Dr. Laura Lederer opened Saturday’s plenary session with a story telling of a recent experience visiting the Red Light District in India, where the buying and selling of women is popular and practiced frequently. Human trafficking is the 3rd largest commercial industry, exceeded by drug trafficking. Over 70 countries have passed laws to stop human trafficking in the last decade. Over 200 billion dollars are spent every year for the commercial and sexual exploitation and trafficking. The term human trafficking only came into focus during the early 90s. Then, cases started to come to light everywhere. While ten years ago, there was no real knowledge of the problem on a legislative level, even now there is still a lack of education on this important human rights issue.
Why is this such a popular industry? It is low risk and highly rewarding for criminals. With growing technologies (gps, texting, etc), criminals are finding new ways to hide trafficking and market broadly with little investment. What is being done about this? The US is the first to draft and pass a law that prosecutes and punishes the perpetrators and serves to protect, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims. This is being used as a model for other nations. The US is unique in approaching the laws from a victim centered perspective. The enforcement and successful completion of these ideals is still a work in progress.
The solution, Lederer says, is in the support and strength of nongovernmental organizations. Governments must provide resources for legal responsibilities, education and tools for nongovernmental organizations. It is through collaboration and cooperation with faith based organizations and nonprofit organizations that the restoration of individuals will be achieved. Organizations can provide education, raise money for awareness, build campaigns, utilize new technologies to protect, working specifically to drive down the demand by educating young men about the importance of not buying human beings and the implications of prostitution and pornography.
Dr. Laura Lederer is the Senior Director for Global Projects and Executive Director, Senior Policy Operating Group Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Gender and Justice Conference 2008-Jackson Katz
Friday I showed up to the first plenary session of the conference: Gender and Justice, sponsored by Vanguard University’s Center for Women’s Studies and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force. Jackson Katz opened with an introduction to the influence of media on gender issues. Proposing that the word gender is generally related to women’s issues, he supported his argument by drawing attention to the fact that a very small percentage of men were present. Hee also noted that the word race carries semantic emphasis relating to African American issues, as if race was not applicable to every person. In the same regard, the word gender is applicable to both male and female.
Social justice must begin with an understanding of who needs to be educated on the issues at hand. Answer: EVERYONE! For Katz, ‘everyone’ most definitely includes men. “It’s not enough for a male to say, ‘I’m a good guy because I’m not a rapist,’” Katz states. Many men don’t understand that they have the power to affect other men in their social circles with the result of heightened accountability. And if they are silent, men are contributing to the problem. The single largest reason for the need for male involvement is that rape and abuse prevention is impossible for a woman. A woman will never choose to become a victim of rape or domestic abuse. So, we teach our daughters risk-reduction. While this is good, it is not enough. Katz calls out for an answer among men, believing that men should take a stand in order to change the issue from the demand side.
Katz emphasizes the role of media in influencing social the normative. The media uses journalistic language to gender women and de-gender the men involved in these violent crimes. Language in news reports and political presentations becomes passive, explaining the impact of the crime on women and girls, as if the violence simply happens, without a specified, or gendered perpetrator. Perpetrators are not only gender unassigned, they are barely categorized in context of social roles. While both males and females have perpetrated crimes of violence, the vast majority of perpetrators are historically men. The reason for this clever allusion? Men historically and traditionally hold power. Power is preserved in remaining neutral, invisible. Remember the “Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz”? The allusion of power is best preserved by “pay(ing) no attention to the man behind the curtain.” So, who is responsible when the observer sees only a curtain behind a broken victim? The camera flash goes off and media points to the victim. Katz proposes that we look more critically. The question that should be asked is, ‘Who’s behind the curtain?’ “You’re not a very nice man,” Dorothy says.
Social change happens in cooperation. Katz’s approach to placing the burden of change wholly on men was challenged. It seemed that female attendees of the Gender and Justice Conference were concerned that a pendulum swing is avoided. Women want to take an active role in changing the social norms in a holistic way. The unavoidable question of responsibility comes up. “Isn’t a woman responsible for making poor decisions in remaining in an abusive situation with a man?” Katz explains that this response in itself is a paradigm that he believes must change if the problem of gender and justice is to be resolved.
Katz spent the last hour of his presentation on the symbolic influence of media on gender issues. Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, strongly influenced by his step mother, an advocate of Women’s Rights in America and contemporary colleague of Susan B. Anthony, revealed the power of strength in the Wizard of Oz by revealing the “Great and Powerful Oz” as a mere man behind a curtain. The power of the invisible remains a valuable resource to male culture. Over the past 60 years, movies have portrayed male muscles and their guns progressively larger and stronger, while women have shrunk, diminishing in comparison. Pornography and strip culture portrays women as vulnerable and sexually available, while men are presented as powerful and erotic. This sexual socialization leaks out through the media and impacts growing young men in our culture.
“The issue is degradation and violence and the normalization of sexual misconduct.” Katz persists.
Jackson Katz is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in gender violence prevention education with men and boys, particularly in the sports culture and the military.
Social justice must begin with an understanding of who needs to be educated on the issues at hand. Answer: EVERYONE! For Katz, ‘everyone’ most definitely includes men. “It’s not enough for a male to say, ‘I’m a good guy because I’m not a rapist,’” Katz states. Many men don’t understand that they have the power to affect other men in their social circles with the result of heightened accountability. And if they are silent, men are contributing to the problem. The single largest reason for the need for male involvement is that rape and abuse prevention is impossible for a woman. A woman will never choose to become a victim of rape or domestic abuse. So, we teach our daughters risk-reduction. While this is good, it is not enough. Katz calls out for an answer among men, believing that men should take a stand in order to change the issue from the demand side.
Katz emphasizes the role of media in influencing social the normative. The media uses journalistic language to gender women and de-gender the men involved in these violent crimes. Language in news reports and political presentations becomes passive, explaining the impact of the crime on women and girls, as if the violence simply happens, without a specified, or gendered perpetrator. Perpetrators are not only gender unassigned, they are barely categorized in context of social roles. While both males and females have perpetrated crimes of violence, the vast majority of perpetrators are historically men. The reason for this clever allusion? Men historically and traditionally hold power. Power is preserved in remaining neutral, invisible. Remember the “Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz”? The allusion of power is best preserved by “pay(ing) no attention to the man behind the curtain.” So, who is responsible when the observer sees only a curtain behind a broken victim? The camera flash goes off and media points to the victim. Katz proposes that we look more critically. The question that should be asked is, ‘Who’s behind the curtain?’ “You’re not a very nice man,” Dorothy says.
Social change happens in cooperation. Katz’s approach to placing the burden of change wholly on men was challenged. It seemed that female attendees of the Gender and Justice Conference were concerned that a pendulum swing is avoided. Women want to take an active role in changing the social norms in a holistic way. The unavoidable question of responsibility comes up. “Isn’t a woman responsible for making poor decisions in remaining in an abusive situation with a man?” Katz explains that this response in itself is a paradigm that he believes must change if the problem of gender and justice is to be resolved.
Katz spent the last hour of his presentation on the symbolic influence of media on gender issues. Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, strongly influenced by his step mother, an advocate of Women’s Rights in America and contemporary colleague of Susan B. Anthony, revealed the power of strength in the Wizard of Oz by revealing the “Great and Powerful Oz” as a mere man behind a curtain. The power of the invisible remains a valuable resource to male culture. Over the past 60 years, movies have portrayed male muscles and their guns progressively larger and stronger, while women have shrunk, diminishing in comparison. Pornography and strip culture portrays women as vulnerable and sexually available, while men are presented as powerful and erotic. This sexual socialization leaks out through the media and impacts growing young men in our culture.
“The issue is degradation and violence and the normalization of sexual misconduct.” Katz persists.
Jackson Katz is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in gender violence prevention education with men and boys, particularly in the sports culture and the military.
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