"In every metropolis around the globe, trafficked girls mingle freely with the women who choose to take money for sex. On the surface, it's hard to tell them apart. They dress and look the same. They have the same inviting expression. They smile, they pose, they flaunt and they strut. That's what prospective clients and the public see in the bars or streets.
"But that's also what the pimps make certain they see. What they miss entirely is the darker side of the trade. It's an ugly side, hidden behind heavy padlocked doors in rooms with iron bars on the windows and armed thugs in the hall. There, the striking blonde smiling coyly on the street may have been beaten with electrical wires the evening before. Behind these walls, the sweet-looking brunette who stands shyly on a corner with the innocent gaze of seventeen-year-old schoolgirl may have just been indoctrinated into the trade by two guards and a pimp intent on "breaking her in." This is the side that keeps them on the street and this is the side that keeps the smiles on their lips. They stay because they fear what will happen if they run... and they smile because they know what will happen if they don't.
"If their "clients" looked closely at the bodies they're using, they just might see some of the telltale signs — bruises peeking through under cheap flesh-colored makeup, whip marks on the buttocks, cigarette burns on the arms. If they paused long enough, while reaching their climax, to actually look into these women's eyes, they might see frustration, revulsion, fear, depression, resignation, anger, shame... And if they asked the woman they're with why she does what she does and actually took the time to dig into her past, they might hear how she was kidnapped from an orphanage in Ukraine, smuggled out of the country, sold at an auction and forced onto the street by a money-grubbing pimp who forces her to bring in $500 a night.
"In short, they're forced to do whatever it takes with whoever asks, as long as he pays, and they're forced to do it with a smile on their face, a sparkle in their eyes and a moan on their lips... exactly as trained in the breaking grounds."
- Victor Malarek, The Natashas, p42.
The campaign of 10,000 push-ups raised awareness about human trafficking, slavery, and forced prostitution, reaching 70,000 people directly and 750,000 in print. Show your support by learning more about the problem, and the many ways we can fight it, while sharing what you learn with your friends. Together, we can crush slavery!
