People often ask me
why I Am That Girl is important to me. This is why.
Four facts from my friend Amanda’s
gender study course at Boise State today:
- Women are a more valuable illegal trade commodity than drugs or firearms because they can be sold up to 15 times a day, 365 days a year, for the rest of their lives.
- There are 107 million females missing from the world today.
- Sex trafficking starts with girls as young as eight years old through brothels & forced marriages.
- Despite regulations in western nations, in some cases, sex tours from the US to the Third World are offered as means by which lonely men can find a mate.
I Am That Girl is a global movement
that empowers girls to be the best version of themselves. It is a family—a community
of strong, beautiful, and inspiring young women. It is a form of healthy media.
Above all else, it is a safe place to sit and talk about real stuff.
This is one of those real things.
People have a tendency to turn
their shoulder to things that they don’t understand. For example, a significant
amount of people have never heard of the Holocaust or don’t even believe that
it ever happened. Exact numbers will
never be known, but an estimated eleven million people died as a direct result
of the tragedy.
How can eleven million people die
and the world not know about it? I mean, that is a huge number.
Okay, so let’s go back to the beginning.
How can there possibly be 107 million missing females in the world?
Many Americans believe that this is
a distant problem to them; however, sex trafficking is happening in our own
back yard. According to DoSomething.org, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked
into the US every year. The International Labour Organization estimates that
females represent the largest share of victims.
So what is the point of this post
(or rant if you’d rather)? I just want people to be informed. I truly believe
that awareness is the first step in eradicating sex trafficking. Females should
never be treated as a commodity.
Reference:
11 Facts About Human Trafficking (n.d.). In DoSomething.org. Retrieved April 17, 2014
Those are terrifying statistics. What's great about uncovering them is that people who care are prompted to take action. I think the "I am That Girl" movement can raise awareness and call for concrete action. It is a great advocacy, hitting on the hard and real problems concerning women, specifically human trafficking. I hope the movement gets a lot more support and backing. Anyway, thank you for sharing that with us. All the best!
ReplyDeleteChristian Pearson @ League of Women Voters