And thus commences my tale of how I came to the decision to never watch How I Met Your Mother again.
Through a number of documentaries and conversations in the past week I have learned a great deal more about the sex slavery industry. While you may be under the (false) impression that sexual slavery only exists in impoverished countries where parents sell their children or girls are kidnapped off the streets and forced into prostitution, this is only part of the story.
As you may well know, there is prostitution in the United States, but what you may not fully realize is that each and every one of these individuals is a slave.
These women aren't free to leave, mentally or physically. Though a small portion initially wanted the life of a stripper or prostitute, that quickly faded away. Most were coerced by pimps, forced into the life through manipulation and violence. Many are addicted to narcotics, unable to run away.
Many girls leave their broken homes and are picked up by a pimp, who proceeds to convince them he loves them, cares about them. For those in need of a father-figure, he becomes that, for others he is a lover. Then he forces them to sell their bodies on the streets. That becomes their identity. When they're on the streets, on the corner at night, they might seem free to come and go, like they want to be there giving up their humanity night after night, but they don't.
They are no more free to leave than a prisoner in a jail cell, trapped by the lies and manipulations, the drugs and the damages.
They are threatened, their families are threatened. If they run away, they're caught and beaten, taking weeks to physically recover, though the psychological destruction caused can never really heal.
They are broken beyond repair, hurting and wanting out. They are completely enslaved, and this is happening all over the world, including in our country, the "land of the free."
Yet so many do not understand the true bondage prostitutes live in, that each and every one is a slave.
We see movies like Pretty Women, one of those "classic films" that everyone has seen, where a prostitute find love, her life beautiful and pretty and pink and happy. We see movies like The Hangover, where a character accidentally marries a stripper in his drunken state, it's a joke, a funny event we laugh at. We see what these women do and it doesn't seem that bad. They like their lifestyle, it's a choice, a way of life.
Reality: almost every woman who is a prostitute has had her life threatened.
Reality: no woman in prostitution wants that lifestyle.
Reality: the average age of a prostitute is 13
Reality: every woman in prostitution is a slave, physically and psychologically.
Through conversations I came to understand even more the powerful part society and media play in painting a completely false portrait of the reality of this slavery.
It starts just with sexual jokes, making light of a serious subject. From there we move on to movies filled with sexual humor, like 40-Year-Old-Virgin or American Pie or a million others.
There are strippers and sex, it's funny and light, nothing serious. The girls are hot, there's lots of skimpy clothing and revealed parts and it's all a joke. The women are treated as objects, but we laugh and joke because they're having fun, they want to be wasted and half-naked and have sex with strangers.
It doesn't stop at movies. Now we've seen the women, they've been objectified, they are nothing more than a means to an end, so in comes porn. Completely dehumanizing an individual. Dangerous not only for the person looking at it and that sexual sin, but also just because it completely takes away the rights of the person who has been photographed. No matter if they "volunteered" for that or not, they're being treated like nothing, there's no person or soul in those photos or videos.
And it continues shaping a perception of what "those kinds of women"are like. Women who want nothing more than drugs and drinks and parties and to sell their bodies for some cash, money that in reality they will never see.
But this is all a lie. The truth is that no woman wants to be in that life, and no woman is free to leave it.
And seeing this false portrayal that these women are dirty and want to be doing what they are doing, that they like being strippers and prostitutes, that they're free to go and have chosen this lifestyle makes us perceive a false reality. The truth is that they're all slaves, the truth is that they're all victims, the truth is that they all need to be set free.
And that is why I can't watch How I Met Your Mother anymore. Yes, it is a hilarious show, yes, I've always enjoyed it. But there are strippers in almost every episode, and the way these strippers are treated furthers the misconception and horrible stereotypes about these enslaved women. Barney is constantly going to strip clubs, and the women are nothing. And in one of the recent seasons, he starts dating a stripper who "loves her job." The reality is no stripper, no prostitute, loves, or even remotely likes, what they do.
You might say it's all fun and games, the jokes and movies and TV programs are just light humor. And yes, they are funny, but they are also dehumanizing, forcing lies into our minds as we perceive these enslaved women as "just sluts," when in reality they are broken, lost, abused, neglected, and deeply in need of salvation and freedom.
(Note: watch Nefarious and Very Young Girls. Both amazing, informative, heart-breaking documentaries)
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