Sexual slavery
From Wikinfo
Sexual slavery is a special case of slavery which includes various different practices:
- forced prostitution (which can include religious prostitution)
- single-owner sexual slavery
- slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common or permissible
In general, the nature of slavery means that the slave is de facto available for sex, and ordinary social conventions and legal protections that would otherwise constrain an owner's actions are not effective. Women slaves are at highest risk for sexual abuse and sexual slavery.
The term "consensual sexual slavery" (meaning see for example BDSM, total power exchange) has occasionally been used. This usage is oxymoronic; no slavery can exist because of acts or conditions to which a person freely and fully consents. Alternative it can be argued that victims of "consensual sexual slavery" have been subject to Mind control or Brainwashing and their consent is therefore not free.
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Modern-day sexual slavery
Forced prostitution
Forced prostitution is a form of sexual slavery that is often directed at immigrants to western countries. Often the "owners" of these people will confiscate passports and/or money in order to make the women involved completely reliant on them. This practice is universally illegal.
In many countries, illegal immigrants often work in prostitution in circumstances such that they feel they have no other choice. Often these prostitutes are kept in financial debt by the brothel owners, who charge them for their travel and other costs. The arrangement may be such that the prostitutes can never earn enough to pay off the debt. This is a form of debt bondage.
In addition to the first world, this also takes place in countries of South Asia such as India and Thailand, where young girls are sometimes sold to brothel owners. In modern day Thailand this is becoming much rarer.
Sexual slavery of children by paedophiles
There have been numerous reports of children traded as chattels by paedophiles for the purposes of sexual abuse.
Sexual slavery in Africa
to be written
Sexual slavery in the past
White slavery and Black slavery in the U.S. in the 19th century
In the mid-19th century in the U.S., there was a white slavery scare which suggested that large numbers of white women were being kidnapped and forced into prostitution. The prevalence of this practice was greatly exaggerated due to xenophobia, and this phenomenon is generally regarded today as having been an example of a moral panic.
In fact, at that time, the US victims of sexual slavery were overwhelmingly women of African descent, held as slaves, often purchased with sexual exploitation as the primary goal. The true story of one such girl, purchased as a sexual slave when she was fourteen, is told in Celia, A Slave (ISBN 0-38-071935-5) by Melton A. Mclaurin.
Sexual slavery in Japan in World War II
During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women were tricked or otherwise coerced into serving the Japanese army as prostitutes in the wartime brothels of Asia during the Japanese occupation of Korea, China and other parts of South East Asia.
Forced into sexual slavery by Japan and raped dozens of times daily by Japanese soldiers, the euphemistically named "comfort women" have faced lives of enduring shame. Conditions in these brothels were very harsh, and many were never kept clean. Those women who contracted STD's from the soldiers were often left to die or shot.
Sexual slavery in Nazi concentration camps in World War II
The Joy Division were groups of Jewish women in the concentration camps during World War II who were kept for the sexual pleasure of the Nazi guards, as described in Ka-tzetnik 135633's 1955 book, The House of Dolls.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Sexual_slavery" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_slavery, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
