Running from the Rescuers: New US Crusades Against Sex Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition

Citation:

Soderlund, Gretchen. 2005. "Running from the Rescuers: New US Crusades Against Sex Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition." NWSA Journal 17 (3): 64-87.

Author: Gretchen Soderlund

Abstract:

This article analyzes recent developments in U.S. anti-sex trafficking rhetoric and practices. In particular, it traces how pre-9/11 abolitionist legal frameworks have been redeployed in the context of regime change from the Clinton to Bush administrations. In the current political context, combating the traffic in women has become a common denominator political issue, uniting people across the political and religious spectrum against a seemingly indisputable act of oppression and exploitation. However, this essay argues that feminists should be the first to interrogate and critique the premises underlying many claims about global sex trafficking, as well as recent U.S. -based efforts to rescue prostitutes. It places the current raid-and-rehabilitation method of curbing sex trafficking within the broader context of Bush administration and conservative religious approaches to dealing with gender and sexuality on the international scene. 

Keywords: accountability, feminist perspectives, national interest, sex trafficking, prostitution, Bush administration

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Justice, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, Sexuality, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2005