{"id":10726,"date":"2012-07-16T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T07:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=10726"},"modified":"2012-07-18T09:47:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T08:47:10","slug":"white-slavery-sex-trafficking-in-the-uk-press-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/07\/16\/white-slavery-sex-trafficking-in-the-uk-press-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"“White Slavery”: Sex Trafficking In The UK Press (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cover<\/a>

1910 book from the US about the ‘white slave trade’<\/p><\/div>\n

While we’re still sloshing around in the journalistic sewage unleashed by the Leveson enquiry, it seems like a good time to revisit some research into media misrepresentation I did back in 2007.<\/p>\n

I looked at a sample of 316 articles about the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation drawn from UK national newspapers between September 2005 and September 2007. After speaking to some lucky people studying this topic today, I\u2019m sad to say it hasn\u2019t changed much. In fact it hasn’t changed much since, ooh, 1885.<\/p>\n

The Maiden Tribute<\/h3>\n

The publication of a feature on “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon<\/a>” in the Pall Mall Gazette<\/strong> in 1885 is often credited as the birth of scandal journalism, and the touchpaper for a moral panic over \u201cwhite slavery\u201d which rocked Victorian Britain. The similarity with today\u2019s newspaper coverage of trafficking for sexual exploitation is striking. And, frankly, depressing.<\/p>\n

The famous Pall Mall Gazette<\/strong> feature describes in titillating detail how \u201cfive pound virgins\u201d are sold to lecherous aristocratic blackguards, after being “snared, trapped and outraged either when under the influence of drugs or after prolonged struggle in a locked room”. Thanks to the wonders of the web, the full article is available to read online<\/a>. What is remarkable about it isn\u2019t so much the contents of the article itself, but the reaction it provoked \u2013 a massive pile-on of outraged public opinion, political opportunism and rival newspaper bandwagon-jumping. Here\u2019s a good description<\/a> of the aftermath.<\/p>\n

While it is undeniable that prostitution was widespread in Britain of the 19th century (and it wasn\u2019t a nice life) the actual incidence of kidnap and \u2018sexual slavery\u2019 of the form described in The Maiden Tribute<\/strong> has since been subject to scrutiny. Historians, in particular Judith Walkowitz<\/a>, have highlighted the discrepancy between the reformers’ view and the reality of prostitution in the 1880s, observing that:<\/p>\n

the evidence of widespread involuntary prostitution of British girls in London and abroad is slim. During the 1870s and 1880s, officials and reformers were able to uncover a small traffic in women between Britain and the continent, although the women enticed into licensed brothels in Antwerp and Brussels were by no means the young innocents depicted in the sensational stories. Similarly, there undoubtedly were some child prostitutes on the streets of London, Liverpool, and elsewhere; most of these young girls were not victims of false entrapment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Arguably the popularity of the ‘white slavery’ myth was partly because it offered an easy option of blaming a few evil, anonymous, male individuals for the hardships experienced by women and girls working in prostitution. Confronting the sexual double standard, crushing poverty and ignorance and the vast power imbalance between men and women would probably have landed the blame a little close to home for most readers.<\/p>\n

Legitimate victims<\/h3>\n

Jo Doezema<\/a> compares the explosion of media coverage of sex trafficking since 2000 (linked to the EU expansion and attendant mass immigration freakout) to the white slavery panic of the 1880s, identifying a number of similar themes – in particular the emphasis on the victim\u2019s \u2018innocence\u2019, which she interprets as a device to make a distinction between legitimate victims and \u2018guilty victims\u2019: prostitutes. Doezema writes:<\/p>\n

Only by removing all responsibility for her own condition from the prostitute could she be constructed as a victim\u2026 As with white slavery, ‘innocence’ is established in a number of ways: through stressing the ‘victims’ lack of knowledge of or unwillingness to accede to her fate; her youth — equated with sexual unawareness and thus purity; and\/or her poverty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My content analysis of newspaper articles about trafficking for sexual exploitation absolutely bore this out. Below I’ll do a quick trot through all the different elements identified by Doezema and give you some examples of the way they are played out in the press today.<\/p>\n

Youth<\/h3>\n

The most obviously emphasised characteristic of the victims in the sample of newspapers I studied was youth. In virtually all the coverage the age of the woman was stated, and case studies of teenagers placed the age right at the start of the article. The few cases in which the woman was over 21 (the oldest was 36) stated the age in later paragraphs.<\/p>\n

From my sample of 316 articles (which excluded those focused on trafficking in children) showed that 68% \u00a0used the word \u201cgirl\u201d to describe the trafficked women, and 59% described the women as \u201cyoung\u201d.<\/p>\n

This 2006 example from the Sunday Express<\/strong> opens the article with the age of the victim: \u201cDana was just 15 when she was brought to Britain on the promise of a summer job selling ice creams in London’s Hyde Park, but she ended up becoming a sex slave, forced to have sex with 50 men a week.\u201d Dana\u2019s youth is emphasised by the childlike associations of \u2018ice cream\u2019 and her \u2018summer job\u2019, strongly evocative of school. Even \u2018London\u2019s Hyde Park\u2019 has a suggestion of a summer holiday. The journalist gleefully sets up a shocking contrast with her following enslavement.<\/p>\n

Innocence<\/h3>\n

Part of the importance of emphasising the youth of the victims is the implication of their innocence. Plenty of articles in the sample described the women explicitly as innocent: \u201cinnocent women like Maria\u201d; \u201cinnocents\u2026 abducted into slavery\u201d (both The Sun<\/strong> in 2006). However, many others conjure the idea of innocence through stressing vulnerability, naivety and terror, in combination with youth. One of the most visually striking is a description of two \u201cgirls\u201d like \u201cfrightened rabbits\u201d (Detective Constable Andy Justice, quoted in The Mirror<\/strong>, October 2005).<\/p>\n

Other articles make very direct reference to their victims’ sexual inexperience as a way to hammer home their moral purity and by implication their \u2018deserving\u2019 status: \u201cUntil then I’d never even seen stockings before… I was being told I would have to do things with strangers that I had never done with anyone but my husband\u201d (The Sun<\/strong> again, in 2005). Similarly, before \u201cpretty Erica\u201d, a \u201c20 year-old brunette\u201d, fell into the hands of \u201cevil Albanian pimps\u201d, we are informed by The News of the World<\/strong> in 2006 that she had \u201cslept with only two men.\u201d In the Star<\/strong> the preceding year, a \u201c16 year-old\u2026\u00a0 virgin was forced to service dozens of punters a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a clear narrative pattern of kidnap and deception, which hides the complex and varied experiences and situations of trafficked women, many of whom are not simply snatched from their hometown. 59% of the articles in the sample featured one or more of: kidnap(ped), abduct(ed), lure(d), trick(ed), dupe(d)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Virtually all describe violent forms of coercion, and women are uniformly said to have been brought to Britain, with no admission of agency in their migration. The examples are endless: \u201cThey have been kidnapped, raped and abused before being exported\u201d (campaigner Geraldine Rowley quoted in the Daily Mail<\/strong> in 2007),\u00a0\u201cthe tide of eastern European women being brought into Britain\u201d (the Sunday Telegraph<\/strong>, 2005), \u201cduped into coming to Britain on the false promise of jobs as nannies or waitresses only to be forced into sex and brutality\u201d (the Independent on Sunday<\/strong>, 2005). <\/p>\n

Whiteness<\/h3>\n

Although a significant proportion of women are trafficked to the UK from Africa and South Asia, all but a tiny fraction of case studies and examples are Eastern European. Of the articles studied in the sample, 42% mentioned \u201cEastern Europe(an)\u201d.<\/p>\n

The endless list of Marias, Ericas, Natashas<\/em>, and Francescas<\/em> are also a way to create a titillating image of suffering in which virginal white<\/em> women are left thrillingly at the mercy of swarthy foreigners. A \u201ctiny terrified blonde\u201d (People<\/strong> magazine, 2007) in the hands of an Albanian pimp.<\/p>\n

Another journalist writes: <\/p>\n

Back then the women for sale were mostly South Asian, Filipinas and Thai\u2026 But these new girls were blonde\u2026 And very young. Clearly export models from Eastern Europe had flooded the market, forcing up the quality.<\/p>\n

– Janice Turner, The Times<\/strong>, December 3, 2005<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nice. Way to put presumably lower \u2018quality\u2019 Asian women in their place.<\/p>\n

One of my favourite quotes (read: quotes that make me want to punch things) was from Denis MacShane, who wrote: <\/p>\n

We are facing a new slave trade, whose victims are tortured, terrified East European girls rather than Africans. <\/p>\n

– Daily Telegraph<\/strong>, January 3, 2006<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact the \u201cnew slave trade\u201d includes large numbers of African women, but they are conveniently erased from the narrative.<\/p>\n

In the second part of this post I\u2019ll look at the significance and danger of the return of \u2018white slavery\u2019 narratives to the pages of the UK press. <\/p>\n

Read part 2 here.<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n