Essay: Globalization, Militarism and Sex Trafficking
ESSAY--The author, Jean Enriquez, gave this communication at the International meeting of Women World March, in Lima, Peru, from July 4th to July 9th 2006. She speaks as coordinator of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women Asia Pacific (CATWAP) and as a feminist activist from the Philippines working with survivors of prostitution.
Coming from the previous discussion on the impact of globalization on women, I would just want to emphasize the need to criticize globalization not only in terms of its impact on our lives, but criticize the very framework of globalization as masculinist given its assumptions. It rides on the gender division of labour, with women subsidizing reproductive work, and with neo-liberalism basing itself on the idea of competitiveness and domination.
Globalization further uses might and arms of states. Military aid is dangled and anti-terrorism bills are pushed down the throats of poor countries by powerful nations to ensure the “security” of foreign investors, in the guise of a fight against “international terrorism.” The World Trade Organization (WTO) itself encourage manufacture of arms, given its exemption on security in Article IX of the GATT, thus the encouragement of Bombardier operations in Canada. Members of the G-8 similarly pressured Massachusetts to reverse its ruling on countries supporting fascist governments such as that of Burma. The point I’m making is that globalization and militarism of states are intimately linked.
Now both globalization and militarism creates the conditions for violence against women, particularly trafficking and prostitution. However, I want to state in the outset that prostitution itself, the buying and selling of women and children’s bodies, is a system of violence against women which determines trafficking. The act of buyers and business establishments of using our bodies in exchange for profit and other consideration is a flagrant violation of our integrity, dignity and autonomy. The acts committed by buyers and capitalists exploit the context of lack of choices for women, whether in the North or in the South. (I will expound on this question of choice later.) Trafficking is merely the means to ensure the supply of women’s bodies towards the demand side - that is, the prostitution industry. Thus, we want trafficking to be more sharply defined to constitute not only those that include the element of physical force, but from the feminist perspective, such acts that exploit or take advantage of compulsions or vulnerabilities created by societal contexts of economic and gender inequality.
Read the full essay at SISYPHE.org
Coming from the previous discussion on the impact of globalization on women, I would just want to emphasize the need to criticize globalization not only in terms of its impact on our lives, but criticize the very framework of globalization as masculinist given its assumptions. It rides on the gender division of labour, with women subsidizing reproductive work, and with neo-liberalism basing itself on the idea of competitiveness and domination.
Globalization further uses might and arms of states. Military aid is dangled and anti-terrorism bills are pushed down the throats of poor countries by powerful nations to ensure the “security” of foreign investors, in the guise of a fight against “international terrorism.” The World Trade Organization (WTO) itself encourage manufacture of arms, given its exemption on security in Article IX of the GATT, thus the encouragement of Bombardier operations in Canada. Members of the G-8 similarly pressured Massachusetts to reverse its ruling on countries supporting fascist governments such as that of Burma. The point I’m making is that globalization and militarism of states are intimately linked.
Now both globalization and militarism creates the conditions for violence against women, particularly trafficking and prostitution. However, I want to state in the outset that prostitution itself, the buying and selling of women and children’s bodies, is a system of violence against women which determines trafficking. The act of buyers and business establishments of using our bodies in exchange for profit and other consideration is a flagrant violation of our integrity, dignity and autonomy. The acts committed by buyers and capitalists exploit the context of lack of choices for women, whether in the North or in the South. (I will expound on this question of choice later.) Trafficking is merely the means to ensure the supply of women’s bodies towards the demand side - that is, the prostitution industry. Thus, we want trafficking to be more sharply defined to constitute not only those that include the element of physical force, but from the feminist perspective, such acts that exploit or take advantage of compulsions or vulnerabilities created by societal contexts of economic and gender inequality.
Read the full essay at SISYPHE.org
posted by Sarah G. at 10:21 AM
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