Posted on 05/03/2017 9:28:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"Theresa" told NBC 7 that the promise of financial independence led her into the sex trade -- a promise made to her by a female friend who lured her into the lifestyle
Theresa said she was desperate.
"I was so hesitant at first because it's just not the type of person I am," she said. Theresa was a young single mom, emotionally vulnerable and financially in crisis when a close friend started suggesting prostitution as a way out.
Theresa is not her real name. In order to protect her identity, NBC 7 is calling her “Theresa” as she explains how she was lured into the sex trade by another woman.
According to San Diego officials, the situation is more common than you'd expect.
Theresa said her friend told her she had experience in the business and the promise of financial independence won out.
“I felt like if I didn't, I was giving up the opportunity to even try to provide the right way for my daughter," she said.
According to Theresa, her trusted friend made the arrangements, finding customers online and setting up meetings at local hotels. She says it was a lucrative game of manipulation and prostitution. The female friend expected to be paid half of Theresa’s earnings.
Marisa Ugarte, Founder and Executive Director of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition (BSCC), said Theresa’s situation is not uncommon.
"We have seen it more often,” she said. “It's happening in schools too with best friends. Sometimes there is a pimp involved and sometimes they are the pimps."
BSCC’s mission is to preserve the dignity of trafficked and commercially exploited people. The organization has been helping people for two decades.
San Diego Deputy District Attorney Summer Stephan says a 2016 study about sex trafficking in San Diego County found the use of female recruiters is one of the top three methods used to lure new victims.
Theresa said her friend knew what she wanted to hear and was able to manipulate her. She said eventually, the woman she thought was her friend, controlled her and the illicit lifestyle quickly took its toll.
"I felt dirty,” Theresa said. “I could take a shower five, 10 times a day and I wasn't me. I didn't feel like it was me in my own skin anymore.”
Ugarte said it's happening in all parts of San Diego County.
"Don't think that just because you come from a middle-class family or a higher class family it can't happen to you,” Ugarte said. “I got news for you. It happens everywhere."
After nearly a year of being sex trafficked, Theresa said she was able to break free from the woman who was pimping her. Theresa has now strengthened her resolve to turn her life around and said she is determined not to let her past define her future. She’s hopeful sharing her story will increase awareness about this dangerous situation.
“I look at it as, you know what, I'm still here and there's a reason why I'm still here and I have to keep moving forward," she said.
Ugarte said it's critical for parents to be present in their child's life and get to know who their child's best friends are. For information on how to get help for yourself or a suspected victim of human trafficking or to learn more about sex trafficking in San Diego click here.
I am, but I'm more appalled at the men who enable this and make it profitable with their patronage, to the tune of billions a year in this country alone. Without that money, there would be no sex trade.
That said, save a spot with those men for the women who are doing this.
Feminism, women putting women to work.
Smash Monogamy, smash the State.
NOW taught them well.
What is interesting about their prostitution is that much of it is done under the pretense of a temporary marriage called a mut’ah marriage, mostly exclusive to Shias based on their interpretation of a Quranic verse.
Look up “mutah marriage”, and you’ll be surprised at what you find in the results.
Exactly. Just another “pity me — I’m a victim” story.
Exactly. Just another “pity me — I’m a victim” story.
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From the story:
..... when a close friend started suggesting prostitution as a way out.
I tend to think she wasn’t too innocent to begin with if a close friend was already substantially involved in the business.
So what?
I’m trying to care what consenting adults do without hurting each other and I just.....I just don’t care.
I heard that there are women who go into it, because they think it will solve their money and life problems.
I know a woman who has counseled girls who are getting out of it and want to move on with their lives.
But, these girls were not involved in street prostitution or having a pimp.
Rather, they tended to be less educated, lower income girls, who want to earn cash in their spare time. Another big number of the girls were involved with men at work. Some got raises and were getting high paychecks for clerical office work, but they were really on the payroll getting big bucks for other services for the boss.
One sad case related to me, was a girl who was a receptionist in the office. She was sad because she said the boss said he loved her, but turns out he was mostly interested in sex. The girl was devastated.
While trafficking and pimps are definitely there in the sex trade, there are a number of people who want to get into it, to earn extra cash, and just basically throw moral considerations out the door to justify it.
Reminds me of a story I heard about a prostitution hotel in a red light district of a city. I heard that the hotels ask people to sign in as “Mr. and Mrs.” And the reason they do this, is that if the cops show up, the people running the hotel can say, look ,everybody signs in as Mr. and Mrs., they are all married couples, there’s no prostitution going on here, etc. etc.
Oops! I think you posted on the wrong thread.
George Carlin summed it up like this: “Selling is legal. F*cking is legal. Why isn’t selling f*cking legal?”
A woman didn’t do it to a young girl, in this story. The woman who worked for Jeffrey Epstein was a criminal, preying as an adult woman on underaged girls, to get them into the Lolita pool.
This sounds like two peers. Like if someone I thought was my friend and acquaintance telling me over a few weeks, how hard it used to be to make ends meet, etc, and slowly grooming me to ask what she is doing to have this much cash these days. Then the truth is dropped, and she “loves” the lifestyle and all... oh, and YOU should try it, you’re so pretty, you’d be great, you’d make $x a night, your child would go to the best schools...
Except the difference would be that I would rather not make ends meet than be a hooker, and I believe my daughter when grown would also feel that was the right decision for her mother to make.
So this was just someone being stupid. She wasn’t forced in. She wasn’t even coerced by someone older and sneaky.
If you are reduced to bartering with your wife for sex you dropped your stud card somewhere. Its a two way street. :-)
And it’s a beautiful very pleasant two way street.
My deceased wife and I were quite pleased with each other, back in the day.
Good so are I and Mr. GG2. No bartering going on. :-)
Oh tell me you’ve never thrown the I’m tired card, and been told “Well I’ll do this.”
One of my pals was fascinated by her, I suspect because she used to sunbathe nude in her patio. This was before we learned about the pimping gig. I didn’t find her all that great, she lacked some feminine graces that attract me. She was very athletic but not in an Anna Kournikova way.
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