They were full of Steinem's revelations about the existence of feminism in India, and creatively described white guilt as " sybaritic ," as in "My sybaritic guilt is somewhat diminished by the fact that this ayurvedic spa pays well, and the young women seem genuinely content to be here When Steinem wore a perfectly tailored sari in March at her gala 80th birthday party in in March of this year, at a celebrity event hosted by the Ms.
Foundation in New York, she signaled her commitment to India in ways that underlined her closing sentence in the NYT series. Given the press this year around Somaly Mam, a now infamous Cambodian anti-trafficking activist who received millions of dollars in grants to stop 'sex trafficking' on the basis of the lie that she had been trafficked into prostitution herself, and given the deluge of stories debating the utility of the term "trafficking" and the politics that it represents this might be a good time to look closer at what constitutes Gloria Steinem's and feminists interest in trafficking, especially in India.
The NYT series gives a glimpse of how the anti-trafficking message is being put together, with creative uses of both the age-old idea of Indian women being fundamentally oppressed, as well as a newer idea that there is a feminist movement there positioned to resolve sexism, in part by abolishing prostitution. The series chronicles Steinem's trip in India during February and March with Ruchira Gupta, the founder and director of Apne Aap, an anti-trafficking organization in India seeking to rescue girls and women from prostitution.
This was the second of two high profile trips Steinem has made to India over the last few years. Her last trip in was also focused on spreading the message of stopping trafficking, and of repeating the conservative feminist adage that prostitution is trafficking, because how could anyone possibly consent to selling sex, under any circumstances?
Feminists in India who disagreed with Steinem responded in no uncertain terms. Shohini Ghosh, a professor of mass communications and a filmmaker, wrote in the English daily The Hindu , "Gloria Steinem's "feminist approach" to trafficking and prostitution is not shared by all feminists. Many of us do not believe that abolishing sex work will stop trafficking, nor do we think that the two are synonymous. Steinem's series misrepresents several other ideas along the way.
