Conclusion

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.…”

“…Christie, 1986), and in the sex trafficking narrative, it is the sex trafficker who is the main villain (Balgamwalla, 2016; O’Brien, 2018). The trafficker is consistently typecast as a criminal mastermind or even a mobster, with very few traits other than being male, foreign, dangerous, and evil; a pure monster, who violently forces the innocent victim into sex trafficking (Broad and Gadd, 2023; Heber, 2020; O’Brien, 2018). This ‘new folk devil’ stereotype appears repeatedly in popular culture, news media, government reports, and anti-trafficking campaigns, despite researchers having questioned the validity of this ideal sex trafficker (Broad and Gadd, 2023; Gadd and Broad, 2018; Raby and Chazal, 2022).…”

“…The trafficker is consistently typecast as a criminal mastermind or even a mobster, with very few traits other than being male, foreign, dangerous, and evil; a pure monster, who violently forces the innocent victim into sex trafficking (Broad and Gadd, 2023; Heber, 2020; O’Brien, 2018). This ‘new folk devil’ stereotype appears repeatedly in popular culture, news media, government reports, and anti-trafficking campaigns, despite researchers having questioned the validity of this ideal sex trafficker (Broad and Gadd, 2023; Gadd and Broad, 2018; Raby and Chazal, 2022). Even if the sex trafficker plays an essential role in the narrative, as both driving the plot forward and as morally contrasting the victim, the villain remains rather anonymous.…”

“…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).…”

“…It will critically examine why sex trafficking experiences are depicted so strikingly alike in books and film. Sex trafficking stories influence how the problem of sex trafficking is framed, and what causes of, and solutions to, the problem are promoted (Broad and Gadd, 2023; O’Brien, 2018; Vance, 2012). Hence, it is crucial to study sex trafficking narratives since they impact public mentalities and attitudes, as well as criminal justice responses, legislation, and social welfare agencies’ work (O’Brien, 2018; O’Brien et al, 2013; Segrave et al, 2009; Soderlund, 2011; Todres, 2015).…”