Don't be a ho for Halloween - Maple Ridge TImes
by Danna Johnson

Pimps and hos - dressing up as either is about as tasteful a Halloween costume as, say, a KKK leader or a gay basher.

And yet, says Diane Sowden, it has somehow become acceptable attire.

As the co-founder of the Children of the Street Society, Sowden has partnered with the Ridge Meadows PLEA-Onyx program to provide education to local youth about sexual exploitation.

Most youths who choose to dress in tasteless Halloween garb, she says, have no idea what the ramifications are.

"They're not understanding the bigger picture...it's not just a costume."

When someone dresses up like a pimp, she said, they may not figure they're dressing up as "a child abuser, a rapist."

But in Sowden's mind, that's exactly what they are.

Music videos have glamorized the lives of "pimps," she said. The word's now so acceptable, that it is often used as an adverb to describe something that's been tricked out and desirable.

As far as they know, youths, says Sowden, are just having fun and being funny.

But reality paints a harsher picture, and it's far from hilarious.

"We are glamorizing people being bought and sold and physically abused," she said. And making this behaviour acceptable, she said, is only making it easier for predators to exploit children.

While Sowden says she doesn't think more children are getting caught up in the sex trade, she does feel that those looking to prey on children have greater opportunity these days.

While changing attitudes toward the sex trade are a problem, Sowden says that technology trumps it when it comes to risk.

"We're not only having to keep them safe in their own communities now. It's global."

And it doesn't help when children are "advertising a negative impression of themselves."

Glamorizing the sex trade, she said, is dangerous territory because by doing so, the danger is diminished.

"Young people don't realize the danger. It's totally unacceptable. Being a pimp is not a career option. It's a criminal activity."

And strutting around school or going to a Halloween party dressed in clich‚d pimp gear, she said, is "socially unacceptable."

"You would not wear something racial or something that promotes gay bashing."

Sowden says she's worried that children might not understand what all this can lead to. Sexual exploitation, she said, comes in many forms and creeps up very skillfully on victims.

She goes around to various schools and organizations educating youths and their parents on what sexual exploitation is. Often, she said, youths are taken by surprise by her information.

"Sometimes it's ladled as partying - people exchange sex to get a ride from one place to another, or sometimes they'll exchange nude photographs over the Internet."

Sometimes, she said, exploitation comes when children exchange sex in return for intangibles - like popularity.

"There are all sorts of things that people need to know."

w To find out more about the Children of the Street Society, visit www.childrenofthestreet.com.

published on 10/24/2006