This Originally Appeared in PRISM ePistle

IT’S HARD OUT THERE FOR THE PIMPED
by Michael Horowitz and Daniel Gibson

( EDITOR’S NOTE: Ten days ago the honor for “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures” at the Oscars was awarded to Three 6 Mafia for the song “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp.” )

Many of us were not surprised - pimp culture has been glamorized by Hollywood for years. But let us not be too world-weary to articulate our outrage at being invited to sympathize with the lot of pimps when women and children around the world are dying under their employ.

What follows is an excellent critique of Hollywood's idealized notion of pimping, a critique that allows reality – the facts, as expressed by survivors and experts – to speak for themselves. Our deepest thanks go to Michael Horowitz and Daniel Gibson of the Hudson Institute for putting this together and for allowing us to publish it here. If these two men have their way, pimps in America will find it really is “hard out there for a pimp!”)

You know it’s hard out here for a pimp
When he tryin’ to get his money for the rent
For the Cadillacs and gas money spent
Because a whole lot of bitches talking s--t.
(chorus) 

On an average night, they have sex with 10-15 people and have to meet a quota which is usually $500-1,000 a night.  The young girls and women never keep their money.  The pimp was making…between her and other women … about $642,000 a year, tax-free.
— Tina Frundt, testimony before Congress, April 29, 2005

Man, these girls think we prove thangs, leave a big head
They come hopin’ every night, they don’t end up bein’ dead
(verse 2)

And then of course, after we crossed the line, our worlds changed forever.  ALL of us had friends who didn’t make it out alive.
— Survivor Services, Education and Empowerment Network (SSEEN) letter to Congress, August 1, 2005

In my eyes I done seen some crazy thangs in the streets
Gotta couple hoes workin’ on the changes for me
(verse 1)

In the Hispanic brothels, girls — and by that I mean children — are expected to “service” a different man every fifteen minutes, from 30 to as many as 55 “customers” per day.  After a few weeks of this unimaginable regime, the human brain begins to permanently dissociate from reality as a sheer survival mechanism.  The scarring is such that only a small proportion of these victims are ever able to return to a semblance of a normal life.
— Bradley Myles, National Program Coordinator, Polaris Project, a D.C.-based anti-trafficking NGO

Wait I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too
You pay the right price and they’ll both do you
(verse 2)

[P]imps and madams [sold] us to johns who intended violent acts as long as the purchasers paid extra.  After all, we were only viewed as commodities and worst of all, we believed it.”
— SSEEN letter to Congress, August 1, 2005

It’s blood sweat and tears when it come down to this s--t
I’m trying to get rich ‘fore I leave up out this bitch
(verse 1)

Eighty percent of the women were sexually assaulted by pimps via sadistic sex; 71% of pimps use drugs to control the women; and 34% of the women received death threats from pimps personally or to their family.
— Raymond, Hughes, Gomez, “Sex Trafficking In the United States, Coalition Against Trafficking of Women Study,” March 2001

Sixty-eight percent of girls entered prostitution before age 16.
— Silbert and Pines “Entrance into Prostitution,” YOUTH AND SOCIETY 1982 (San Fransisco)

Forty-six percent of women in prostitution attempted suicide.
— Parriot, “Health of Twin Cities Women in Prostitution,” May 1994

The mortality rate of women in prostitution, adjusted for age and race, is more than 200 times greater than the population at large.
— Potterat, Brewer “Mortality in a Long-term Open Cohort of Prostituted Women,” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, 2004. ( Colorado)

(Oscar ceremony commentary)
You know what?  I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp.
— Jon Stewart, host of the Academy Awards, March 5, 2006

The war against pimps and trafficking mafias brings us face to face with the slavery issue of our time.  Both internationally and within the United States great progress has been made during the past few years thanks to the leadership of feminist and church leaders, the President, Congress, and inner-city leaders who have witnessed the tragic influence of pimp culture on the values of all of their young people.  In a few short years, we will no more glorify pimps than we do Simon Legree.
— Ambassador John Miller, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, United States Department of State

Be sure also to read Courtland Milloy’ excellent column for the WASHINGTON POST (3.8.06), “ Pimp Pop Culture Brushes Aside Girls' Fate.”