The Sexualization of Our Society

I didn’t watch the MTV Video Music Awards, but I’ve heard plenty about them. The first thing I heard about was Britney Spears’ performance. There was plenty of talk about it on the news the next morning. However, one thing I did not hear about on the radio, but read about later that week was that some of the performances featured “stripper poles” with scantily clad women dancing. I watched part of a repeat of the show and verified the presence of these “dancers.”
This blatant exploitation is just another example of the increasing sexualization of our society. Rap/Hip-Hop music (one of the most popular and money making forms of music today) if full of lyrics and imagery that demeans and exploits women. In addition, we are seeing a rising acceptance of “pimp” culture; it is fairly common to hear people addressing each other as pimp, ho, and bitch in day-to-day conversations. A prime example of this acceptance is the Al Kapone song It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp from the movie Hustle and Flow, which one the 2006 Oscar for Best Original Song. Here is a sample of the lyrics (source http://www.iast.net/documents/lyricstoitshardouthereforapimp.pdf):

“I Felt Guilty”

As I was researching material for the blog I came across a band based out of Glasgow with a name that made me look twice. They call themselves “Human Traffickers”. Now, their myspace did not say anything about why they call themselves Human Traffikers, but I must admit I find it hard to think of a positive reason why they would. They might be a wonderful band who stands against modern-day slavery, I don’t know, but the name alone got me thinking.

When we talk about human trafficking, we often focus on the people trafficked, and we should. However, who are the traffickers? Why do they do what they do?

Welcome to the Break the Traffic Blog.

Welcome to the Break the Traffic Blog.

Break the Traffic (BTT) exists to give you an opportunity to voice your opposition to human trafficking. We hope to use this blog as a means of information and encouragement. Posts will vary from news on trafficking situations in the UK and globally to profiles of organizations on the front lines to our thoughts on all the above. We hope you will check back soon as we launch this new aspect of Break the Traffic.

Paste your face, to raise your voice….

*For more information on BTT check out the “home” and “about” pages.