"Pimping" is NOT "light-hearted"
09:35, 6 March 2008
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
Recently, an event was held that resulted in a web site by a well known international organization being greatly upgraded. Given the work of this organization to bring to light the consequences of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude in the developing world, as well as the efforts being made all over the world to address such, it is unfortunate that the organizers of this redesign proudly proclaimed to have "pimped" this international organization's web site. In reply to my post expressing disappointment at the choice in words, an organizer wrote, "We're really just trying to be a little lighthearted...we use it in the most recent mainstream definition of the word."
Were I to use a racial slur in "a little lighthearted" way, because "in the most recent mainstream definition of the word", it just means "friend" or "man", I have a feeling use of that word would cause quite a bit of outrage. Or what if I'd greeted the poster in an equally "lighthearted" and "mainstream" way, calling her "bitch" or "ho" or the dreaded "c" word? After all, those terms are used just as freely as "pimp" these days, and all the singers and actors and comedians interviewed about their use of these words swear they aren't being derogatory to women.
In my work and the world in which I work, the word "pimp" still means a person who engages in human enslavement, trafficking and sexual exploitation, and a show on MTV and increasing use by techno hipsters and rap stars doesn't change that.
For more information about th sex trafficking of women and girls, and to understand why there is NOTHING cool or hip about slave traders, also known as "pimps", please see
- Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-International (CATW)
- Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE)
- United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT)
- Polaris Project
