Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Foubert, John" <>]

To People Who Want To Make A Difference,

I’ve been thinking about pornography a lot lately.  Have you?  Our nation celebrated human trafficking awareness day recently.  So many people think of slavery as a thing of the past.  The reality is that there are more slaves in the world today than at any point in world history – 30 million.  Over 2 million children are sold into sex trafficking each year worldwide.  Those who know dangerously little about human trafficking think of the problem as being over there in Thailand, Costa Rica, or another nation known for this issue.  Many do not know that the United States is now the #1 destination country for sex trafficking in the world.  To meet the demand for children to have sex with, various sectors of organized crime in the US are having children shipped in to be raped by mostly adult male perpetrators in brothels, city streets, and from allegedly reputable escort services in popular US tourist destinations.  Many of us ignore this issue by blaming the victim as nothing but a prostitute who made her or his own choice to be there.  Really.

So what does this have to do with pornography?   Plenty.  Many of those who are sex trafficked also then have pornography made of them, whether amateur or professional.  Their pictures end up in magazines, WebPages, and on virtually every mobile device you can imagine.  And once these pictures are online, the images are available to be exploited in perpetuity.

As engaged bystanders, we must act.  First, we must work on every level possible to end prostitution, particularly the exploitation of children.  We must advocate for prosecution of pimps and “johns” and offer services for trafficked victims.  Second, if we know someone who is using or considering using the services of a prostituted person, we must use all of our influence with that person to stop the behavior.  Third, we need to stop using pornography.  Yes, we.  And we should stop doing business with companies that make money from it – convenience stores, hotel chains, and cable TV companies.  We could send a strong message as a movement if we only book conference hotels where they don’t have in-room pornography.

Recently, I completed the first study assessing the relationship between pornography use and bystander intervention in sexual assault situations.  I found that for both men and women, those who consumed pornography were less likely to intervene as a bystander in a sexual assault situation.  Thus, the threat of pornography to the goals of our movement to end sexual assault is both serious and profound on multiple levels.  The time has come for us to fight it with all we’ve got.

In solidarity,

John D. Foubert, Ph.D.

John Foubert is the author of the new book The Men’s and Women’s Programs: Ending Rape Through Peer Education, published by Routledge in 2011.

 

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John D. Foubert, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Professor of College Student Development

Oklahoma State University

314 Willard Hall

Stillwater, OK 74078

(405) 744-1480

(405) 744-7758 fax

http://okstate.academia.edu/JohnFoubert

http://education.okstate.edu/index.php/csd-philosophical-framework

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003NCDDYM