How Hard is it Really for a Pimp?

The letter I've posted below was submitted to my local paper after the Oscars and (not suprisingly) went unpublished. Naturally, I will now publish it myself.
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This year, the Motion Picture Academy paid homage to an age-old practice, the sexual exploitation of women. As a person who has worked with young women who were forced to work as prostitutes, I have no more sympathy for the plight of pimps now than I did before “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” won the Oscar for best original song.

“Pimping” has been glamorized by Hollywood and the music industry and is frequently used to describe a variety of actions or behaviors. True “pimping” however, involves the exploitation of women by selling their sexual services for a profit. Hollywood’s glamorization of this term endorses the practice of pimping while drawing attention away from the victims of the commercial sex industry. Music is both an indicator of the state of our culture and a means by which culture is further impacted. The fact that this song was rewarded with one of the top honors in the entertainment industry is an indictment on the Academy and on our culture at-large.

All over the world, and even within US borders, women and young girls are coerced, forced, or tricked into entering the sex industry by a process referred to as human trafficking or trafficking in persons. Once trafficked, a woman is continuously bought, sold, and forced to work as a prostitute. The persons responsible for the selling of these women are the pimps (or their female equivalent, madams). Although not all prostitution is a result of trafficking, since trafficking is the largest source of prostitutes, we cannot talk about one without the other.

The US State Department estimates that at least 600,000 individuals are trafficked across international borders every year. Yes, folks, that is roughly equivalent to the population of the city of Austin. This estimate does not include the number of individuals trafficked within the United States, most of whom are trafficked into the sex industry and many of whom are minors, nor does it include the millions of individuals who have already been trafficked into the industry.

I don’t buy into the difficulty a pimp has “makin’ change off these women” to pay rent. A pimp who manages only one prostitute (which is rare) makes roughly $67,000. The industry at-large brings in billions of dollars annually. While the pimps are taking in the money, the victims are experiencing multiple levels of trauma from physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.

The relationship between a pimp/owner and his prostitutes in many ways resembles a domestically violent relationship, with a perpetrator using various means to maintain control. It begins with the seasoning process, an initiation of a woman into the sex industry that serves to break down her resistance and establish the pimp’s control. This usually involves high levels of sexual and physical violence, following which the pimp uses the threat of violence against the woman and/or her family to maintain control. The sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of these women continues beyond this and is quite brutal. The song itself admits that “they come hopin’ every night they don’t end up bein’ dead.” One of the young women with whom I worked had been doused with industrial bathroom cleaner because she was too sick to work. She now bears the literal scars of this experience all over her body. Her story is not uncommon. It is not unusual for women to be drugged by pimps to help them serve their quota of clients, and many of them continue using to self-medicate. If the victim is from another country, the pimp usually takes away any legal documents she has and further establishes his control by threatening to turn her over to immigration authorities.

If anything is hard for a pimp out there, it must be that there are so many women to exploit and so little time to do so. So, the next time we’re all tempted to feel sorry for the “hard” life of a pimp, let’s remind ourselves that these individuals reap huge profits by daily exploiting and brutalizing women and children. The anti-trafficking movement in this country and throughout the world is gaining momentum. We are making huge strides in changing policies and in mobilizing citizens at the grassroots level to change cultural norms and to identify and serve victims of trafficking. Hopefully with these efforts it will eventually be hard out there for a pimp to make a living by sexually exploiting women. Sadly, that day has not come yet.