In Rhode Island letters have been
sent to the Editor regarding the Univeristy of RI play, "The Best Little
Whorehouse in TX". Read the responses below to how media and entertainment
industry normalizes prostitution and sexual slavery.
Whorehouse
numbs Rhode Islanders to sex slavery
Posted:
11/28/06
11/28/06
- To the Cigar ,
While legal chattel slavery was abolished over a century ago, the illegal enslavement
and exploitation of people has continued and increased in the last 25 years.
Modern-day slavery is called human trafficking. Most of the victims are women
and children.
Each year, an estimated two million people are trafficked across international
borders and an estimated 20,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United
States , according to the U.S. government. Trafficking for prostitution is the
most common type. U.S. citizens are trafficked into prostitution as well. No
one has an estimate of their number.
At URI, I teach three courses on human trafficking, one focuses on sex trafficking.
Students are often shocked to learn that the enslavement of people still exists
and even more shocked to learn that it occurs in the U.S. and even in Rhode
Island.
Foremost on students' minds is: How can slavery still exist today? And why isn't
it stopped? The answers include the global feminization of poverty and migration,
organized crime, and corruption, but the one element that keeps people ignorant
of trafficking in their own communities is culture.
We live in a culture that lies about prostitution. There is a movement, led
by sex industry lobbyists, to convince us that prostitution is "sex work," a
job like any other. We've been given "The Happy Hooker," "Pretty Woman," HBO
specials on Nevada brothels, and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas ." The
Academy Award winning song this year was "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." (Pimp
is the slang term for trafficker.) We've been told that being a prostitute is
a choice, empowering, and a fun, rewarding career.
Research into prostitution and sex trafficking, some of which I've done, reveals
a very different picture. Girls are usually forced into the sex trade by violent
trafficker-pimps before the age of 15 or 16. Rape and battering, threats to
family members, and psychological control and intimidation are the tactics used
to compel teen girls into prostitution. Victims suffer severe physical and emotional
trauma, causing permanent disabilities and even death from violence and diseases,
such as AIDS. Suicide attempts are common. The mortality rate for women in prostitution
in the U.S. is more than 40 times greater than that of a similar cohort.
Tuesday night in Providence , Mayor David Cicilline and the National Council
of Jewish Women will co-host a forum on human trafficking in Rhode Island .
The Mayor's Office and the Rhode Island Legislature have been working for almost
two years to find solutions to the trafficking of Asian women into the massage
parlors in the state.
The most important thing needed to combat human trafficking is political will.
That requires the concerted effort by officials supported by the citizens of
the state to take a stand and act against the enslavement of women. The means
can be found if there is a will to do so.
The URI Theatre Department's "hilarious" production of "The Best Little Whorehouse
in Texas " tells lies about prostitution and assists people to be ignorant of
and numb to the enslavement of women just miles up the road. "The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas " is deeply sexist in the way that minstrel shows, in which
white people dressed in blackface and sang and told jokes through stereotypical
black characters, were deeply racist.
The trade in women and girls for prostitution violates the freedom and dignity
of victims at the deepest most personal level, destroying their bodily integrity,
identity and hope for the future.
There is a growing international human rights movement aimed at combating human
trafficking. I invite people to join that movement by attending the anti-trafficking
forum on tonight instead of supporting the culture of lies spread "The Best
Little Whorehouse in Texas ."
The forum on trafficking in Rhode Island will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in the
Marriot Hotel, 1 Orms St. , Providence .
Donna M. Hughes, PhD
URI Women's Studies Program
_____________
Professor
offers misguided criticism of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
(My
op-ed is below.)
Posted:
12/5/06
The
Good 5 Cent Cigar
12/5/06 - I am writing to protest the gratuitous and
slanderous slap given by Professor Donna Hughes to URI's outstanding Department
of Theater, and in particular to Professor Paula McGlasson's and her students'
production of an award-winning American play, The Best Little Whorehouse in
Texas.
After a lengthy exposition on the deplorable sexual traffic of women, Professor
Hughes illegitimately condemns the play by rhetorical association with sexual
exploitation. Moreover, she accuses the performance itself of adding to, or
causing, sexual trafficking in Rhode Island .
Here's her version of what I find to be bogus drama criticism, one riddled with
ignorance of how media and theatrical art "work" (and I quote): "The URI Theatre
Department's 'hilarious' production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas tells
lies about prostitution and assists people to be ignorant of and numb to the
enslavement of women just miles up the road. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
is deeply sexist in the way that minstrel shows, in which white people dressed
in blackface and sang and told jokes through stereotypical black characters,
were deeply racist."
Let's leave aside that African American scholars and artists (e.g. Eric Lott,
Paul Gilroy, filmmaker Marlon Riggs) have far more sophisticated analyses of
the complexities of minstrelsy and its role in negotiating race relations in
different regions of the United States . But Hughes's naiveté (one
could say obsessive black-and-white moralizing) on how the performing arts (theater
but also film, dance, etc.) negotiate "dominant" and "resistant" meanings, especially
when a performance draws on historical events, is what needs a rebuff here.
Has she seen the play? Is she aware of how the students are re-inventing and
redesigning the dramaturgy, to incorporate the "look" in part of silent films?
To historicize the representation of women and genders in different media? Does
she demonstrate any inkling of how complex "entertainment" is, or to what extent
her comments so parody the Saturday Night Live character and mentality of "Church
Lady"?
I too can play with an associationist logic along these same lines. For example,
The Passion of the Christ causes copycat flagellations and shippings-the film
"numbs" one to torture. Good grief, it "causes" homoerotic sado-masochism. "Thelma
and Louise" ought to be condemned because it "causes" female hysteria to go
gun crazy and drive cars too fast and blow up oil trucks, thereby adding to
our oil shortage and aiding and abetting terrorism.
Today is World AIDS Day. I myself cannot forget that Professor Hughes also condemns
the distribution of condoms to sex workers in the AIDS-ravaged regions of Africa-despite
overwhelming proof that this activity has played a major role in decreasing
the spread of HIV/AIDS. Her reason? That this sends the wrong message, that
this legitimates prostitution.
I salute the Department of Theater, its robust director of many plays Bryna
Wortman, and most enthusiastically the talented students and players who have
provided us with a history of excellent productions.
John R. Leo, URI Film Media Program
© Copyright 2006 The Good 5 Cent Cigar
______________________________________
Letter:
Chairwoman responds to letter about sex trade
Issue
date: 12/8/06 Section: Editorial/Opinion
12/8/06 - To the Cigar ,
John Leo's response, "Professor offers misguided criticism of Best Little Whorehouse
in Texas ," Dec. 5, to my letter to the editor, "Whorehouse numbs Rhode Islanders
to sex slavery," Nov. 28, inaccurately characterizes my position on condom distribution
to women in prostitution. Leo claims that I oppose the distribution of condoms
to sex workers. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, they can drop
condoms from cargo planes over red-light districts for all I care.
Leo's distortion of my view comes from my expos a few years ago of United States
Agency for International Development's (USAID) funding of projects in the notorious
Svay Pak, Cambodia, a destination for sex tourists seeking to have sex with
children ( http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/abetting_slave_trade.pdf ).
USAID was not funding efforts to get the children out of prostitution, to arrest
the traffickers, or close this hellhole for trafficked children. It was only
funding programs that worked cooperatively with traffickers to distribute condoms
and conduct safe sex and "empowerment" workshops where teen and preteen children
were being taught to say, "Please wear a condom when you penetrate me" in different
languages-English and Japanese. I support efforts to end trafficking and slavery,
not accommodate it.
Leo rightly condemns the trafficking of women, but slips into the widely-held
myth that sex work is vastly different from trafficking. My 20 years of research,
interviews with survivors and work with groups that assist women and children
to escape prostitution has found that there is a false distinction between "sex
work" and trafficking. The widespread belief that there is a difference between
voluntary and forced prostitution is due in part to the promotion of that myth
through the media and culture.
Legalized prostitution in Amsterdam is constantly held up as a model for how
prostitution can be safe and regulated. For years, I've said that the Dutch
claims of a well-run, voluntary sex trade were false. Just this week, the Amsterdam
City Council announced that it was closing 33 sex clubs and over 100 (one third)
of the window brothels because they were fronts for trafficking and money laundering.
Even after legalization, an estimated 3,500 women are trafficked into the Netherlands
for the sex trade each year. Since legalization, the number of children used
in prostitution has grown every year. Of the estimated 25,000 people in prostitution
in the Netherlands , 15,000 of them are children. This is the reality of legalized
prostitution.
As far as Leo's name calling, i.e. "Church Lady," I can only say that for 20
years my work against child sexual abuse, rape and trafficking has always been
met by skeptics claiming that I was anti-sex or a prude. Revealing ugly truths
about sexual exploitation is never popular. Some people prefer funny, artistic
lies, like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , instead.
Donna M. Hughes
____________________________
Letter: Cast member responds
to criticism of play
Issue date: 11/30/06 Section: Editorial/Opinion
11/30/06 - To the Cigar,
In Tuesday's Cigar, a letter to the editor by Miss Hughes from the Women's Studies
Program at URI was printed. The title to her letter accused the musical The
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, about to open here at URI, of "numbing" and
"telling lies" to Rhode Islanders about the reality of sex trafficking.
I would first like to state I do not support or condone prostitution. It is
an unfortunate reality in our world that many young women and children are forced
into selling themselves for money for one reason or another. Nor am I denying
that such practices may take place in our own state. However, Miss Hughes' letter
is misleading, biased and clearly uninformed.
While the title points a critical finger at Whorehouse, there is a surprising
lack of support in her letter for this attack. Rather, a large majority of the
letter is spent providing the reader with a background to prostitution and sex
trafficking, only addressing the play in the final few paragraphs.
And once Miss Hughes finally gets to the musical itself, she makes no references
to its plot or content, instead only accusing it of being "deeply sexist" and
"supporting a culture of lies." The lack of any support in her letter makes
me question whether or not Miss Hughes has even seen the show she has chosen
to attack, or whether she did so simply based on the title.
Without divulging too much of the plot, Whorehouse is a musical based on the
real life story of the Chicken Ranch, a famous brothel once operating outside
of La Grange, Texas (yes, this is what the ZZ Top song is based on). The very
reason the Chicken Ranch was so famous (and its story adopted into a Broadway
musical and movie) is the way in which it was operated.
A little more research by Miss Hughes would have shown that the Chicken Ranch
was famous not for sordid conditions and sex trafficking, but rather for the
efforts of its operators to keep the house and its reputation clean. With a
little digging, one can discover that the prostitutes working at the Chicken
Ranch were inspected regularly by doctors, did not drink, contributed to the
community, and underwent criminal background checks; all to insure a high standard
of principles for the Chicken Ranch.
President Lyndon B. Johnson even paid a visit while the Chicken Ranch was still
in operation in the 1960s! While displaying these practices, the prostitutes
in Whorehouse come from a variety of backgrounds, dispelling Miss Hughes' idea
that the musical is a romanticized version of anything.
Does Miss Hughes honestly think that the director of Whorehouse (a woman) would
consciously choose to produce and direct a play that degraded women for the
benefit of a show? I would have liked to hope Miss Hughes would choose to actually
SEE the production before making erroneous assumptions. Instead, she has chosen
to boycott the show, encouraging URI students to do likewise and instead attend
a seminar about human trafficking (a nice plug that would have worked better
were it on the night of one of the performances).
Instead of throwing baseless accusations supported by an unrelated thesis paper,
I invite my fellow students here at URI, if they so choose, to come see The
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and decide whether it is a sexist, dishonest,
romanticized view about sex trafficking or if indeed Miss Hughes was clucking
up the wrong tree. As the show says, "There's nothing dirty going on."
Nevan Richard
Cast member of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
_______________________
Letter: An outraged whore
from Texas
Issue date: 12/6/06 Section: Editorial/Opinion
12/06/06 - To the Cigar,
Ok, am I really from Texas? No way, I get enough of Bush just from living in this
country. I really don't need to be living in his state, too. Am I a whore? Honestly,
I don't have the legs for it. Julia's character wins. Is The Best Little Whorehouse
in Texas a show about sex trafficking? If you can put two and two together and
get where this is going, feel free to assume the answer to this one is also .
No.
Like the majority [of the art community] I was shocked to read the article by
professor Donna M. Hughes in the Nov. 28 issue, which stated that Whorehouse is
nothing more than a transport unit for "lies about prostitution." Ok, not so fast.
Let's back up and start with a little thing called education, after all we should
learn something here:
Prostitution: The act or practice of engaging in sex for hire.
Sex Trafficking: A modern day form of slavery in which victims are forced into
prostitution and used as sex slaves.
Right off the bat, if one is going to discuss the two side-by-side he or she should
take note that the word "forced" is only used in one definition. Secondly, prostitution,
though a frightening profession, is still a profession: "There is a movement,
led by sex industry lobbyists, to convince us that prostitution is 'sex work',
a job like any other" -Hughes.
Some people see sex as a disgusting act while others see it as a sacred act within
marriage, and to both parties how could selling it as a business possibly be respectable!
Yet how many of those people are parked in the back of adult stores? And what's
that, you'd like to sell your strength on a construction site in return for a
salary? Sure! Just keep it in your pants and you can call yourself a respectable
working American.
People sell their mind power and muscle power in return for a paycheck everyday.
If one sells their sex organs for a paycheck is it really that different? I have
discussed this with a well-respected faculty member and we are both in agreement
that it is not. The moral issues people have with it however, are, and that's
where the problems stem from. If you don't agree with it, then fine, but don't
attack people for their choices.
I am in no way condoning sex trafficking, and to those who have been sucked into
that world and who are being forced to stay in that world against their will,
I'm sure I can speak for all when I say our hearts go out to you. I want to see
it stopped just as much as the next person. But those forced into sex trafficking
and prostitution, and those who have chosen to be a prostitute are not comparable
cases.
Furthermore, it's very true: Sex trafficking is nothing short of slavery. And
yes, it is a cruel and vicious reality of the world today. But to blatantly imply
that those who see Whorehouse will suddenly forget this gives no credit to any
cast member, director, stagehand, supporter, parent, or audience member: "Whorehouse
tells lies about prostitution and assists people to be ignorant of and numb to
the enslavement of women just miles up the road." Our morals, ethics, and intelligence
have been insulted.
Maybe I'm just confused. See, I saw the show and so far I haven't turned into
an ignorant pro-sex trafficking lobbyist. Maybe it just takes a little to sink
in?
We have amazing talent here and the fact that the artistic departments have been
belittled over a false depiction of a play angers me. Currently Miss Hughes' idea
that the show influences people to become ignorant is based on no evidence whatsoever.
So just as she has "invited" us to boycott the show I "invite" her to see it.
Here's the box office number: 874-5843. You still have one weekend left. I don't
doubt that you will be disappointed in your findings, but hey, it's a challenge.
Before you continue to speak about something you've yet to see, dish out the $12
and check it out. Prove me wrong.
Alana Riley
__________________
12/11/2006
To the Editor:
I wish to lend my support to those who are raising concerns about the
play “The Best Little Whorehouse in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/>Texas”. As a psychotherapist who has been treating sexual violence
victims and perpetrators for more than 20 years I can attest to the general
ignorance of the public surrounding the issue of prostitution. This play
deepens that ignorance. Research indicates and my therapeutic experience
supports a number of findings. Most females who enter prostitution do
so as children at an average age of 12. Most of them have two factors
in common: they have been raped as children and they are homeless. These
are the precursor conditions that would cause a female to decide to engage in
physically and psychologically intimate acts with strangers. But those
acts have a psychological cost and damage. In order for most females to
tolerate this physical and visual invasion of their bodies they have to disengage
themselves which is why research indicates that most prostitutes have to be
either drunk, high, dissociated or numb in order to do what they do. No
amount of singing, dancing, doctors exams, bleaching of sheets, condom wearing,
and contributions to community causes can erase the internal psychological violence
that is the very nature and core of prostitution itself.
Prostitution spreads the permission-giving belief to men that women's
bodies are to be consumed for male entertainment. This belief increases
male sexual entitlement and callousness. Research indicates and my therapy
experiences supports that men who go to prostitutes are more likely to engage
in non consensual sex, use pornography, and spread sexually transmitted diseases.
I think these men also understand at a deep level that prostitution hurts women.
When I ask men who go to prostitutes if they would like their mother, wife,
sister or daughter to be a prostitute, 100% of them say no. They want
someone else's mother, wife, sister or daughter to do that. By going to
prostitutes they are willing to hurt others but not willing to have the ones
they love hurt. It is almost as if they have not learned the most basic
rule of ethical living which is to treat others as you would like to be treated.
They have put their own sexual self indulgence over the needs of others.
This increase in narcissism has a psychological effect on these men in numerous
ways.
In America, the arts have expected special protections and freedoms to say and
do things as “artistic expression”. This extra measure of freedom needs
to be balanced with an extra measure of responsibility. The arts send
powerful messages in powerful and emotionally charged ways. The picture
is worth a thousand words. Let us make sure that these words send messages
that are true and helpful to the people who have granted them this special latitude.
The Best Little Whorehouse is neither true nor helpful. We expected and
deserved better.
Mary Anne Layden, Ph D
Director
Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program
Center for Cognitive Therapy
