American media glamorizes almost all commodities. Unfortunately, the human body is no exception. The sex industry is just as, if not more, robust than any commercial industry in the United States. And the industry depicted is one of luxury, allure, and reward. According to Summer Shine, that could not be further from the truth.

At SMU there is a volunteer organization called Mustang Heroes. Each year they host “Heroes Week”, which is seven days of service events and activities dedicated to a certain theme, this year’s being gender equality. In commemoration of that theme, the keynote speakers for a dinner on Wednesday were Summer Shine, an ex sex industry worker, and Emily Mills, founder of the organization Jesus Said Love.

Emily prefaced her introduction by stating, “I don’t save strippers, strippers saved me”. Emily’s organization, JSL, empowers women in the sex industry by offering spiritual and community resources, and its main focus is not to condemn the workers but to acknowledge that whatever predicament they are subject to, they are loved. Emily’s inspiration from JSL came from personally experiencing six years of sexual abuse and the program was established in Waco in 2003. The program has extended to the greater Dallas area and oversees approximately 600 women per month, 90 percent of whom were sexually abused in some capacity, and 80 percent whom are mothers.

Emily stressed that the greatest misconception about the sex industry is the matter of wealth. Despite media depictions of strippers in designer clothes and owning multiple homes, all females in the industry suffer what is known as “new girl syndrome”, in which their pimps provide them with drugs, clothes, and money for the first few months or so of their career until a younger, fresher face emerges. When that occurs, women are forced to move to another venue, and this cycle perpetually occurs. Thus, it is not surprising that 70 percent of JSL’s women fall below the poverty line, and this trend is reflected globally. Moreover, in contradiction to popular opinion, the sex industry is not something women elect to do willingly or even experimentally. According to Emily, a nationwide survey found that 89 percent of women wanted out of the industry, but stayed for the promise of money and drugs.

Summer Shine concurs with the statement about drugs. Summer, who was “saved” by Emily, relayed that her experience in the industry and drug habits were 100 percent correlated, and that anyone in the industry has been exposed to, addicted to, or killed by, drug use induced by sex work. Her drug use began at 12, when she was caught smoking meth and expelled from school. Her drug use continued in high school, where she eventually dropped out and became pregnant at 18. From her late teens until mid twenties, she was a manager of a strip club and in and out of the restaurant business. Within this period, she was also sober for one year, married and had one son, and on the board of JSL. However, her relapse and actual involvement in the sex industry did not begin until the eve of her 27th birthday, when she became addicted to crack. She tried it for the first time on a Friday, and by Sunday night her checking and savings accounts were entirely drained to pay her dealer. To sustain her habit, she eventually began selling herself online. For roughly 8 months following her relapse, Summer was estranged from her family, her son refusing to speak to her, her husband filing for divorce, and her mother planning her funeral because she assumed Summer was dead. She retreated to New Orleans, “the darkest place” in her life, where she spent her days and nights in a drug and sex fused stupor. During her tenure in New Orleans, she was hospitalized seven times for suicide attempts. She most likely would have eventually succeeded were it not for Emily’s intervention. Emily called Summer at 4:00 A.M. after months of not speaking, and encouraged her to come home, saying “God’s not letting you die for a reason”. After returning home, Summer had one week before she entered a rehabilitation facility in Victoria Texas, during which she was continuously drunk and high- including the morning she left for rehab. After weeks in rehab, Summer conceded that she surrendered to God’s will and felt her own resistance shatter. Several months after leaving rehab with no relapse, her husband and her were reconciled, Summer’s custody of her son was reinstated, and she was again involved in JSL.

All of the accounts that Emily and Summer shared conveyed how morally and physically devastating the sex industry is, and they certainly shattered the illusion that prostitution should be championed for any reason. It is by their courage and example that a revolution for the damnation of the sex industry is being led, and hopefully one day no woman will know the degradation of sex exploitation.