This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Sunday, February 7th, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Super Bowl Weekend is supposed to be a big time for human trafficking, but the evidence for that claim either conflates trafficking

with prostitution or the claim was debunked years ago.

Caitlin Bailey is host of the oldest profession podcast.

She argues, as you've heard here before, cops call it a

crackdown on sex trafficking, but arrest sex workers.

Where does this notion come from that Super Bowl weekend is a hotbed of, and let's use all the terms

that are mixed together, prostitution, sex trafficking, human trafficking.

Where's this notion or the several notions that surround this, where does that come from?

That's a great question.

It comes from sort of old and unholy alliance between mainstream feminist

organizations and the, you know, the Christian right, the moral majority,

the anti-pornography movement.

This is an alliance that we've seen for over 100 years. This notion of the dangers of men gathering was responsible

for prohibition, the creation of vice departments across the country, and now this sort of overwrought cultural fantasy, like a rebirth of this old white slavery lie.

And so every year we get imagery, sexualized imagery of young women being victimized by hordes of uncontrollable men who are often characterized

as immigrants or as as black men or sometimes you know now

they're being characterized as rich white dudes you know the the hated subclass of whatever but it's this fear and caricature that's used

to ruin real people's lives. Now let's distinguish some things. Human trafficking and

prostitution are not the same thing. Yes that's I know that that's a hard leap for some folks to take, but it's, you know, there's a difference

between slavery and farming.

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