Prostitution in Cambodia--It isn't 'People' who are the Johns

Kudos to Dr. Lynette Dumble of the Global Sisterhood Network for flagging this troublesome piece from the Deccan Chronicle about prostitution in Cambodia. With a headline that reads, “Demand for Virgins Soar”, the article reports that the high demand for virgins is fueling sex trafficking of underage girls in Cambodia. While the article goes into specific detail about the ethnicity of the male clients who are buying the services of virgins, it ends with this line,

“People were increasingly picking up virgins in entertainment establishments.”

Yet as both Dumble and activist Jennifer Drew point out, people aren’t picking up virgins, men are. Drew writes,

“The real headline should be male demand for virgin women and girls soars. Then we would read and begin to understand the reality of female sexual slavery.

Also note the fact many of these young women voluntarily enter prostitution is an overt assumption that prostitution is acceptable provided women and girls ‘choose’ to become prostituted women. No need to consider the fact it is either prostitution for these women and girls or else they and their families starve. Or the fact prostitution is far from the myths we are regularly fed by the pornography and sex industries.

I’ve yet to hear of mass numbers of women buying prostituted women or virgin women in order to rape and sexually abuse them for their sexual gratification. It is overwhelmingly men and men of all nationalities, backgrounds and ethnicities – not just men of the
same ethnicity as the prostituted women who are the ones fueling the demand for an unlimited fresh supply of women’s and girls’ bodies. After all, prostituted women soon become used up, contract HIV/Aids, STI’s as well as other medical conditions. Which is why there must be a continuous fresh supply of women and girls.

Once again, it is what is omitted which is important – not what is reported.”