A chara, – Paul Williams (April 23rd) claims Sarah Benson ("The ugly face of 'Pretty Woman' – 25 years on", Opinion & Analysis, April 22nd) implied most women involved in prostitution are trafficked.
And indeed she did mention trafficking as one of the reasons that women end up in the sex trade; but she also listed poverty, exploitation, being a victim of child abuse or domestic abuse, insecure immigration status, poor health, and substance abuse.
It is true she spent more time in her article on the victims of trafficking; but making it clear that there are women in this “business” who have been kidnapped, enslaved, smuggled across international borders, imprisoned in brothels, and then raped repeatedly every day for the pleasure of some and the profit of others does tend to make it rather difficult to maintain any veneer of glamour on what is in reality a desperately misogynistic criminal enterprise.
And disabusing people of the “Pretty Woman” image of prostitution is one of the main aims of the article.
But trafficked or not, what all these women have in common is that they are vulnerable; and it is these vulnerabilities that, as Ms Benson writes, “make them easy prey for pimps and other controllers who are the ones making huge profits”.– Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.