New York—HBO’s offensive reality series ‘Cathouse’ is in the doghouse. ‘The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)’, and the U.S Department of State’s Ambassador for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Mark Lagon, picketed outside HBO Headquarters on 42nd Street on Tuesday.
They sent a clear message to HBO that the so-called reality show about a brothel in Nevada distorts the reality of the harm of prostitution and sexual exploitation, and plays a key role in the cultural mainstreaming of prostitution.
“It (HBO’s show) builds up the demand, it makes it seem like it is just fine to sell a woman for sex. You’ve got to realize that selling a woman’s body for 30 minutes defines the slavery of our time,” said Mark Lagon, currently visiting New York to promote the fight against sex trafficking world wide at the UN meetings this week.
“I think that if I’m going to go and talk to countries around the world, like the 20 countries I’m going to be meeting with at the UN this week, we’ve got to be fighting this at home, otherwise we’re hypocrites.”
Norma Ramos, Co-Executive Director of CATW, wrote a letter to HBO at a previous protest in April, only to receive a brush-off response, and no returned calls.
“I don’t think they’ve got the message yet. The gist of their response to our letter was that ‘we do programming that is critical of violence against women,’ and our response was that you cannot undo the damage that you’re doing through the promotion of prostitution,” said Ramos.
“What they’re doing with their programming is normalizing prostitution. Our partners all over the world ask us to fight the cultural acceptance of prostitution, and HBO is a major vehicle of the cultural acceptance of prostitution.”
No HBO representative was available to respond to The Epoch Times questions at the time of publication.
In Ramos’ letter to HBO from CATW, she tells them, “Normalizing prostitution gives men permission to purchase sex, and hence, to demand more women and girls for commercial sexual exploitation, ultimately leading to an increase in sex trafficking. Without demand there would be no supply. Legitimizing prostitution as harmless fun, as work, this commences a vicious cycle in which the sex industry expands.”
The letter goes on to explain that as a ‘documentary’ the show ‘Cathouse’ falls far short of providing an objective view of the facts surrounding brothel prostitution, even when legalized. Extensive research in the book ‘Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections,’ by Dr. Melissa Farley, reveals how all prostitution causes harm, both to the women involved and society.
In a survey of women prostituted in Nevada’s legal brothels, 81 percent indicated that they wanted to escape prostitution. Many experienced verbal and physical abuse in prostitution. Significantly, many were under the control of pimps, challenging the notion that the women’s participation was voluntary.
Society at large is also impacted. Male college students in Nevada were more likely to believe in rape myths and other attitudes that promote violence against women. Yet none of this is evident in ‘Cathouse.’
HBO (Home Box Office) is a pay television service broadcast to over 150 countries world wide.
