When we hear the words “sex industry,” we automatically conjure up an image of a seedy massage parlor, a red light district, or perhaps a “high-end” brothel. Actually, a large number of corporate employees, who are customers of the sex industry, end up frolicking in a grey area where sex doesn’t usually happen on the premises. These establishments employ sex workers, and they serve as platforms for businessmen to meet them, drink, and conduct sexual activities at another time or location. The fact is extramarital affairs don’t start in the bedroom, they start in conversations.
There are approximately 30 million trafficked victims in the sex industry today. So how does this concern corporate America? Businessmen, doctors, and lawyers are the number one customers of the sex industry.
What is sex trafficking and what is prostitution exactly? Is there a difference? In the beginning, perhaps, in the end, no. Sex trafficking is when a person is physically forced into doing sexual acts; manipulated, pressured, or threatened into doing sexual acts; or deceived and tricked into doing sexual acts. Sometimes all three go hand in hand. Prostitution, as we simply know it, is selling sexual acts for money or compensation. Almost all prostitutes end up in the trafficked category as they become manipulated or threatened by business owners, madams, colleagues, and pimps to continue; lured and deceived into the sex industry through glamorization; or physically forced across borders or into establishments. Just because a woman or girl looks like she is able to walk out of the industry on her own two feet does not mean she isn’t trapped in bondage. Actually, the mental and emotional bondage are much stronger holds than the physical imprisonment.
Sex slavery does not only continue because of pedophiles. It isn’t just growing because of girls who “choose” to get themselves into the sex industry. It is also not eliminated by legislative measures. Locking up a trafficker, customer, or a pimp isn’t going to change the hearts of an entire community. This evil pandemic grows as every day citizens become desensitized to the sex industry and its victims so much that the value of other people’s daughters and sisters becomes meaningless. There are even some people who believe that it’s a woman’s right. It is not a woman’s right when it is women who are being oppressed, objectified, and exploited.
Additionally, the grey area of the sex industry is very deceptive on both sides — for its workers and its customers. It becomes a gateway into a deeper side of the sex industry for workers who believe they’re not really going to end up selling their bodies, and it can create an illusion to the customers that they aren’t really doing anything unethical.
All of this concerns corporate America as corporate Americans are part of the demand and corporate money is poured into these establishments, and this in turn perpetuates the cycle of sex trafficking. Not only does it affect the pandemic of trafficking, it affects the culture of work environments. Ethical boundaries become blurred. In turn, sexual harassment becomes more commonplace. Oftentimes corporate employees and HR departments will never even be privy to what their executives and leadership teams are really doing with company money until it’s too late and the company’s image has gone down the gutter. Sometimes employees become affected by these unethical behaviors and company goals suffer. If you’ve ever wondered why gender equality is so difficult to achieve in the corporate world, you are now aware of one of the contributing factors. Take South Korea for one example. This country has the lowest rates of gender equality in all of the OECD nations despite having a booming economy. The Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has stated that one in four Korean men have purchased sex. This is a correlation, not a coincidence. This is definitely not exclusive to Korea. Many countries, including the U.S., have extremely high numbers of customers frequenting the sex industry. As long as the sex industry exists, women and men will never be equal.
So what can we do as corporate employees? Stay ahead of the curve. Be progressive. Educate our managers. Have HR implement training programs. Here are some great programs that can help any company progress towards being a sustainable business that cares for human rights and values its people as well as others. Don’t wait until the problems are uncovered or begin. Mitigate the risk now.
light consultancy 