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The Glamorization of Exploitation | Trafficking Free America Podcast
70 Plays15 days ago
In this bold and deeply personal solo episode, Oree Freeman confronts a dangerous and often overlooked reality: the glamorization of human trafficking and exploitation in music, media, and digital culture.
Oree shares raw stories—from her own experience and what she sees online every day—about how glamor, money, and false empowerment are being used to draw young people into systems of abuse. She calls out how pop culture, social platforms, and "choice-based" narratives are influencing laws, funding, and public awareness—while ignoring the real, devastating cost.
This is more than a conversation. It’s a call to stop applauding the lie and start exposing the truth.
🔔 Subscribe for more hard but healing conversations 🌐 Learn more: https://www.usiaht.org ❤️ Become an Abolitionist: https://usiaht.org/donate/
⏱ Timestamps
00:00 – Girls flashing money, kids watching, glamorizing exploitation
00:28 – What we’re talking about: glamorization in music, film, social media
01:36 – How trafficking became a “hot topic” like other social issues
03:00 – Why victims weren’t offered help—because it looked like a choice
03:40 – Growing up watching “pimp culture” in music videos
04:45 – Films focus on foreign abduction, not domestic street realities
05:41 – Why some stories aren’t told—they’re not “theatrical” enough
06:31 – OnlyFans and false freedom: it looks like choice, but it’s not
07:33 – The audience is part of the problem—what we watch, fund, and like
08:47 – The lie of control: glamor, addiction, and indoctrination
10:00 – “Feet pics” and false empowerment—how it leads to bondage
11:04 – Girls glamorizing “the blade”—16-year-olds are watching
12:15 – What that lifestyle really led to: addiction, abuse, and emptiness
13:05 – Even hard-fought bills are being pushed back by glamorized narratives
14:43 – Oree’s personal story: walking into her trafficker’s house at 11
15:57 – The recruiting power of glamor: “I want that life”
16:47 – You may be recruiting someone, even unintentionally
17:50 – We need better media: ethical, truthful, unfiltered storytelling
18:53 – Oree’s mom at age 9 wanted to be a prostitute—this is generational
19:44 – This isn’t just about cages overseas—this is happening here
20:32 – A message to those who think they’ve “chosen” the lifestyle
21:07 – You are worthy. You are a treasure. Choose something better.
21:48 – Upcoming episodes will include voices with different perspectives
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Glamor is being weaponized—and traffickers are not the only ones doing it
- False freedom on platforms like OnlyFans often masks real exploitation
- We need better stories, not just more content—truth-telling can save lives
- You are accountable for what you watch, fund, and share
- You are worth more than a lifestyle that glorifies trauma
🎧 If this episode made you think...✅ Like & comment your thoughts ✅ Share with someone who needs to hear the truth ✅ Join the movement—$15/month helps us reach the next generation
Let’s replace glamor with truth and build a Trafficking Free America together.
#TraffickingFreeAmerica #OreeFreeman #SurvivorVoices #EndExploitation #USIAHT #GlamorizationKills #OnlyFansAwareness #AntiTrafficking #SurvivorLeadership #RealTalk
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Transcript
Impact of Social Media on Teen Aspirations
00:00:00
Speaker
These girls were flashing money, showing the bags they had, showing how fly they could be out there. And I was looking at the comments, I would look at the comments, I would see the posts, and you had 16-year-old girls and 16-year-old boys, people that were just like, I want to make money like that.
00:00:17
Speaker
And I remember just being heartbroken.
Podcast Introduction and Engagement,
00:00:28
Speaker
Welcome everybody to the Trafficking Free American Podcast. If this is your first time joining us, make sure you click the link to subscribe, share, and make sure you comment below.
How Media Glamorizes Human Trafficking
00:00:42
Speaker
Today, we are going to be talking about a very sensitive, bold, might ruffle a couple of feathers topic, the glamorization around human trafficking.
00:00:56
Speaker
whether that is through an individual's life because of this false narrative of believing it should be a choice, it is a choice, or even the glamorization around theater, around cinema, um how we capture human trafficking, what stories are sold and which ones don't make it in the film festival.
00:01:22
Speaker
Another part of that is what's happening today currently on social media. Not just OnlyFans. I know that was a big boom, but also what are people protesting and about on social media?
00:01:36
Speaker
You know, we're going to be talking about it all. So I will say i turn on your censor ears and we're going to dive in.
The Social Issue of Human Trafficking
00:01:46
Speaker
This topic is really, I'm not going to say endear to me, but we are in a age currently everyone where human trafficking has been the hot topic.
00:01:59
Speaker
And when I say hot topic, this has happened for different of social issues, social justice issues that have happened over the years. So I remember at one point, one of my my mentors had talked about when child abuse first came to light or when it's the first case of child abuse,
00:02:20
Speaker
Everybody was talking about it. Everybody wanted to do something about it. Everybody wanted to be a resource. And also everybody wanted funding. And it was it was the hot thing. It was the new information.
00:02:33
Speaker
um And everybody wanted to eradicate it. Everybody wanted to fight against it. And they wanted to do something about it. And over the years, we hear about it less and less. We've dumped it off to child welfare. We've dumped it off to different agencies.
00:02:46
Speaker
um And in various different ways, we don't really talk about it as much. And so this new topic, um which we're in the fight, um being the Institute Against Human Trafficking, is human trafficking.
Media's Role in Perception of Trafficking Victims
00:03:00
Speaker
But the one thing that we don't talk about is the glamorization. How a lot of of times many services weren't provided or even victims weren't given resources because the way that it was looked at, even in the public eye,
00:03:16
Speaker
I'll give you an example. I remember being a little girl and watching certain celebrities and I seen the hats and I seen the canes and I heard the songs and something familiar like that, like literally listening to lyrics that talked about pimping, that talked about the H word we ain't going to use.
00:03:38
Speaker
But talking about a lifestyle, and it was glamorized. The girls with the furs, the girls with the diamonds and the heels and all those things. So I remember watching, seeing all this as a little girl.
00:03:51
Speaker
I watched it. I remember watching music videos. And I never really said, oh hey, I want to live that life. But it definitely caught my eye. And we'll talk about a little bit how that also affects young adults and children that are being groomed and what traffickers use in order to groom themselves.
00:04:14
Speaker
um to becoming exploited. So I seen that growing up. When we also think about glamorization, we think about Hollywood films that really focus on trafficking in this abduction or only happening international.
00:04:30
Speaker
And I've always felt this sense of disheartened, like being disheartened, the fact that what was really going on on the street corners, what really happens in the hood, what really happens in low-income communities doesn't get captured.
00:04:45
Speaker
And yet Hollywood films or cinematic films will portray um stories and it gets glamorized. Not the act of trafficking, but how it happens, where it happens.
Exploitation on Social Media Platforms
00:05:01
Speaker
And I think that we have a really we have a responsibility to start showing the truth, telling the truth. You know, I have a couple of friends that actually had certain deals with um companies and to do documentaries or even doing films. And, you know, at one point they had to pull out or the film company pulled out because it wasn't.
00:05:23
Speaker
theatrical enough or they didn't want to paint a certain picture about a certain group of people or they didn't want certain perpetrators and buyers that look a certain way because of demographics and that's not the truth there is a demographic that buys all demographic There is a demographic that sells children and buys children, and it's all.
00:05:47
Speaker
But sometimes based on an environment or where a child may reside or where they're raised or where they're even taken from, there's a demographic. And so you see the glamorization even in Hollywood when in when we choose to dilute the truth, when we choose to water it down.
00:06:03
Speaker
Another way of this glamorization is what I've seen in kind of like the more new age is when OnlyFans came about And a lot of times young girls, um individuals didn't think that that was a form of exploitation because they felt like they were making a choice.
00:06:21
Speaker
And the reality is, so I've always said this, when I look at the healthy state of an individual, let's just say a person feels like they're making this choice. like I'm making the choice to to create an OnlyFriends account.
00:06:35
Speaker
And I'm keeping my money. And a lot of the times I would look at someone's state of, well, what are you doing with your money? Because you're not saving it. You're not investing it. You're not putting it in a You're not putting it in IRA.
00:06:45
Speaker
You're not helping your child building a ah ah college fund. I mean, what are you doing with your money? buying bags, paying for other people, or you're paying somebody else, taking care of that man, taking care of that woman, when they need to be taking care of themselves, that's a form of exploitation.
00:07:03
Speaker
But for a long time, it started getting glamorized, where I remember just a couple years ago where... There were girls that would post, I mean, explicit content and talk about how they made a lot of money and this is the life for them. And it almost was like a slap in the face to survivor leaders that had worked so hard to really bring education, really fight to be seen, to be heard.
00:07:33
Speaker
to be viewed as not the perpetrator. And I know that that glamorization came with an audience, though. And that's one thing people don't talk about is that when a lot of this stuff was happening on social media, OnlyFans, it only became OnlyFans because people were willing to buy, people were willing to subscribe, people were willing to watch, click, and like.
00:07:54
Speaker
And so it's not only important about to address the people that are watching, but it's also important to talk about you know, why did these individuals, um why are we told that they're making the choice?
The Illusion of Choice in Sex Work
00:08:07
Speaker
And I can tell you this, the individuals that I knew personally, the individuals that I encounter, um didn't think that they were victims because they felt that they had a sense of control and freedom.
00:08:18
Speaker
But one thing that I've learned in this business um of not only nonprofit and and the business of my own healing is that sometimes we can really tell ourselves We can tell ourselves lies, um that we have control and we don't.
00:08:38
Speaker
It's a reason why there's drug addictions. There's a reason why there's a huge opioid crisis within even the um exploitation community. um There's a reason why young children are being coerced and you have to use money and flashing money on OnlyFans and talking about how much money you make to recruit somebody else.
00:08:59
Speaker
Because there is an addiction and a desire to sometimes not only chase what is good, but it's all you know. You know, I think it's easy to be in bondage um and to validate how we're living.
00:09:12
Speaker
how we think we're really choosing to live in when it's almost like an a doctorin and indoctrination almost of I want this lifestyle and I'll have it by any means necessary even if it's it means destroying myself.
00:09:26
Speaker
But you see this throughout, you know, I remember when this first started and OnlyFans first started and it was a lot of exploitive stuff. You know, you had the new nudity.
00:09:38
Speaker
You had the then bikinis. And now you got the the the feet to the point where, you know, you have um individuals who may take photos of just their feet and they're making money off of something. But the dangerous part of all of that is the recruitment piece, is the lives affected by our so-called choice movement.
00:10:00
Speaker
um the glamorization of it. Like all you have to do is take a picture of of your feet and they'll buy it. And it's not about the picture. It's about a transaction that is permanent. It's about a skill that you're teaching somebody, a child.
00:10:13
Speaker
young adults a skill that is horrifying, a skill that doesn't lead to anywhere but addiction and bondage, period. Whether if you are an adult now and you feel like I'm making a choice and I'm i'm making this statement, I'm a sex worker, this is what I wanna do.
00:10:30
Speaker
You are teaching a skill that leads to bondage. It does not lead to true freedom. It leads to materialism. It leads
Recruitment Through Glamorization
00:10:39
Speaker
to a false sense of independence. Because that's a whole nother topic on a whole nother scale of we weren't we were meant to coexist with men. We were meant to coexist with individuals. We were meant to coexist with women. We were meant to coexist with each other.
00:10:52
Speaker
So we can't. Live without the other. So even the false sense of independence, that's whole different other topic on a podcast. But I'll never forget watching my Instagram. And I had two individuals who were in my same age bracket.
00:11:04
Speaker
We kind of ran the streets together at the same time. And it was this just glamorization. I mean, full on glamorizing being on the blade where kids were bought be are being bought and sold.
00:11:18
Speaker
Being in hotels with purchasers. And and these these individuals were making videos and making fun of it, like in light of it. And I don't blame them. I don't.
00:11:29
Speaker
I do blame the audience because people were watching. People thought it was funny. These girls were flashing money, showing the bags they had, showing how fly they could be out there.
00:11:42
Speaker
And I was looking at the comments. I would look at the comments. I would see the posts. And you had 16-year-old girls and 16-year-old boys, people that were just like, I want to make money like that. And I remember just being heartbroken that like Dang, we ain't even hit the type of hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eradicating human trafficking or addressing it and educating people and y'all over here glamorizing it and lying, lying to the audience, lying to people when really that life led to...
00:12:15
Speaker
destruction where's the money now where's your freedom now you know how many lives did you impact that little girl or that little boy that was watching that felt like this would be a lifetime job that would lead to retirement but it really led to addiction led to a life of unhealthy relationships domestic violence being in environments that are unhealthy.
00:12:37
Speaker
But it's consistently happening. It's happening today now with the glamorization of not only fans, but the way that individuals are now coming out and stating that um fighting against bills that we fought hard to get even acknowledgement to be acknowledged as victims.
00:12:56
Speaker
So it's not just something that's happened on Instagram. this has happened This is something that is being taken to legislation. And we're talking about lives at risk. And I'm not blaming anyone.
00:13:07
Speaker
But i am i am putting some pressure and accountability on, you know, what we watch, how we see things, um and what we're communicating because it's happening.
Media Narratives and Local Realities
00:13:20
Speaker
I even think of the glamorization of now with... um with young girls because I can attest to this. We might not have had Instagram, but I can tell you, I'll never forget the moment that I walked inside of my trafficker's house when when I was left there actually.
00:13:38
Speaker
And I remember walking in and I'm this girl that, you know, my mom worked three jobs to take care of me, my adopted mom. She didn't, I wasn't, I lived in the hood and I didn't really have all the things that sometimes people do have, like I didn't have the gold, I didn't have the sidekicks, kind telling my age a little bit, but i did I didn't have the razors, I didn't have all that, you know, my mom couldn't afford that, we shopped at Goodwill, we got clothes from, ah we would go literally on the weekends to garage sales, I remember that being a little girl, you know, we would shop at places like Follett's is no longer even in business a little bit, like these discounted stores, we didn't have much, but we had what we needed and we did have enough, but what I will say,
00:14:21
Speaker
What kid isn't attracted to something that they don't have when all their friends got it? And I'll never forget a part of my trafficking when I walked when i was left at my trafficker's house and I walked in the back room and I seen this beautiful girl sitting on his bed with her legs crossed her head down, not even knowing that was a part of my that was part of the grooming process, or that she was falling in line with her trafficker. She was staying in check, really.
00:14:46
Speaker
And I looked around the room, and I'll never forget, I seen all of her clothes. I seen all her shoes. I seen all the perfumes, jewelry, all the things I didn't have.
00:14:58
Speaker
And for a second, what 11-year-old kid walks into a toy store and don't want something? Let's say a normal 11-year-old kid. Because I know my 6-year-old walks into a store, and she thinks she's supposed to get everything. You take them down the toy aisle, why wouldn't they want everything?
00:15:12
Speaker
Why wouldn't they want something like that, that they don't have? That's not a belonging to them. And when I walked in that room, she had everything I didn't have, even though I might've had a little love.
00:15:23
Speaker
And then I was sold a dream that night about what life could look like, what kind of house we would have, what kind of car would be driven, all the things I would have. And yeah, I believe those lies. I was 11 years old.
00:15:36
Speaker
Let's talk about a normal teenager. Why wouldn't a teenager, if being told, hey, You know, you can make this amount of money, you're 16 years old, you're beautiful, or you got so much pool at your school, all the girls like you, all are the boys like you.
00:15:51
Speaker
Why wouldn't a 16-year-old, 15-year-old, 14-year-old not want to make money to buy the things that they want? So at the same time as we're promoting... the glamorization of trafficking, we're also recruiting. And we have to be mindful of that.
00:16:05
Speaker
You may not feel like you're directly, now i'm talking to a specific audience. You may feel like you're not directly impacted a life, but you are. Still recruitment. You recruited somebody in a life, whether that was voluntary or not, you recruited somebody into a lifestyle that you know isn't forever and that you know isn't healthy and that you know only leads to a broken heart chaos and destruction and then the individuals that watch you laugh you think it's funny or you purchase online or you pay for that subscription you think that you're not impacting somebody's life but at the because you think that it's a choice or you think that they're choosing to be in sex work when really you're really feeding the lie that has already been told to them but that's glamorization
00:16:50
Speaker
And then once again, back to the movies that we watch, it's extremely important um to view different sources. You know, I encourage you all to really watch documentaries about human trafficking. Listen to people's testimonies and their stories, but also look at who's producing the content.
00:17:08
Speaker
What are their ethics? What type of integrity do they have? Because I don't just watch anything. I don't just Google anything. You know, you have to look at the source. It's something that we learn even in communication. You have to look at the source.
Generational Cycles of Exploitation
00:17:21
Speaker
But it's happening. You know how many times I've been disheartened because I could see a great film and I'm like, oh, there it go. Didn't make highlight of what have really would have happened to her or what is really happening in the community.
00:17:33
Speaker
Because sometimes the big stories don't make it to the big screen, but there' it's a big story. because it's somebody's life. It almost cost them their life. And then the average thing is that we, I'll be honest, I'll never forget when my mom told me this story about when she watched, I think her uncle or my grandfather or somebody.
00:17:51
Speaker
She said she was a little girl, she was nine years old sitting on the steps and she watched these girls come inside the kitchen she was sitting on the steps nine years old in her pajamas and the guys came in old school though this is back her generation i ain't calling nobody out in the age but a different generation and they were fancy it's all she kept saying they were fancy and they had diamonds and pearls and my mother at nine years old said I want to be excuse my language Oh, where did a nine-year-old get that language from?
00:18:20
Speaker
This was generational. Nine years old my mother was, and she said that. Not because of the respect that was shown, but the glamour that she thought was glamour that would really cost her her life, that would cost her her children.
00:18:31
Speaker
It happened, that happened, what, over 40-some years ago? And here we are in 2025. It's the same thing. So we have to be mindful of our... our What we think are our choices.
00:18:46
Speaker
We have to be mindful about what we say. We have to be mindful about what we advocate for, what we watch, what we like. Because sometimes we don't even know that we are leaning into the glamorization of it.
00:19:00
Speaker
I've learned to stop watching the movies that sometimes highlight. Because trafficking happens internationally. Yes, it does. People do get abducted. People are in cages and are in crates.
00:19:12
Speaker
But it is happening right here in the U.S. It is happening right in your backyard. That kid is going to that school. That foster kid is experiencing exploitation.
00:19:24
Speaker
That kid is being trafficked in their tribe. That kid is being bought and sold in their community. That kid is sitting right there at that bus stop. It is happening here. And some of them are not in crates and they're not in chains.
00:19:36
Speaker
Some of it is up here. And so we just have to be mindful of the repetitive message that is being sent out and the repetitive message that we even tell ourselves.
00:19:47
Speaker
You know, um we live in a day and age is that you have, we've always had a freedom of speech and freedom of choice of what we choose. But I do want to remind us to just be accountable that somebody is always watching.
Encouragement to Stay Informed
00:20:01
Speaker
um Who I am at my age now is not little Ori anymore. And so I can't be persuaded ah to choose a lifestyle that I know lived ends up in destruction because it's bigger than just being exploited. It's the effects of it.
00:20:20
Speaker
And I know that it's hard. This message is also for somebody that may be feeling like they're in control of their life and they're choosing this. But I really want to encourage you. To choose something different.
00:20:31
Speaker
To believe something different. I'm to say choice. To believe something different. To believe that there's a better way, that there's a better life, that you are worthy. You are worthy of good things. You are called to good things.
00:20:44
Speaker
You are created for great things. And you are loved and you're a treasure. A treasure that i can't be accounted for. So I'm not an expert at this. You know, I don't have an experience where some people do have an experience where they might have been older when they had been exploited or abused or not abused. And they felt like they chose to be a sex worker. And at some point, we're going have somebody on the podcast that may not agree. i be i may I may not agree with their personal choice of lifestyle because I feel like it's still bondage and I still feel like it's exploitation because of the unhealthy habits or the unhealthy relationships that might be tied to it.
00:21:23
Speaker
I truly believe that. But at the end of the day, everybody has an experience. And so we're going to open it up. um I know individuals that I love dearly that know people that have different experiences.
00:21:35
Speaker
And we're going to give an opportunity for them to share their experience. But we want to be mindful about, once again, um how we take that information, how we take that experience and transcript it in our, in our minds and in our hearts.
00:21:51
Speaker
So join me next time on the trafficking free America podcast. Remember to comment, um, go to our website to watch more videos of resources and stories and check out the United States Institute against human trafficking to see how you can join this fight.
00:22:09
Speaker
All right. See you next time.