day twenty-three! and what is sex trafficking, anyway?

We had another S.T.A.H.P. meeting today!  After figuring out some poster ideas and drawing up a Generals' Period pass that we can laminate and let people reuse for every meeting, I talked about some of the issues revolving around sex trafficking in America.  I'll reiterate them here:

• What exactly constitutes sex trafficking, anyway? According to The Polaris Project, "sex trafficking occurs when people are forced or coerced into the commercial sex trade against their will." The pimp or agency controlling the victim will usually claim that the victim owes them a debt, forces the victim to work off this debt by selling the victim's body for commercial sex, and then takes the victim's earnings as payment for the "debt."
• Under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, victims are defined as follows:
• Any minor (under the age of eighteen) who is induced to perform a commercial sex act
• Any adult forced/coerced/deceived into providing commercial sex acts 
• Children and adults who are forced to perform labor and/or services in conditions of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery through force, fraud, or coercion
• Victims can be male or female, and typically consist of undocumented immigrants, runaway/homeless youth, trauma and abuse victims, refugees and individuals fleeing conflict, and generally oppressed or marginalized individuals.  There is no specific profile of the "typical victim" as this practice is so widespread.
• Where does it happen in America?  Sex trafficking occurs everywhere.  Yes, that's right.  Incidents have been reported in cities, suburbs, and rural areas in every state and Washington, D.C.  
• How? 
• Fake massage businesses (operate in strip malls, office buildings, residential homes)
• Internet sourced (Craigslist, backpage.com)
• Residential/transient brothels 
• Street prostitution (prostitutes must meet a nightly quota, often upwards of $500-$1000/night)
• Hostess/strip clubs (stripping and erotic dancing become sex trafficking when the employer uses force, fraud, or coercion to compel the adult worker to have commercial sex with clientele)
• Escort services (agency/pimp arranges in-call or out-call services, typically advertised through the internet)
• Truck stops (transient nature of truckers and remote location of many truck stops ensures truck stop trafficking remains under the radar)

I'll be posting later about recognizing the signs of sex trafficking, and throughout the year we'll be working on ways to end it.  

Switching gears, today I wore the dress as a skirt with a purple velvety shirt, grey sweater, green tights, brown belt, tan scarf, and brown boots.  Also, forgetting to wear my glasses proved to be quite annoying because it is quite difficult to read the board when I'm sitting at the back of the classroom.

day twenty-two!

HEY GUYS HEY, I HAVEN'T BEEN ADVERTISING IT BUT THERE'S A STAHP MEETING TOMORROW AND YOU SHOULD COME!  ROOM 3208.  GENERAL'S PERIOD.  BE THERE.

So confession: this is not in fact my sweater, it's my sister's.  As is the headband I'm wearing.  The boots, black tights, and socks I'm wearing, however, are indeed mine.  Though this particular outfit was not super great for messing with lights in the catwalk during rehearsal today, because hot air rises, the lights themselves are very hot, and sweaters are not conducive to these particular situations.

Psh, that's not a sock on the ground for camera focusing purposes.  I don't know what you're talking about in the slightest. 

Also go check out The Middle East because they're super great. 

And now off to finish my homework. Wooooooooooot

day twenty-one!

So typically I've taken pictures when I get home from school, but I had to take this picture quite early in the morning before school, due to the fact that I had swim team conditioning afterwards and would not be lookin' so great.

Anyways! Orange shirt, grey scarf, brown belt, white tights, blueishgreyish flats.

day twenty!

Eleven days left! Holy Batman that's less than two weeks.  What is this nonsense.  The month has seriously flown by!

So I'm being sneaky and this outfit is actually composed of two dresses: the pink (salmon? coral?) one is functioning as a shirt, while the October dress is a skirt.  Grey flats make an appearance, as does the brown belt (which, funnily enough, actually came with the pink/salmon/coral/whatever dress) and a brown leather jacket.

Also, loving the fall weather.  Fall weather means sweater weather.  WOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Also this is the first picture with all my paper plate awards visible in it?

day nineteen!

Thank goodness for sweaters.  Even sweaters that don't really have sleeves.  They're still great.

Grey sweater, black tights, brown shoes, tan socks, black t-shirt underneath the dress for added layers, purple scarf.

day eighteen!

Another short post because I need to sleep:

Teal tank top underneath a lace shirt, the dress is a skirt, brown belt, black tights, grey flats.  Not pictured: brown leather jacket.

I had to sing the National Anthem at the football game with the chorus department so for a while I was wearing my Madrigals shirt tucked in to the skirt as well!

day seventeen!

See now, the great thing about doing this project is that I know exactly what day of the month it is.  So yay for that.

Anyways, I kinda need to get a lot of homework done so this post will be quite brief.

Purple chunky sweater, white tights, blue socks, brown boots folded over, daisy headband.

Speed-bloggin' for the win!