the 92nd World Day of Migrants wrote:
It becomes easy for the trafficker to
offer his own ‘services’ to the victims who often do not even vaguely
suspect what awaits them. Many times trafficked women and girls are
exploited like slaves in their work, and not infrequently in the sex
industry too.
The challenge for the Catholic church
and any other institution will be how to translate its teachings against
human trafficking into action. The churches have a special role to play both
in respect to the victims and to the men who are demanding sex.
Education in the churches should
of prostitution who are
creating the demand for sexual slavery
teach that this demand violates human rights and is a
crime against humanity.
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