Não sou dos tempos nem dos sítios em que «tornar-se homem» equivalia ao ritual de perder a virgindade com uma prostituta. Portanto o conhecimento que tenho é meramente literário e de filmes e séries de televisão ou ainda de notícias. E por conhecimento refiro-me aos pormenores básicos do fenómeno: quem são estas mulheres, quem são os clientes, porque, como e em que condições é que a prática da prostituição ocorre.

Estes dois artigos, um da Vanity Fair[1] e outro do New York Times[2] estão longe de serem estudos exaustivos. O primeiro fala sobre as tendências actuais da prostituição em Espanha e o segundo conta a história de exemplos de tráfico humano de adolescentes brancas na Nova Inglaterra (E.U.A.). Com eles fiquei a saber que pouco sabia do que se passa. Deixo aqui alguns excertos sobre os aspectos que mais me surpreenderam.

Família

A iniciação à prostituição, ou mais propriamente, a introdução nos círculos de tráfico de pessoas, tem raízes familiares. A servidão é deliberadamente causada pela família. Um exemplo acerca das mulheres estrangeiras que se prostituem em Espanha:

“Some of the women are sold into the business by their families, Mr. Cortes said. The police came across one case in which Colombian traffickers were paying one family $650 a month for their daughter. She managed to escape, he said. But when she contacted her family, they told her to go back or they would send her sister as a replacement.”[2]

E nos Estados Unidos:

“According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she had been sold to him, for $1,200, in a package deal with her best friend, Alicia. The vendor was Brian Forbes, a six-foot-five-inch, 40-year-old bodybuilder, whom local law enforcement understood to be employed in the bail-bond business.

In the fall of 2003, after turning 18, Gwen headed down to Hartford to visit her Aunt Lucy, her mother’s sister. Her aunt, in turn, introduced her niece to Brian Forbes. “She told me he was a really nice guy and stuff,” Gwen said.

(…) Gwen’s Aunt Lucy, of course, had set her up. Intra-familial recruiting of sex slaves is a common practice. Eva, a Norwich, Connecticut, girl, was forced by her mother-in-law—via starvation, drugs, and threats to her baby boys—into prostituting herself at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, the Connecticut casinos. Caroline, the former 4-H member, was taken to a brothel by her best friend’s mom and a pastor, the Reverend Henry L. Price. Gwen was especially easy prey for her aunt and Forbes because, before she had even left Vermont, she was hooked on heroin—a virtual epidemic nowadays in the New England and New York suburbs because of its current purity, potency, and cheapness.”[1]

Nem, mesmo os clientes se apercebem, na maior parte dos casos, do que se passa:

“Johns don’t understand what they’re contributing to. It never occurs to them that the woman who is smiling is being abused. They really don’t know what’s going on—and they don’t care.”[1]

Tráfico

Os exemplos acima parecem não ser excepções no panorama geral que indica que a maioria das mulheres que se prostituem não o fazem de livre vontade, mas são de facto vitimas de tráfico humano:

“There is little reliable data on the subject. The State Department’s 2010 report on trafficking said that 200,000 to 400,000 women worked in prostitution in Spain. The report said that 90 percent were trafficked.”[2]

E, dependendo dos locais, das leis e das condições sócio-económicas, as origens das mulheres pode ser muito variada:

“Thirty years ago, virtually all the prostitutes in Spain were Spanish. Now, almost none are. Advocates and police officials say that most of the women are controlled by illegal networks — they are modern-day slaves.”[2]

Falta de leis, ausência de resposta das autoridades

Em muitos casos, a falta de legislação adequada não permite lidar eficazmente com esta terrível combinação de tráfico de seres humanos com as redes de prostituição forçada:

“Fueling the boom in the sex industry in Spain are many factors, experts say, including porous borders in many parts of the world and lax laws. Until 2010, Spain did not even have a law that distinguished trafficking from illegal immigration”[2]

De facto, parece que nem as autoridades estão verdadeiramente ao corrente do que se passa:

“Until recently, for instance, the police in Barcelona did not even realize that Chinese mafias ran prostitution rings in the city. Then they began noticing more and more advertisements for Chinese, Japanese and Korean women — all of them, it turned out, Chinese — working in a network of about 30 brothels.”[2]

Alterações das atitudes

Outra questão importante é a alteração de atitudes – e por ventura padrões morais – das pessoas e do colectivo. Em particular a sexualização e consequente dessensibilização da sociedade:

“«The young used to go to discos,» said Francina Vila i Valls, Barcelona’s councilor for women and civil rights. «But now they go to brothels. It’s just another form of entertainment to them.»”[2]

"In the meantime, here in the U.S., hot-pink patent-leather stiletto crib shoes for baby girls, aged zero to six months, and Abercrombie & Fitch push-up padded bikinis for eight-year-olds have been all the rage in downward-deviant fashion, prostitution is a mainstay of Las Vegas’s economy, and Ice-T has produced a documentary on the life of Iceberg Slim, who, in his dotage, expressed remorse in Pimp for his wasted youth and his squandered fortune, but never for any of the girls he thrashed into red jelly with his homemade wire whip. Slim did speculate, however, that his cruelty toward women arose from his «unconscious hatred» for his mother. «It’s disgusting,» Natalie says. «The pimp is winning out.»”[1]

A vitalidade do negócio nota-se no aumento da publicidade aos serviços, mas fiquei surpreendido pelo à-vontade com que a prostituição é publicitada:

“The visibility of prostitution has become an issue here. A battle has raged over whether to allow ads for prostitution in newspapers, but they remain legal and appear even in the most reputable papers.”[2]

“Scates had noticed that the X-rated classifieds in the back of The Hartford Advocate had dwindled slightly, she hoped as a result of the task force’s valiant efforts. But she quickly caught on that a new, tech-savvy generation of pimps was filling the void by merchandising girls on Craigslist (in September 2010 the site succumbed to pressure to remove its adult-services section, which was expected to earn $44 million last year); on Backpage.com (owned by Village Voice Media); or via theeroticreview.com. Females on theeroticreview.com are rated for consumers—ostensibly by “hobbyists” but more often than not, victims say, by their ever shrewder pimps.”[1]

Que políticas públicas?

Porém, o que mais me terá surpreendido foi a conclusão indicada sobre as atitudes a tomar por parte dos órgãos legislativos. Paralelamente ao que tenho ouvido acerca das drogas, em que a despenalização dos comportamentos menos graves parece ter tido um efeito positivo, pensei que a liberalização da prostituição tivesse também consequências benéficas para quem se prostitui. No entanto, o relaxamento ou mesmo a ausência de proibição parece configurar a situação óptima para a proliferação de redes de tráfico de seres humanos, que acabam sempre por fazer da prostituição servidão:

That, in fact, is exactly the theory behind the Sex Purchase Law in Sweden. As of 1999, johns are punished by up to six months’ imprisonment, traffickers are locked up for 2-to–10-year hits, and prostitutes are offered medical care, education, and housing. As a result, prostitution has been reduced by 50 percent in Sweden, and the purchase of sex, which is understood to be a human-rights abuse, has decreased by 75 percent. In contrast, Europol studies show, nations such as Holland and Australia, where prostitution has been legalized, have become lucrative, low-risk magnets for international sex-slave drivers and organized crime. On the subject of Sweden’s demand-side laws—which Finland and Norway have now adopted, and Denmark is currently considering—Sweden’s minister for justice, Beatrice Ask, notes, “If we could get rid of slavery, then I think this type of buying human beings is something that we have to fight too.”[1]

Recomendo a leitura de ambas as reportagens.

1. Sex Trafficking of Americans: The Girls Next Door, Vanity Fair  ↩

2. Young Men Flocking to Spain for Sex With Trafficked Prostitutes, New York Times  ↩

Há uns meses, o António publicou uma crónica sobre a distância. A distância e a amizade. Quando cheguei aos EUA pensei no mesmo. Os nossos amigos são aqueles com quem partilhamos a vida, que sentido faz estarmos longe e falarmos umas poucas vezes por telefone ou encontrarmo-nos uma vez por ano, inevitavelmente para fazer o resumo do ano que passou? [1]

Mas sair de casa faz parte do acto de crescer. Fatalmente, sair do país é também crescer, é sair de outra casa. Ser turista não é exactamente a mesma coisa e claro que é impossível vivermos em todos os países do mundo, mas mesmo uma breve experiência de vivência é, na minha humilde opinião, recomendável.

Mas e as amizades? Com o Onésimo T. A. aprendi uma das coisas que marcam as amizades portuguesas: demoram tempo a criar. Não porque temos problemas de intimidade e precisamos de tempo para deixar alguém aproximar-se de nós – isso acontece mais nos países anglo-saxónicos. Mas porque as nossas amizades compreendem os dias gastos junto dos outros. Não são compartimentalizadas: o jantar, o jogo de futebol, o cinema, as férias. Fazemos muitas coisas juntos e vêm muito de trás. Partilhamos muita coisa. E essas amizades precisam desse tempo, porque as caracteriza, inevitavelmente.

Ao sair apercebi-me que há outras amizades. Não necessariamente melhores, ou piores. Outro tipo de amizades. Amizades que podem ser suspensas, no espaço e no tempo. E admito que hoje não passo sem elas. Mesmo que não estejam aqui, agora. No entanto, foi preciso estar longe para as adquirir.

Acho que não me desprendo das raízes, cresci assim e não consigo mudar por completo. Mas fez-me bem estar longe para poder vir a estar perto.

O vídeo acima tem quase dez milhões de visualizações. E que viram os milhares de pessoas no vídeo? Um senhor a dançar em frente aos netos. De forma bastante animada e, arriscaria, mesmo cómica. Que vi eu? Uma oportunidade de negócio.

A ideia já andava a ser ruminada há uns tempos e este vídeo veio dar-me a confirmação de que necessitava: há mercado, há procura. Vejam-no novamente e observem atentamente a parede por detrás do bailadeiro. Não há prateleira, mesa ou electrodoméstico que não tenha um… napron. Excepto a televisão LCD. Exacto. Aí está o problema, o nicho de mercado. Naprons para ecrãs planos. E o negócio não se acaba nos televisores: há um potencial enorme entre os monitores de computador, molduras digitais, ou até tablets e smartphones.

Infelizmente, não sou o único a pensar neste assunto. Um artista do Porto já usa um napron sobre o seu Korg MS-20. Mas, convenhamos, nem todos têm um sintetizador em casa. Televisor? Em toda a parte! E já não é fácil arranjá-los com tubos de raios catódicos.

Assim, deixo-vos aqui com o primeiro protótipo. Agora é avançar para o Kickstarter!

In 1983, at the Urodynamics Society meeting in Las Vegas, Professor G.S. Brindley first announced to the world his experiments on self-injection with papaverine to induce a penile erection. This was the first time that an effective medical therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) was described, and was a historic development in the management of ED. The way in which this information was first reported was completely unique and memorable, and provides an interesting context for the development of therapies for ED. I was present at this extraordinary lecture, and the details are worth sharing. Although this lecture was given more than 20 years ago, the details have remained fresh in my mind, for reasons which will become obvious.

The lecture, which had an innocuous title along the lines of ‘Vaso-active therapy for erectile dysfunction’ was scheduled as an evening lecture of the Urodynamics Society in the hotel in which I was staying. I was a senior resident, hungry for knowledge, and at the AUA I went to every lecture that I could. About 15 min before the lecture I took the elevator to go to the lecture hall, and on the next floor a slight, elderly looking and bespectacled man, wearing a blue track suit and carrying a small cigar box, entered the elevator. He appeared quite nervous, and shuffled back and forth. He opened the box in the elevator, which became crowded, and started examining and ruffling through the 35 mm slides of micrographs inside. I was standing next to him, and could vaguely make out the content of the slides, which appeared to be a series of pictures of penile erection. I concluded that this was, indeed, Professor Brindley on his way to the lecture, although his dress seemed inappropriately casual.

The lecture was given in a large auditorium, with a raised lectern separated by some stairs from the seats. This was an evening programme, between the daytime sessions and an evening reception. It was relatively poorly attended, perhaps 80 people in all. Most attendees came with their partners, clearly on the way to the reception. I was sitting in the third row, and in front of me were about seven middle-aged male urologists, and their partners in ‘full evening regalia’.

Professor Brindley, still in his blue track suit, was introduced as a psychiatrist with broad research interests. He began his lecture without aplomb. He had, he indicated, hypothesized that injection with vasoactive agents into the corporal bodies of the penis might induce an erection. Lacking ready access to an appropriate animal model, and cognisant of the long medical tradition of using oneself as a research subject, he began a series of experiments on self-injection of his penis with various vasoactive agents, including papaverine, phentolamine, and several others. (While this is now commonplace, at the time it was unheard of). His slide-based talk consisted of a large series of photographs of his penis in various states of tumescence after injection with a variety of doses of phentolamine and papaverine. After viewing about 30 of these slides, there was no doubt in my mind that, at least in Professor Brindley’s case, the therapy was effective. Of course, one could not exclude the possibility that erotic stimulation had played a role in acquiring these erections, and Professor Brindley acknowledged this.

The Professor wanted to make his case in the most convincing style possible. He indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be erotically stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes (hence the track-suit) to make it possible to exhibit the results. He stepped around the podium, and pulled his loose pants tight up around his genitalia in an attempt to demonstrate his erection.

At this point, I, and I believe everyone else in the room, was agog. I could scarcely believe what was occurring on stage. But Prof. Brindley was not satisfied. He looked down sceptically at his pants and shook his head with dismay. ‘Unfortunately, this doesn’t display the results clearly enough’. He then summarily dropped his trousers and shorts, revealing a long, thin, clearly erect penis. There was not a sound in the room. Everyone had stopped breathing.

But the mere public showing of his erection from the podium was not sufficient. He paused, and seemed to ponder his next move. The sense of drama in the room was palpable. He then said, with gravity, ‘I’d like to give some of the audience the opportunity to confirm the degree of tumescence’. With his pants at his knees, he waddled down the stairs, approaching (to their horror) the urologists and their partners in the front row. As he approached them, erection waggling before him, four or five of the women in the front rows threw their arms up in the air, seemingly in unison, and screamed loudly. The scientific merits of the presentation had been overwhelmed, for them, by the novel and unusual mode of demonstrating the results.

The screams seemed to shock Professor Brindley, who rapidly pulled up his trousers, returned to the podium, and terminated the lecture. The crowd dispersed in a state of flabbergasted disarray. I imagine that the urologists who attended with their partners had a lot of explaining to do. The rest is history. Prof Brindley’s single-author paper reporting these results was published about 6 months later.

Professor Brindley made a huge contribution to the management of ED, for which he deserves tremendous gratitude. He was a true lateral thinker, and applied his unique mind to a variety of problems in medicine. These include over 100 publications that focus on the areas of visual neurophysiology and several other aspects of neurophysiology, including ejaculation and female sexual dysfunction. He also published one remarkable paper studying the effect of 17 different drugs used intracorporally to induce erection. Seven of these (phenoxybenzamine, phentolamine, thymoxamine, imipramine, verapamil, papaverine, naftidrofury) induced an erection. It is not clear to what degree Brindley’s own penis served as the test subject for these studies.

This lecture was unique, dramatic, paradigm-shifting, and unexpected. It is difficult to imagine that a similar scenario could ever take place again. Professor Brindley belongs in the pantheon of famous British eccentrics who have made spectacular contributions to science. The story of his lecture deserves a place in the urological history books.

Laurence Klotz
BJU International - Volume 96, Issue 7, pages 956–957, November 2005