Massachusetts is in the midst of prosecuting people who patronized a fancy sex business near Harvard University. It's been big news in certain corners, spawning salacious stories about the doctors, politicians, and tech executives who were on the club's client list. But the most novel thing about this prosecution is what it's missing: a wild yarn about sex slaves.
The framing of this story is refreshing, after more than a decade of similar stories getting starkly different treatment. Despite many of the sex workers involved being Asian—a fact that greatly increases the odds of a prostitution bust being called a "human trafficking sting"—news reports have largely refrained from trying to portray the women involved as hapless victims of sexual servitude.
Yet the absence of a trafficking narrative lays bare the hollowness of such prosecutions. Why are we doing this? Who's being served?
