COMMUNITY LEARNING PACKET
The objective of this curriculum is to inform community members of the realities and dynamics of prostitution and other areas of the sex industry.
This curriculum is designed to help community members understand:
For more information
contact Volunteers of America of Minnesota.
Kelly Holsopple, Patricia Maguire or Bill Nelson
Telephone : 612-721-6327 Fax: 612-721-1506
Address: 2825 East Lake Street
Minneapolis MN 55406
E-mail: mn-fjc@excite.com
Website: www.angelfire.com/mn/fjc/index.html
FUNDAMENTALS OF PROSTITUTION
TRICK ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR STATISTICS
EFFECTS OF PROSTITUTION ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
FUNDAMENTALS
OF PROSTITUTION
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Women and children are manipulated, forced, trapped, and enslaved in a variety of forms of prostitution. They are delivered into prostitution by rape, battery, child sexual abuse, educational deprivation, poverty, race discrimination, sex discrimination, class discrimination, and war. Prostituted women and children comply with men’s demands because they are promised food, clothing, shelter, money, drugs, safety, and companionship. The differences that set prostituted women and children apart are not of choice or morality, but differences of circumstance. The concept of choice assumes at least two options from which one chooses. The difference between starvation, abuse, homelessness, loneliness, and death or prostitution can hardly be called a choice.
Prostituted women and children live lives of unlimited exposure. They are constantly exposed to disease, drugs and alcohol, homelessness, incarceration, mental illness, malnutrition, murder, physical abuse sexual abuse, sleep deprivation, torture, verbal harassment, and weather. Women and children suffer physical, social, emotional, and psychological damage from being prostituted day after day and year after year by man after man after man. Women and children sustain physical injuries, organ damage, infertility, and high-risk pregnancies. They are isolated from mainstream society, miss out on a normal socialization process, and have difficulty establishing intimate relationships. The emotional effects of prostitution include anger, rage, deep pain, grieving, distrust and hatred for men, and feelings of humiliation, dirtiness, and shame. Psychological effects manifest in depression, dissociative disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and self injuring and suicidal behaviors.
Prostitution is not meant to empower women and children. It was never the intention of pimps and tricks to liberate women socially, economically, sexually, or politically. Their intention is to use women’s and children’s bodies for sex and money. Men create the demand for prostitution and maintain the multi-billion dollar sex industry by selling and buying women and children in streetwalking, massage parlors and saunas, brothels, escort services, stripshows and nude juice bars, adult book and video stores, peep shows and live sex shows, sex tourism, trafficking and mail order brides, ritual abuse and sex rings, and pornography. Many men believe they have the right to purchase unlimited access to women and children to satisfy their sexual and violent urges. Many men profit from selling women and children as commodities.
Prostitution is systematic sexual violence and oppression against women and children. The human rights of all women and children are seriously threatened by the massive and growing sex industry. Battering, incest, prostitution, stalking, sexual harassment, and rape constitute a continuum of violence against women. Like all forms of violence against women and children, prostitution deprives women and children of freedom of movement, threatens our safety and security, and creates conditions of terrorism, war, and slavery.
FORMS
OF PROSTITUTION
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Women and children are often recycled through various segments of the sex industry.
Streetwalking is most often seen in impoverished urban neighborhoods and can be related to crack houses and crack trade in the same neighborhoods. Sexually oriented businesses in neighborhoods signal tolerance of prostitution and invite johns to solicit women and children on the street.
Massage parlors and saunas are fronts for prostitution. They are often located in storefronts in impoverished urban neighborhoods, but can also flourish in downtown business districts. Same as brothels.
Brothels are set up in houses, trailers, hotels, and motels for the purpose of prostitution.
Escort services are fronts for prostitution. They are promoted as dating services in local telephone directories and newspapers.
Stripshows and nude juice bars feature nude or topless women and girls to dance and often engage in sexual activity with male customers in the establishment.
Adult book and video stores sell new and used pornographic magazines, books, and videos. Many have one-man booths for masturbating and viewing videos or live nude women.
Peep shows and live sex shows are featured in adult book and video stores and in some stripclubs.
Sex tourism is promoted as recreation and vacation for men and is tied to the economic development of many countries. Travel companies, cities and resorts cater to different sexual activities and nationalities of men.
Trafficking is employed by networks of organized crime and channels women and children into prostitution and other areas of the sex industry across the world.
Sex rings can be organized in families, communities, and institutions. Sex rings have been exposed in association with pedophiles, cults, biker gangs, extremist hate groups, towns, and churches.
Pornography depicts the prostitution of women and children in writing and pictures.
Survival sex is a term used by youth social service workers to describe trading sex for basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and money.
SOCIAL
FACTORS
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PROSTITUTION IS SYSTEMATIC SEXUAL ABUSE AND OPPRESSION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
PROSTITUTION IS THE DIRECT RESULT OF THE
SOCIAL, SEXUAL, AND ECONOMIC SUBORDINATION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
SEXISM, RACISM, CLASSISM AND OTHER SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION SERVE AS DELIVERY SYSTEMS.
A WOMAN’S OR CHILD'S VULNERABILITY AS A RESULT OF OPPRESSION INCREASES VULNERABILITY FOR BEING DESIGNATED A PROSTITUTE.
THE RECRUITMENT, COERCION AND ENTRAPMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN PROSTITUTION IS FACILITATED BY BATTERY, RAPE, CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, EDUCATIONAL DEPRIVATION, JOB DISCRIMINATION, AND POVERTY.
BATTERING, INCEST, PROSTITUTION,
RAPE, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AND STALKING CONSTITUTE A CONTINUUM OF VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
PIMP$
AND TRICKS
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Pimps induce, promote, and profit from the prostitution of women and children. Pimps use physical and sexual violence to control where women go, sell them as a commodities, force them into unwanted sex, and prevent them from escaping prostitution. Pimps prey on women and children who have often suffered incest and previous violence. They season their victims by wearing them down and making them psychologically, emotionally, chemically, and financially dependent.
Pimps exploit women and children on the streets, at truck stops, through escort services, in hotels, saunas, bars, stripclubs, crack houses and in pornographic materials.
A pimp can be from any culture, any income level, any social background. A pimp can be a street hustler, a madam, a stripclub owner, a drug dealer, a cab driver, a boyfriend, a husband or a parent. A woman can be a pimp. There is no typical pimp.
Tricks believe they have the right to purchase women and children to satisfy their sexual and violent urges. Tricks threaten, rob, rape, beat, kidnap, torture, and even murder women to enforce their demands. Tricks prey on prostituted women and children whose lives are often unstable combinations of violence, poverty, homelessness, disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug and alcohol addiction.
A trick can be from any culture, any income level, any social background. A trick can be a lawyer, soldier, professor, pastor, bus driver, teacher, janitor, salesperson, boyfriend, husband, father or son. A woman can be a trick. There is no typical trick.
Pimps and tricks utilize tried and true tactics of power and control to keep women trapped in prostitution in order to benefit financially and sexually from prostitution. Prostituted women are battered women. Prostituted women are dependent on and controlled by abusers.
A batterer uses economic exploitation by preventing a woman to get or keep a job or taking her money. A pimp takes all of a woman’s money and stops her from getting a job that would get her out of prostitution. He will steal or destroy her belongings if she tries to leave. A trick uses his money to make a woman comply with his sexual and violent urges. He will rob her or refuse to pay her.
A batterer uses emotional abuse to put a woman down and calls her names. A pimp verbally berates a woman and tells her she is only good for one thing. A trick calls and refers to a woman as pussy, cunt, bitch, whore, and slut.
A batterer uses isolation to control where a woman goes, whom she sees, and what she does. A pimp uses isolation for the same reasons and will kidnap or traffic women to different cities, states, and countries. A trick uses women isolated in red light districts, brothels and massage parlors, crack houses, motel rooms, and cars.
A batterer uses male privilege to promote himself as king of the castle, make all the important decisions, and treat a woman as his servant. A pimp treats a woman as his property to sell to other men. A trick buys a woman to use any way he wants.
A batterer uses minimizing and denial to say a woman asked for violence and avoids responsibility for the abuse and her injuries. A pimp tells a woman that she is smarter than women who give it away for free, that it is a job, and that all women prostitute themselves in one way or another. A trick wants a woman to pretend that she likes what he is doing to her and tells her she is lucky to get paid just for having sex.
A batterer uses sexual abuse and makes a woman have sex against her will. He will attack the sexual parts of her body and force her to watch, act out scenes, and appear in pornography. A pimp forces a woman into unwanted sex with him, other men, women, children, and animals. A trick compels a woman to stimulate and satisfy him sexually because he has bought her. He will penetrate her with his body or inanimate objects, tie her up and beat her, defecate on her and make a pornographic video of all that he did to her.
A batterer uses threats and
intimidation and puts fear into a woman through looks, gestures, shouting,
and actions. He will threaten violence against her, her children, and her
pets. A pimp will do all these and threaten to expose a woman for
being involved in prostitution or recruit her children or family members.
A trick will threaten to hurt her or not pay her unless she submits
to him.
Adapted from "Dangerous
Sexual Predators" brochure by the Minnesota Coalition Against Prostitution,
1997, "Prostitution: A Matter of Violence Against Women" guide by W.H.I.S.P.E.R.,
1990 and "Pimps, Tricks, and Feminists" speech by Kelly Holsopple, 1998.
TACTICS
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Popular tactics pimps, tricks, and others utilize to recruit and groom women and children for prostitution.
Scenario 2: Shows her attention and tells her that he will accept her if she does that for him.
Scenario 3: Presents prostitution as a means to an end, an urgent need or one time deal.
Scenario 4: Provides her with tangible things and then suggests prostitution as a way to pay him back.
Scenario 5: Manipulates her by getting her emotionally involved with him and presents prostitution as a way for them fulfill their dreams.
Scenario 6: Threatens her and her family with violence or threatens he has put a hit on her.
Scenario 7: Kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, and sells her to other pimps or tricks.
"A Brief Psychoeducational Program for Men Who Patronize Prostitutes" by Steven Sawyer, B.R. Simon Rosser, and Audrey Schroeder, 1998. Findings with 37 men charged with soliciting women for prostitution.
Demographics
There are signs and
situations that can make women and children vulnerable to being used in
prostitution. Service providers, concerned family and friends, and community
members should take care to know the signs because pimps and tricks know
the signs.
DO YOU WANT THIS JOB?
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Prostitution has been described as an occupational alternative for women, as an answer to low-paying jobs, as a solution to the high unemployment rate of poor women, as a career women freely choose, and as a job like any other. It has been described as sexual liberation, sexual novelty, sex therapy, and social work. Prostituted women have been characterized as businesswomen, as independent service providers, and sexual healers. Do you want this job? Do you want your daughter to take this job? If not your daughter, then whose daughter?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
HELP WANTED: WOMEN AND GIRLS
Tired of mindless, dead-end jobs? Seeking a career with flexible hours? Like to work with people?
No experience necessary! No age minimum! No high school diploma required! On the job training provided! Special opportunities for children, poor women, single mothers, women of color!
Women and girls applying for this position will provide the following services:
Being penetrated orally, anally, and vaginally with penises, fingers, fists, animals, and objects, including but not limited to bottles, brushes, and guns.
Being bound and gagged, tied with ropes and/or chains, beaten with hoses, burned with cigarettes, and hung from beams and trees.
Being photographed or filmed performing these acts.
Job related activities will be performed in the following settings: alleyways, apartments, bars, cars/vans conventions, crack houses, doorways, executive suites, fraternity houses, glass booths hotels/motels, massage parlors, military bases, public parks, public toilets, stages.
Wages will be negotiated at each and every transaction. Payment will be delivered when and if the client determines when and if services have met his satisfaction. Client may determine to exchange food, clothing, shelter, transportation, drugs or alcohol as payment. Management fees range from 40% to 100% as management reserves the right to impound all monies earned.
No benefits will be provided. No maternity leave, no medical or dental insurance, no paid overtime, no paid vacations, no sick leave, no unemployment insurance, workmen’s compensation.
No legal redress established for the following job hazards: nonpayment for services rendered; pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease; injuries sustained through performances of services including but not limited to broken bones, bruises, cuts, disfigurement, dismemberment, internal hemorrhaging, lacerations, mutilation, suffocation, and death. Accusations of rape will be treated as a breach of contract by employee.
Adapted from undated W.H.I.S.P.E.R. mimeograph and from "Pimps, Tricks, and Feminists" speech by Kelly Holsopple, 1998.
EXPOSURE
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Unlimited access for pimps and tricks means
unlimited exposure for prostituted women and children.
ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
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EMOTIONAL
"Health Experiences of Twin Cities Women Used in Prostitution" by Ruth Parriot, 1994. Findings with 68 women.
What stripclub owners and their lawyers don't want you to know.
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THE LIE: There is no place else that women are able to earn as much money as they do in stripping.
THE FACT: It is true that many women suffer discrimination in the work place that results in lower salaries. Stripping is not the solution. Educational and training opportunities and decent paying jobs are the solution. Women should have a choice of self-supporting employment that does not have sexual exploitation and violence as part of the job description.
It is true that there is a lot of money to be made in the strip industry, but it's not the women and girls stripping who wind up with it. Most women who work in stripclubs do not earn any wage and in fact actually pay the stripclub owners 40% to 50% of their income in order to work. (Detroit News, October 20, 1991.) Women in stripping are designated as independent contractors and are denied the rights and protections afforded to workers defined as employees. Without employee status the women are not entitled to file discrimination claims, receive unemployment benefits or workers' compensation. Stripclub owners are free from tax obligations and tort liability and pay no Social Security, no health insurance, and no sick pay.
THE LIE: Stripclubs provide a legal form of entertainment.
THE FACT: Women who work in stripclubs suffer sexual harassment, solicitations for prostitution, and unwanted sexual contact. These actions are prohibited by United States Code statute number 13981 and individual state laws. This list of crimes perpetrated against women is not exhaustive, it is only representative of those crimes that tend to occur most frequently against women who work in stripclubs.
When these crimes are committed against women who work at stripclubs, it is common for owners and managers to tell women to ignore it or to just let the stripclub handle it. Thus, women in stripclubs experience little or no legal redress for the illegal offenses perpetrated against them.
THE LIE: Women in stripclubs are in control of the situation.
THE FACT: Although women in stripping are designated as independent contractors, in reality their relationship to management is employee and employer. In a 1994 claim brought by 150 former Déjà Vu dancers in Minneapolis MN, the jury found that the women were legally employees and entitled to back wages. Observing the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act common law test, the jury concurred the number and extent of rules imposed by the stripclub over dancers indicated a significant degree of control. Stripclubs control the schedule and hours, require women to pay stage and couch rental fees and staff tips, and set the price of private dances. Stripclubs have specific rules about costuming and even dictate the sequence of stripping and nudity. Stripclubs exert control over women's behavior during their shifts, for example, controlling when women may use the bathroom and how many of them can be in the dressing room at one time. Women are also fined heavily by club management for calling in sick, using the telephone without permission, touching stage mirrors, not cashing in one dollar bills, and dancing with their backs to customers.
THE LIE: Stripclubs do not have a negative impact on communities.
THE FACT: Numerous land use studies conducted by cities around the country document the harmful secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses. The studies conclude that property crimes, violent crimes, and sex crimes increase where businesses like massage parlors, porn stores, and stripclubs are located. Furthermore, residential and business turnover in these neighborhoods increase while property values decrease (Phoenix 1979; Garden Grove CA 1991; Los Angeles 19977; Whittier CA 1978; Indianapolis 1984; Minneapolis 1980; Cleveland 1977; Oklahoma City 1986; Amarillo 1986; Beaumont TX 1982; Houston 1983; Seattle 1989.)
THE LIE: Stripclubs provide a harmless form of entertainment.
THE FACT: Stripclub customers perpetrate verbal, physical, and sexual violence against women in the stripclubs. In one study with 33 women in stripping in Minneapolis and Saint Paul MN, the women reported being routinely called "whore" (61%) and "bitch" (85%) by customers (Holsopple 1994). The same women reported that customers repeatedly grabbed their breasts (73%) and buttocks (91%). In another recent study, 61% reported that customers have attempted to penetrate them vaginally with their fingers, and of these women, 39% were indeed penetrated. (Holsopple 1998.) One hundred percent of the women said they have been propositioned for prostitution by stripclub customers and 78% reported that it was a daily occurrence. Th women reported that customers exposed their penises, rubbed their penises on the women, and openly masturbated in stripclubs. Women in both studies reported being bitten, licked, slapped, punched, pinched, and spit on by customers.
Sixteen, 17, and 18 year-old girls are stripping while still enrolled in high school. Eighteen year old boys in high school go nude "juice bars" legally and bring back their stories and attitudes to other students.
THE LIE: There is nothing municipal or state governments can do to address the harm of
the strip industry.
THE FACT: The United States Supreme Court has recognized stripping as having first amendment protection as conduct based speech. It has also confirmed government's ability to regulate sexually oriented businesses when directed at negative secondary effects rather than at the content of speech. In 1997 Houston TX and Commerce City CO enacted powerful ordinances to regulate sexually oriented businesses consistent with Supreme Court rulings. These cities utilized regulation, licensing, and zoning in their ordinances. Although the Houston stripclub owners and their lawyers have challenged the ordinance, as of June 1999, regulations pertaining to conduct have been upheld.
Adapted from 1997 Minnesota Coalition Against Prostitution mimeograph.
STRIPCLUB LOWLIGHTS
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"Stripclubs According to Strippers" by Kelly Holsopple, 1998. Findings with 18 women.
One hundred percent of the eighteen women in the survey report being physically abused in the stripclub.
A variety of private dances are promoted in strip clubs and are usually
performed in areas shielded from the larger club view. Table dancing
is performed on a low coffee table or on a small portable platform near
the customer’s seat. The woman’s breasts and genitals are eye level to
the customer. Couch dancing for a customer entails the dancer standing
over him on the couch, dangling her breasts or bopping him in the face
with her pubic area. Lap dancing requires the woman to straddle
the man’s lap and grind against him until he ejaculates in his pants. A
variation involves the woman dancing between his legs while he slides down
in his chair so that the dancer’s thighs are rubbing his crotch as she
moves. Bed dancing is offered in a private room and requires a woman
to lay on top of a fully clothed man and simulate sexual intercourse until
he ejaculates. Shower dancing is offered in upscale clubs and allows
a clothed patron to get into a shower stall with one or more women and
massage their bodies with soap. Wall dancing requires a stripper
to carry alcohol swabs to wash the customer’s fingers before he inserts
them into her vagina. His back is stationary against the wall and she is
pressed against him with one leg lifted. Peep shows feature simulated
or actual acts directed by openly masturbating customers. Customers sit
in a private booth and view the women through a glass window.
STRATEGIES
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Family members and community advocates can do a number of things to address prostitution and other areas of the sex industry.
Freedom and Justice Center www.angelfire.com/mn/fjc/
For constructive government approaches see:
For things real pimps and tricks say and do see:
Ultimate Strip Club List www.tuscl.com
World Sex Guide www.worldsexguide.org/