Caroline Norma
Pimps won’t be surprised that bidding has reached $15,000 for a 19-year-old ‘virgin’ Chinese woman currently up for auction for four days of sex.
Pimps know what men will pay for, and they know the business of prostitution. Everyone in the sex industry knows punters will pay good money for women who are young, petite, ‘fresh’, and available for booking on a ‘no restrictions’ outcall basis, preferably away from their minders. The Australian escort agency manager who put the Chinese woman up for sale exercised good business logic in recruiting her. Her vulnerability just makes it easier. On her own, most likely with little support, in a foreign country, learning a new language, struggling with debt…And after those four days with the stranger who has purchased her, how likely is it she will speak out about her treatment?
There’s hardly any limit on the money that can be made from selling other people for sex in Australia. In most states, prostitution is a business endorsed by government just like car yards and real estate agents. Brothels and escort agencies can legally operate as legitimate businesses. Pimps might have to pay licensing fees to government, but that’s about it. Like any other business owners, they are free to go ahead and run their affairs in any way they choose. The government can’t stop pimps selling women who are on student or working holiday visas, and no-one checks to see whether their recruits speak English, or how they came to end up on the books of a brothel.
Running the business of the sex industry is left largely in the hands of pimps who do the same things other businessmen do—market research, promotions and publicity, and staff recruitment. We expect car yard salesmen to do their market research, and stock vehicles that earn them the most profit at the lowest input cost. We expect them to respond to the market and offer cars that consumers want, and will pay top dollar for. Why would we expect legal pimps to act any differently? Why wouldn’t pimps sell women that fetch a high price on the market? This is how good businesses are run. The more that pimps, like other entrepreneurs, do their homework, the more money they make.
The sex industry does its market research by keeping an eye on pornography sales. The titles that are selling well tell them the types of women, and the types of sex acts, that are likely to also sell well out of the brothel. Five minutes research on Adult Video News tells us that anal penetration of young and petite women is a consumer favourite at the moment. Another five minutes on consumer review sites for Australian brothels tells us that Asian women are hot property in the local sex trade.
We only have to think like pimps to understand why there is currently a young Chinese student up for sexual sale in Australia. Why wouldn’t she be? We’ve got a large and legal sex industry operating in the country, and plenty of men who want to spend money on it. We’ve got Sexpo, the industry’s trade expo, touring the country again this month. The Western Australian government is just about to legalise prostitution in that state now, so they can start having women up on the auction block, too.
Australia is going to have four states with legalised prostitution giving traffickers a nice open market.
We’ve almost reached national consensus among Australian governments that prostitution is a welcome business in our society. We’ve had legalised prostitution for more than twenty years now, so policymakers can’t claim ignorance of the business practices of the industry.
The industry has already given us a clear picture of how it rolls: underage girls in legal brothels, violence against women in brothels, murders of prostituted women by pimps and punters, trafficking into legal brothels, suicides of prostituted women, and a girl who died of a drug overdose in a legal brothel.
Policymakers can’t feign ignorance about all these industry conventions – they’ve been going on for a long time now.
No government official in Australia should dare express any shock that we’ve now got a Chinese woman up for sexual sale. This is exactly what they condoned when they permitted the sex industry to operate legally in this country. There are not two different sex industries—one that we might encourage as nice and respectable, and one that we might shun. There’s only one type of pimp. Like any other entrepreneur, he runs his business according to the cold, hard logic of the market. If the market wants young, petite, Asian women available for sexual use for days on end, then that’s what it’ll get.
The governments of Victoria, NSW, the ACT, and Queensland may live to regret the day they allowed an industry to develop on the basis of capital raised from the sexual trading of women and children. There are large numbers of women from South Korea and China in the Australian sex industry now, their treatment can be seen as Australian government sponsored human rights violations against women from these and other countries.
Australia has a lot to say about human rights violations in China, but while we’ve got one of their nationals up for sexual sale, are we in any position to take the moral high ground?
Recent articles by Caroline Norma: ‘It’s time to get serious about sex trafficking’ , ‘The Koreanisation of Australia’s sex industry’
9 Responses
This is an excellent article. When will the government wake up to the fact that the buying and selling of human beings for any reason is immoral, callous and just plain wrong – even if the ‘item’ being sold is willing at the time? The is no excuse to exploit another human being for one’s own selfish purpose. They ignorantly turn a blind eye to the fact that this ‘industry’ is rife with abuse – some of which is mentioned in the article. This is a tragic dirty stain on the moral landscape of our culture.
Caroline makes an excellent point at the end of the article, how hypocritical is the Australian Government when they are condoning and allowing the auction of a human being, yet scream about human rights abuses. This is a human rights abuse.
I am from WA, and I am very disappointed that it appears prostitution will be legalized here also. I cannot fathom how the Australian government refuses to recognize the harm to women. Thanks Caroline for this thought provoking article.
And yet the Scarlet Alliance, Sex Party and others will continue to shout over the top of this voiceless woman about how ’empowering’, ‘liberating’ and ‘safe’ sex work and the sex industry are.
This country was up in arms about the export of live cattle… why doesn’t this garner the same level of outrage (and ACTION)??
Fantasic article….
Also, I think that we should stop using the term “sex industry” – as if it sells sex and it is an industry like any other…..it does not sell “sex” as a commodity -it sells women and childrens bodies and sexual access to those bodies as the commodity. These are not the tools of an industry, the machinery of money making – these are people. The buying and selling of people should no longer be seen as an industry like an other….
We have Julia Gillard as our Prime Minister, another high profile woman, Kate Ellis as the Minister responsibile for Women’s Affairs and many other females also sit in the House of Reprentaives. This article together with a copy of Melinda’s book Big Porn should be mandatory reading for each of these women. Let them reflect on the plight of these young women and apply “but for the Grace of God, go I”.
White Ribbon Day is coming up on Friday 25th November amid much fanfare with high profile Ambassadors proclaiming pledges that hopefully will be adopted by their ‘brothers’, “Say No to Violence”. All the while the Elephant in the Room, ‘Legalised Prostitution’ in government vetted brothels across Australia is condoned as a legitimate tax raising revenue source under the guise of “keeping the working girls safe” and eliminating the criminal elements out of the industry. A recent Four Corners’ programme exposed the modus operandii of trafficking of women for prostitution purposes, while films such as The Jammed and Trafficked along with reports as far back as the early nineties by journalists such as Elizabeth Wynhausen and Natalie O’Brien from ‘The Australian’ opened our eyes to this pernicious trade in young women for sexual servitude. Agreement can be made with Caroline’s comments, that it makes a mockery of our condemnation of other countries when discussing human rights violations.
This is an isssue to be debated in every State Parliament, not tomorrow but TODAY. Shirley Owen
It gives me chills that men would continue to justify this over and over.
Alarming that our country hasn’t done more to stop this sort of abuse and violation on women.
Thanks for continually highlighting these issues and for taking a bold stand on behalf of women.
I often find it difficult to read because of feeling powerless but do find courage when I hear others who feel similar to me and who are speaking out about the wrong they see.
Thank You.
‘Pimps’ aren’t always men, yes we prefer to call them ‘Madams’ otherwise, but don’t assume that it is just men that are involved in creating these situations.
On that point too – why do we ignore the same plight of male prostitutes and imply that only women and female children are being abused?