Service After the Sale of Your Soul

 Ever be poking around on YouTube for something interesting and you see something that covers an interesting subject, but it's- say- one hour and fifty-four minutes long? You think, "My God- I could watch a movie in that time! What else is on? Oh, heck- I'll give it 10 minutes. I'm pretty quick on the uptake. I'll get the gist of it."

Well, I watched the whole 1:54 minute story of a woman called "Mariah" who was sex-trafficked in a San Diego hotel room in a common, but still unusual way. She and the story were quite compelling. 

At the time, Mariah was a very pretty, 19-year-old kid from Missouri who had gone to California to become a model. Everyone knows that story since it has happened a few million times since the invention of film and Hollywood. However, this was San Diego, and she only spoke of a desire to become a model. As is typical, it just wasn't happening right away. She was tired of sleeping on a friend's couch and her own mom back in Missouri had suggested she try Craig's List. All she knew about Craig's list was a story about "The Craig's List Killer" which I know nothing about myself because I have never been on Craig's List. The gist of that is that, like Facebook Market Place, you might be taking a big chance at the high school dance meeting a stranger to buy anything these days. I know better than that, but I'm an old man who has been around the block. It's a decidedly different scenario for a 19-year-old girl from Missouri. 

The ad was about a photo shoot, presumably on the beach, and not a word was mentioned about nudity or anything untoward. On the phone arranging the meet there wasn't much mentioned at all. She was speaking to an Australian man who sounded nice and professional and who kept telling her how professional his company was. She would meet a 4'11" man in the lobby, "Tobey", and he would guide her from there. He took her up to a room in the hotel and this did arouse her suspicion, but he was 4'11" and she had grown up with 4 brothers. She was pretty sure she could take him if she had to.

Professionalism ensued pretty much throughout the day as the company- "Girl's Do Porn" was a 'legit' porn production company. It's just that "professional" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There were contracts to sign. Lawyers. Not on site, but somewhere around, writing up contracts in their legalese to show legitimacy and to aide in coercion. Isn't that life in capitalism? 

The coercion, I learned from Wikipedia, could get rough, but it generally didn't need to. Mariah and a few hundred other women were manipulated all along. When they figured out that a porn video was to be made, they were assured that it was only to be DVD's sold exclusively in Australia, to wealthy Australian men, and would never be seen on the internet or in the United States. So, why not, honey? If they had any doubts, a girl would call them and tell them how it was the best and most lucrative thing they had ever done. These women were called "reference girls" and were paid between $25 and $200 for their testimonial. Mariah thought about leaving, of course, but her young mind also thought of what might happen to her if she tried. The old Bobby Knight line of, "If rape is inevitable; lie back and enjoy it" surely lingered in the air. And the $4500 cash was sitting in the envelope. For Mariah, that meant first and last months' deposit on a place of her own, and the first good meal she would have in a week.

What was to be a promised 30-minute photo shoot turned out to be 8 hours of porn. Five positions. That meant lighting and camera position changes, makeup reapplied. Professional again. From other videos I've seen on YT, it actually does go that way in the industry. It is a livelihood for thousands of people. But duplicity is the mother of invention as these things go, and it reaches a point where you can't turn back or your darkest fears may indeed materialize. You Bobby Knight it. 

Mariah was paid the $4500. She was allowed to leave. But they were not done with her. That company, that nice Australian man, had also set up a site called "Porn Wikileaks" where he doxxed her personal information- name, hometown and her Social Security number. She found out about this when a female, once- classmate of hers asked her on Facebook, "So how much did you get paid for it?"  She knew immediately what "it" was. It was service after the sale designed to reel her back in or punish her for not returning. Seems incongruous as an enticement, but that was the point. Like, "Hey babe, you came this far, might as well stay..." She was unmercifully trolled online by friends and strangers after this. You may know how awful people can be on the internet. I do. There were threads about her on Redditt. She was a "whore", a "slut" and "stupid". "How could she fall for that? She must have wanted it." You know how it goes on the internet. 

In time, Mariah went to the FBI. Local cops don't, won't or can't do much about these things, it seems. But the pre-Kash Patel FBI relished the assignment. They did not turn their back on her as cops, friends and family had. They were the first to tell her that she was a victim of sex-trafficking, something she hadn't even thought she had qualified for. She had thought that was like the movie "Taken". No one had drugged her or chained her. While that does happen, this white-collar sex trafficking is more prevalent, but every bit as insidious in its own way. 

Today, Mariah is an almost 30-year-old bright, beautiful, extremely articulate woman who continues the fight to take back her life, and the lives of other women who had been used and abused as she was. It has affected her life and cost her family, friends and relationships. She knows how lucky she is because the ordeal cost other women their lives. Suicide. Drugs. With the help of the FBI, she won her battle with the principals involved, who are now in prison doing serious time. I'm sure they blame her, but a couple dozen brave women also stood up with her and told their stories in court. She has a support group with these women and even with some of the Feds who worked the case. She has "warrior" tattooed on her wrist in the handwriting of a remarkable US Marshal who tracked down the Australian in Europe and brought him back to face the music. I don't know who this man was, but I bet he has some other heroic deeds to his credit. I totally got it when she said that, in a way, she was almost glad for the experience because it had brought her the love, friendship and respect of so many fine, beautiful people. Words to that effect. I'd compare it to the love and respect that combat veterans have for each other, having survived trauma that few of us ever experience and did not ask for. It really is a; you had to be there thing. 

Mariah's fight goes on with the help of her new, real family. Think about her when you see and read about the survivors of Trump and Epstein. Those women were even younger and more vulnerable than Mariah and because their abusers are billionaires and more politically connected than hers, their fight is harder. They are still on the sidelines in their battle, largely ignored by the FBI, DOJ and media who seem far more interested in the men who facilitated the evil than the victims. And for Mariah's sake, moms and dads, teach your daughters that if it sounds too good to be true, it is! It really is that simple.