Dispossession of the body

What I found rather intriguing was Athanasiou's comment, made in the beginning, which stated "being dispossessed refers to processes and ideologies by which persons are disowned and abjected by normative and normalizing powers that define cultural intelligibility and that regulate the distribution of vulnerability:....ownership of one's living body by another person, as in histories of slavery". She further states, "language may fail us here insofar as such a formulation contrives to establish a causal link between "being" dispossessed, on the one side, and "becoming" or "being made" dispossessed, on the other. Is it possible to experience both forms of dispossession? I would like to further analyze the idea of "being" and/ or "becoming" dispossessed from one's body through the lens of human trafficking victims. In doing so, I would like to refer back to Young's definition of powerlessness. Women and children are the most affected population in the trafficking of persons in Mexico and are usually trafficked into commercial sex positions. Some of the most common forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children are sex trafficking, child pornography and child sex tourism. There are number of other factors contributing to child sex trafficking. Risley characterizes these factors as “push” factors and “pull” factors” (102). “Push” factors are those that draw women and girls into the hands of traffickers due to economic, social, cultural, and political conditions. Many of the victims of trafficking are poor and uneducated or are living within a society where gender discrimination is prevalent. Traffickers are also known to take advantage of governmental or political unrest, exploiting the weakened rule of law, damaged economy, and loss of community support networks. “Pull” factors are correlated with demand for the sexual bodies of women and girls. The demand tends to be the highest in densely populated areas, near military bases, and regions with skewed sex ratios. However, when it comes to the policy-oriented focus, the “push” factors are more visible and deemed more significant than the “pull” factors (Risley, 102). Although Risley spoke specifically on human trafficking in Mexico, these factors (push and pull factors) are highly relevant towards any country that is involved in human trafficking (especially the United States). It is evident that both the push and pull factors are embedded with notions of powerlessness - powerlessness over one's life, body, etc. This sense of powerlessness encapsulates the notion of "being" dispossessed, specifically by a patriarchal society. However, I would argue that, in the case of human trafficking, the larger percentage of victims are experiencing the act of "becoming" or "being made" dispossessed through their powerlessness (especially those who were taken advantage by unstable governments).
Athanasiou further notates that there is a "very complicated affective, psychic, and political dynamic involved in the multiple nuances of "becoming dispossessed". Many victims of human trafficking experience violence -- sexual violence, physical violence, psychological violence, etc. Victims are unable to escape this reality. They are constantly "being made" dispossessed from their human qualities -- they no longer have control over themselves or their actions.

Risley, A. (2010). Sex Trafficking: The “Other” Crisis in Mexico?. Latin Americanist, 54(1), 99-117. doi:10.1111/j.1557-203X.2010.01060.x