Ashton Kutcher Slams Village Voice for Alleged Child Prostitution Ties
Credit: Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic
Twitter war!
Ashton Kutcher and the Village Voice are battling it out in 140 characters or less. It began when the Village Voice published a cover story slamming the child trafficking statistics used by Kutcher and Demi Moore's DNA Foundation.
In an April appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight, Kutcher, 33, said that there are "between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today." This figure has also been touted the New York Times, USA Today and the Orphan Justice Center. But the Village Voice, "spent two months researching law enforcement data" and came to the conclusion that these numbers were vastly inflated and labeled them "propaganda."
In their article titled "Real Men Get Their Facts Straight," the newspaper mocks the DNA Foundation's "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign and claims the number of child sex slaves reported is based on a study with "no scientific credibility."
Kutcher was none too pleased at the Village Voice "belittling" his efforts. "How's the lawsuit from the 15-year-old victim who alleges you helped enslave them going?" he tweeted Thursday, referring to a 2010 lawsuit against Village Voice Media filed by an underage commercial sex industry survivor. Village Voice Media owns Backpage.com, which is accused in the lawsuit of knowingly promoting forced prostitution of a minor on their online classified site. The Village Voice denies these allegations.
"Hey, Village Voice, speaking of data, maybe you can help me. How much money did your 'escorts' in your classifieds on Backpage make last year? How many of your girls selling themselves on your classifieds are you doing age verification on?" Kutcher ranted. "Find another way to justify that your property facilitates the sale of human beings."
The Village Voice scoffed at Kutcher's "twitter meltdown" and continued to bait him, asking him during a lull whether he slept in or was "just tuckered out from last night's Twitter tirade?"
"Don't spout phony statistics which are then used to justify millions in spending for 'awareness,'" the Village Voice added. "Victims need beds and counseling."
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Kutcher retorted with more statistics about child trafficking -- including the staggering number of people searching for child pornography related terms and the nearly 1500 calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center this month alone. "Fact: News outlets who have financial interest in trafficking may have interest in applying bias to facts to secure their revenue," he added.
The Village Voice retweeted followers claiming "actors make sh*tty activists" and saying Kutcher "is full of sh*t." Making light of a serious topic, they even retweeted someone who joked: "Next time I get drunk, instead of drunk dialing I'm gonna reread Ashton's tweets to the Village Voice."
Friday morning, the site continued to provoke Kutcher. "Still sleeping?" the Village Voice tweeted. "How about you wake up and help us convince Congress to spend money on treatment of real teen problems, not hype?"
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12By non existent victims, I mean the "100,000 to 300,000" non existent victims- not there are no child trafficking victims. If they are there, why can't the government and all the millions of dollars taxpayers spend find them? Where is that money going? Why aren't there resources to help those who are found? Why are they arrested if they are 'victims'? When you read that sex slaves were "rescued" that is the code word for 'arrested." Would we arrest victims of pedophile priests? Do the police conduct sting operations on churches in order to 'rescue' victims of the pedophile priests? If "one" is too many child sex trafficking victims, how many victims of pedophile adults will it take for celebrities to come out and take on the religious institutions that harbor pedophile priests? Where do Ashton and Demi stand on retired Cardinal Roger Mahony? Inquiring minds want to know!
Sex workers slam Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (and the mainstream media) for failing to meet with sex workers and sex worker activists to discuss how sex workers can be part of the solution to address both underage child trafficking and forced prostitution. The Village Voice is absolutely right to question the use of questionable (exaggerated) statistics which are so frequently repeated by celebrities and the media without a shred of evidence to show that these numbers are anywhere close to being accurate. The US government's numbers, available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics website (see: April 2011 report "Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010" and the previous report from 2007-2008) show that there is either a great deal of fraud going on with the task forces and private agencies/child trafficking advocates which receive millions of dollars or, at the very least, these government task forces and private agencies are beyond incompetent. In either case, the best way to assist any victim of any abuse-including domestic violence, spousal abuse and rape- is to work with those who are most impacted by efforts to rescue victims, and that would be the consenting adult sex workers- whose very existence is denied by the prohibitionists/ abolitionists. If one is going to take on a cause, one should get their facts straight before they go out and use their celebrity status to proselytize on behalf of non existent victims. There are sufficient real victims who have been 'found' and who can use the spotlight and the money currently being spent looking for victims that probably don't exist. There are thousands of rape victims- whose rape kits languish for years- even decades- untested in police evidence lockers because there is no funding to test the DNA. There are over 1,600 women (government stats available at the same website) who are murdered by their boyfriends and husbands each year, and thousands upon thousands more women (and men) who are victims of domestic violence and spousal abuse who are in dire need of shelters and financial assistance. Despite the horrendous number of victims of domestic violence and spousal abuse, there are far more 'happy housewives' than 'desperate' ones, and the same is true for sex work. For prostitution, we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Unfortunately for victims of domestic violence, that society maintains marriage as a moral ideal and prostitution as the ultimate 'objectification' and enslavement of (consenting adult) women means that men who objectify women are considered by prohibitionists/abolitionists to be more evil and dangerous (therefore they must be punished) than men who rape, beat, assault and murder their wives and girlfriends. I'd say someone has their priorities backward. Ashton and Demi- sex workers await your call. Google search for sex worker rights organizations and you will find us.
I don't think it really matters if the statistics a re right or wrong. Isn't The Village Voice a serious paper? They took a very childish position about it. Retweeting jokes and taunting him about whether he is sleeping or not is just plain childish.
ashton
Ashton Kutcher is right in what he is saying. This is a terrible problem in the United States and everywhere in the world, child prostitution. I don't think Village Voice is taking the side of victims by critizing Ashton. He should be proud of what he is doing and the Village Voice should have a way of not letting criminals post in their paper. Children are being sold out there and people should try to do something about it. Ashton is a hero.
VV is right that what Ashton is doing is selling fear, which leads needless prohibition.
Ashton is RIGHT. period.
I agree with all the comments. But I would like to add, since when did companies address a problem with them in such an immature manner? Guess this is one of the many reason America is falling apart. And Angela is right, one child sex slave is too many.
Ashton is right, VV is and always has been defensive of their backpage. It's like someone just wading in the river denial..I think the most telling FACT is Ashton's statement, "News outlets who have financial interest in trafficking may have interest in applying bias to facts to secure their revenue." No truer words spoken.
The Village Voice is missing the point here. Regardless of the number of child sex slaves in America - or the world for that matter - if there is even just one, that is one too many.
Whether Ashton Kutcher is right or wrong in his statistics, I think the Village Voice is pretty disgusting trying to make light of child prostitution. Retweeting jokes and taunting him about whether he is sleeping or not is just plain childish. I'm not even a Kutcher fan and I can see that the Village Voice is wrong in their actions. Just appalling.
I'm not someone that takes Ashton and Demi all that seriously...but he is trying to bring light to a very serious problem in the world, including the United States. So, let's say the numbers are inflated - by what? Are they saying there are "only" 100 in the US. This is something that probably can't even be measured because it's so underground. I'm sorry - but maybe the Village Voice could spend time researching and attacking spokesmen for Anti-Gay Marriage or Child Pornography. I just don't understand why their attacks are so pointed and juvenile for a group that is trying to improve our world. Sorry - ranting or not, Ashton wins this round. Village Voice looks RIDIC.