Last summer I lived in Cambodia where human trafficking is incredibly prevalent, a very in your face sort of thing. There is a sickening feeling that starts in your gut and ends in your throat when you see a known brothel, or when you see men walking into a karaoke bar, flanked with guards and filled with little girls disguised in layers of makeup and provocative clothes. In the United States, I had never had that sickening gut feeling until a few months ago.
I was in a mall, and it was like time slowed and I noticed image after image that glorifies the sexual exploitation of women. Belt buckles and signs with the word pimp stamped on them in big gold letters. I saw a group of probably 13 year old kids making jokes about pimpin. The boys talk, and the girls respond with laughter. They have absolutely no idea what they are saying and what they are laughing about.
Slavery was made illegal in 1865 under the 13th amendment. No one would call themselves slave owners now. Not even in jest. No, we just think it is perfectly acceptable to call each other pimp and brand the word on decorations, stickers, and clothing. It is even fun to dress as a pimp for Halloween. Would you dress as a slave owner for Halloween?
I am enraged by our glorification of the pimp. Why do we not look at pimps as the sex-offenders and slave owners that they are? Forcing or coercing a child to have sex with people for money, and then taking that money. That is what it is. Pimps have the ability to manipulate girls into their control and there is little hope for release. They beat their women, brand them with tattoos of the pimps name, isolate them from the outside world, but provide a nice dinner and clothing before sending them out to the streets.
Slave Owner and Pimp: Different words, same meaning.
Out of curiosity I googled "songs with the word pimp." One search I encountered these results:
21 artists with "Pimp" as part of their name
107 Songs with "Pimp" as part of the title
2595 Songs with "Pimp" as lyrics
Those numbers are staggering, and most likely conservative.
I think we get so used to the beat of the song, that we forget the meaning behind the lyrics. We just enjoy the sound and sing on. It is not until we stop and think that the meaning comes to light.
Here are a few lines from Three 6 Mafia's "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp."
Wait I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too
You pay the right price and they'll both do you
That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly pimpin
Gotta have my hustle tight, makin change off these women, yeah
You can say that this song is a commentary of life and injustice on the streets, but you would really have to read into all of the lyrics for that to hold even a little truth. 
What this does is make pimpin ok because it is "necessary" or "the way life is." You can just look at the lyrics and find the disgusting truth of the word pimp. The truth is that pimps control women; sometimes psychological abuse, sometimes physical abuse, most of the time using both. "Gotta have my hustle tight, makin change off these women, yea"
My heart hurts for the kids I saw at the mall that day. Are they to continue to grow in a culture in which pimpin is something funny and acceptable to joke about? I desperately want them to understand and believe that controlling others is wrong, that a person's value is not found in sex and money. I want them to see that by treating a word with complacency and making it into a joke, we become numb to the meaning and it slowly becomes not an issue to us at all.
Words have power. If we allow the word pimp to become commonplace, we are then ignoring and eventually accepting the actions behind the word, dismissing the word and the action as something funny or glamorous.
The sexual exploitation of women and children is as far from funny or glamorous as it gets.
Fighting on,
Katie
