Tuesday, June 13, 2006

not exactly an ideal career opportunity

This article illustrates the glass ceiling in the sex "trade."

An Australian brothel owner was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for keeping five Thai women as sex slaves.

Not that this woman doesn't deserve her fate, but why aren't they able to catch, prosecute and jail men "with prior convictions" who ruin the lives of far more than five women and treat them even worse?

... the women were brought from Thailand to the southern city of Melbourne with the promise they would be able to work legally in the sex trade and send money home to their families. Prostitution is legal in Australia in limited circumstances. ... Ms. Tang had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in jail, but the judge said he took into account her lack of prior convictions and the fact that the women were well fed.

Perhaps lawmakers consider that if they're "well fed" then things must be looking up for sex "trade" workers, and they just need a good strong union to improve conditions in other "workplaces" ... such as those Victor Malarek describes in his book The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade.