Why the ‘Ideal Victim’ Persists: Queering representations of victimhood in human trafficking discourse

Abstract

The image of a young, victimised woman bound and gagged for implied sexual exploitation persists in the imagination, promotional material, and reports of the anti-trafficking sector. She is presented as the ‘ideal’ victim, and while people who have experienced this undoubtedly exist, many victim accounts deviate from this prescriptive path. Why then does the image of a universal, ideal victim endure? This paper argues that the idealised subject of contemporary trafficking law is not merely a symptom of uncritical representation, but intrinsic to the formation of anti-trafficking law. Often feminised, she becomes a tool for maintaining heteronormative and white nationalism, but one which never existed beyond her confines of anti-trafficking law. To unearth her production, I present a queer genealogy of the human trafficking subject from British campaigns against white slavery in the late nineteenth century to contemporary law. A queer reading of this history demonstrates that rather than preceding laws, the ideal victim serves to personify cultural anxiety over race and gender housed in anti-trafficking policy. This is essential because without contending with this history and restrictive definition of victimhood, it would be impossible for current trafficking law in developed countries to adequately protect LGBTQ+ and irregular migrants who often do not conform to idealised forms of victimhood. Furthermore, a critical analysis of the ideal victim is essential to moving away from a hierarchical evaluation of victimhood altogether.

Damsels, monsters, and superheroes: Exploring the metanarrative of sex trafficking

“…This underlines the stereotype of how 'white men are saving brown women from brown men' (Spivak, 1993: 93). This narrative upholds heteronormative and colonial hierarchies (Forringer-Beal, 2022;Vance, 2012), and it reflects many Western countries' colonial legacies (Broad and Gadd, 2023;Doezema, 2010). The global North's colonializing heritage apparently precludes other nuances in the sex trafficking narrative.…”

“…Critical victimologists call for alternative ways to tell more complex stories about sex trafficking and its survivors (see, for example, Doezema, 2010; Forringer-Beal, 2022; O’Brien, 2018), since such representations may nuance and destigmatize victims’ lived experiences (Weitzer, 2018) We can access alternative narratives through interviews, biographies, and auto-biographies, as well as in research (Cojocaru, 2015; McGarry, 2017; van Dijk, 2009; Walklate, 2018). Those narratives include more complex or unusual characters such as sex trafficked boys/men/LGBTQ + victims (Boukli and Renz, 2019; Dennis, 2008; Forringer-Beal, 2022; Moynihan et al, 2018), non-ideal offenders who do not fit the stereotype of evil, organized sex traffickers (Broad and Gadd, 2023; Raby and Chazal, 2022), as well as empowered survivor tales of agency and resilience, as well as sex workers’ and sexually experienced victims’ stories (e.g. Dennis, 2008; Vance, 2012).…”

“…Hence, sex trafficking tales have far-reaching practical, political, and economic consequences, not least for sex trafficking victims. The sex trafficking story shapes current laws and promotes repressive law-and-order solutions, which may not always benefit the victims (Benoit et al, 2019; Forringer-Beal, 2022; Vance, 2012).…”

“…Critical researchers have highlighted how these simplified constructions of sex trafficking are based on problematic stereotypes of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity (Andrijasevic, 2010; Balgamwalla, 2016; O’Brien, 2018; Pickering and Ham, 2014). It ignores the sexual exploitation of boys and men as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) + victims of sex trafficking (Boukli and Renz, 2019; Dennis, 2008; Forringer-Beal, 2022; Moynihan et al, 2018). The potent image of ‘the nice girl forced into sexual exploitation’ has been a successful symbol in raising public outrage and political support (McDonald, 2004: 143), and she is essential in anti-sex trafficking campaigns (Forringer-Beal, 2022; O’Brien, 2018; Vance, 2012).…”

“…It ignores the sexual exploitation of boys and men as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) + victims of sex trafficking (Boukli and Renz, 2019; Dennis, 2008; Forringer-Beal, 2022; Moynihan et al, 2018). The potent image of ‘the nice girl forced into sexual exploitation’ has been a successful symbol in raising public outrage and political support (McDonald, 2004: 143), and she is essential in anti-sex trafficking campaigns (Forringer-Beal, 2022; O’Brien, 2018; Vance, 2012). Such depictions of sex slaves have both dramatic as well as symbolic and moral functions, sorting women into traditional dichotomies of good/bad, innocent victim/guilty sex worker, or the Madonna/the whore (Doezema, 2000, 2010; Gadd and Broad, 2018; Heber, 2020).…”