Body & Sold: How I Got Involved

Six years ago at the tender age of 13, had you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have looked you square in the eyes and responded stoutly “I will be an actress”. I even bet my cousin 50 bucks that I would be famous by the time I was 30. We signed a contract. He still has it.

Eventually, as happens to most everyone, my priorities changed. The last play I was in was my 9th grade production of “Hospital” at Discovery Jr. High. I played the part of a gypsy that now, looking back, seems extremely racially charged. I’m much more concerned with gender equality and human rights these days, which makes the whole notion of being an “Actress with a capital A” seem really pale in comparison.

So imagine my surprise when I heard about the Body & Sold Project and nearly fell over myself reading the script. I had to be involved, at any cost.

In particular, the role of Dora spoke to me. A small-town “Minnesota Nice” girl who runs away from her religiously oppressive mother and winds up prostituted in Minneapolis, she along with the other teens represented in the play relate their experiences in a raw and unapologetic way. Their stories speak volumes upon volumes about human strength and resilience in response to exploitation and stacked circumstances.

In summary, this piece is not advertorial. I’m not aiming to persuade you to come witness my (incredible) acting skills, but rather, I’m showing you how this production which unflinchingly confronts sexual exploitation, gender, and sexuality in the context of human rights is one of the most important social justice events so far this year.

Real People, Real Stories

Body & Sold” is not a “play”. Rather, it is a theatrical documentary presented in the form of a staged reading. The characters are not a product of playwright Deborah Lake Fortson’s imagination; they are based on real statements made by real people who really went through the situations described. Survivors from Boston, Hartford, and Minneapolis were involved in the interviews and their voices and stories have been pulled together in a composition that is a powerful motivator for justice and change.

In the form of a staged reading, where there is no set or major costuming and the actors all have access to their scripts (which are neatly contained in a black binder), there is nothing to distract the audience from the reality of what the characters are saying. The production has a raw feel to it, and given the direct style of the dialogue where the actors address the audience rather than each other, there is no interference between the actor and the audience. The gravity of the situation becomes unavoidable. There is no pretense. There are no distractions. The production goes beyond a play, it is a statement; a call to action.
Tempest Production’s website states, “The play works. In 2005, with support from the Boston Women’s Fund, The Department of Social Services in Boston, and the Haymarket Peoples’ Fund, Tempest Productions produced Body & Sold in three Boston communities. It held audiences rapt. It sparked community discussion groups and action plans from residents of all ages. We want many communities to join this conversation.”

Indeed, we, as a community, are invited to join in the conversation and it is the Soroptimist clubs of Fargo and Moorhead that are spear-heading this dialogue. Maureen Jonason, member of the Moorhead chapter and a Body & Sold committee member had seen an excerpt performed at a Philadelphia leadership training workshop. Since the message of the production struck a chord with the goals of Soroptimist, which aims to improve the lives of women and girls, it seemed like a great way for the club to address this deeply upsetting issue and examine how it functions within our community.

She illustrates her point in saying, “Too many Americans think of human trafficking as an over-there-in-some-foreign-country problem when it is actually a danger in our back yards...For instance, girls in our region have fallen prey to an invitation to party in Duluth only to find themselves on board the ships in the harbor being exploited and then dumped. Young women who go into stripping to raise money for college may find themselves isolated in a rural club or private party and seriously abused.”

Director Brad Delzer also sees the production in terms of its relation to our community. In response to the inevitable question “Why should we care?” Brad goes on to say, “There is a tendency to ignore these kinds of problems in a community, especially one as tight-knit as Fargo-Moorhead. We see the good in people a lot and it tends to be a very positive outlook. We gloss over the bad parts. Anytime we can remind the community that there are people who get caught up in these kinds of situations and that they need help from the entire community, anytime we can bring in that kind of awareness, it’s important.”

Creating Real Change

More than anything, the awareness of these issues in our community is only the starting point. Dialogue is the first step in the long journey toward change, which can only be made with action. “There are changes that we can make in our country that could have a positive influence on lots of people’s lives”, says Brad. “I hope people take away the reality of the situation, the importance of not just talking about these sorts of things but also taking action. That the people involved, the characters, they’re real people and they have taken action and the least we can do would be some sort of action in our area in their spirit.”
The character Karen says at one point, “You know, in Washington we spend maybe a million dollars a year to keep prostituted women in jail instead of spending it on job training for them”. She goes on to relate that she raised money and created in agency in order to curb her frustration with the circumstances.

In reality, the possible solutions to the problems of commercial sexual exploitation are many, and there is a lively debate over whether or not legalization would reduce or worsen sexual exploitation.

SWOP East, (Sex Worker’s Outreach Project) supports legalization and regulation. The organization advocates for access to judgment-free health clinics, retraining programs for sex workers who want to break out of the industry, and an end to stigmatization. Regarding legalization, they strongly believe that because of sex workers’ criminal status, they are significantly more vulnerable to exploitation and are largely ignored by a society that stigmatizes and judges them in an effort to ignore the issues. Moreover, this all takes place in an incredibly violent culture. “Operating in one of the most prominently violent societies today, sex workers in America experience this phenomenon pointedly in the context of their criminal status.”

Of course, there is always the concern that legalization will “normalize” prostitution, create corruption in regulation, and promote the idea of bodies/sexuality as commodities, which would undermine the harm-reduction benefits of legalization. Founder and Executive Director of Breaking Free, a St. Paul based organization that seeks to aid women and girls entrapped within the system of prostitution, Vednita Carter firmly rejects the idea that legalization will reduce the harm done unto women through commercial sexual exploitation.

Regardless of which side of the debate is the “right” side, it can be firmly and unequivocally asserted that only respect and understanding of the circumstances will lead to constructive solutions; moreover, understanding that the demand for sex as a commodity must be addressed. The “Johns”, or the customers if you will, must be held responsible for creating a demand and promoting prostitution by exploiting the bodies and sexualities of others for their physical pleasure. Pimps must be recognized as manipulators and abusers who profit by exploiting the vulnerabilities and circumstances of those they “recruit.” Most of all, we must recognize that prostitution is the trade of human beings. If we continue to stigmatize and devalue the lives of prostituted men and women, we lower them to the status of subhuman and perpetuate the idea that the human body and soul can be currency for trade.

As Maureen reminds us, “So many people in America want to believe that Americans all have freedom and free will and therefore choose to participate in the sex industry willingly. But it is so much more complicated than that. The psychology used to lure them in, the economic bondage set up to keep them, and the emotional push-pull of affection and violence all make it hard to leave, even when it is physically possible to do so. No one grows up wanting to be prostituted. No one aspires to be abused. No one chooses to do themselves harm.”

“Body & Sold” elevates prostituted youth back to the status of human beings, products of their experiences who deserve this respect and understanding. Their experiences speak of humanity--we can all learn from their strength because even if we haven’t gone through the same struggles that these people have, we can empathize with the pain and understand that it takes incredible strength to be a survivor against such overwhelming odds. As the characters reveal themselves and open up to the audience about their stories and their experiences, this becomes especially apparent. As Brad says, “These are real people going through real problems and they need the support of everyone...It’s important to view these people as survivors and not just victims, because that’s what they are. They have a certain strength that a lot of people don’t realize that people can have. If you show that these people are strong, then we can all be strong and make an impact on our world.”

The play is 90 minutes long without intermission, and after a short break will be followed by a facilitated discussion regarding the issues presented in the play. The audience will also receive a fact-sheet outlining the regional statistics in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Panelists will include representatives from the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center and the YWCA. Special guests will accompany each panel on different nights, including a survivor from St. Paul, and local sex-industry scholar Sherry Short of MSUM.

The performances run Wed. April 23 at MSUM Weld Hall and Fri. and Sat. April 25 & 26 at FMCT--all at 7:30. Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for students.
90% of the proceeds will go to the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center while the other 10% will go to Tempest Productions to support their effort to raise awareness through the production of Body & Sold in other communities.