PSA discusses sex industry

The Progressive Student Alliance, a Rowan University club that discusses controversial topics, met this past Monday to have a talk about the sex industry. The club, boasting a roster of 20 members, focused their weekly topic of discussion on the blurry definition associated with the sex industry.

Wendy Lopez, a senior psychology major and the president of the club, led the discussion and spoke about a Web site she found dealing with the sex industry as a profession.

“I found this site called Sex Work Awareness,” Lopez said.  “The thing is, with the sex industry, most people think of it as all prostitutes and dirty hookers, all negative connotations. Even though people think that, there’s a whole other side to the industry.”

The Web site (sexworkawareness.org) looks into the lives of the women that had jobs within the sex industry.

“It’s all of these women that were involved in the sex industry,” Lopez said. “It can go from pornography to prostitutions, those late night phone services…that’s still under the umbrella.”

Lopez went on to say that news coverage does not show the other side to the sex industry. The general population only gets to see prostitutes in a negative light without showing the human side to the women.

“These women do get raped and do get beaten and robbed,” Lopez said.

Another part of the industry that is not often discussed is mail-order brides. Pamela Reimers, a junior crime and justice major, recalled a documentary she had watched about a man who ordered a bride.

“It’s about this guy that orders a mail-order bride,” Reimers said. “He gets the magazine to look through and picks which one he likes. They come over and if the guy likes them, they get married.”

Reimers told the group about the man meeting the women, how unhappy she was and how he eventually sent her back to her home country. He wound up missing her and had his father, who lived in a different state, mail order the woman for him. He showed up to the airport with flowers only to be refused. Reimers felt these women might be forced into this type of situation.

“These women, you don’t know if they were forced into it or not,” Reimers said. “They don’t speak English so they can’t tell you.”

At the end of the discussion, the group brought out a box full of small piece of paper. Every week, the group picks a new topic of discussion at random. Any member can write down a topic they wish to discuss and put it in the box. The topic chosen for next week was abortion.

PSA meets in room 100, the Dewey Lounge, in Robinson Hall every Monday at 9 p.m.