Child Sex Trafficking In Patricia Mccormick's Sold

However much the issue is discussed, the topic of child sex trafficking in South Asia still seems distant and foggy. It is hard for people living in America and other far-away nations to understand to what extent these girls (mostly girls in this area, although boys will be trafficked as well) are forced to participate in non-consensual sexual activity. Most children will be under the age of 13 when first sold into brothels and live their lives in the darkness of trafficking, only to end up dying from causes related to unsafe sexual activity such as diseases like HIV/AIDS and botched abortions, dying from horrible treatment and punishment from brothel leaders, starvation or mutilation. Author Patricia McCormick was inspired to tell the story

In Sold, as in the past, women have little to no rights without the company of a man. When Lakshmi recalls her mother’s words about respecting her stepfather, she says “Ama says we are lucky to have a man at all. She says I am to honor and praise him, respect and thank him for taking us in after my father died” (p.8). In society, women are considered worthless without a man. Women cannot protect themselves financially the way men can and do not have the same rights as a man. This is not different from ancient ways, where women were seen as second-class compared to men who were seen as much stronger, smarter, and all around better. The novel also illustrates the subordination of women by laying out guidelines for how a woman should treat her husband, such as the ones Lakshmi’s mother recites to her on pages 15-16, including the rules that after washing their husband’s feet, women must put some of the water in their mouths, and that women may not object to sex at any point in a marriage, and always try to bear their husbands a son. Early in the novel (page 85), when Lakshmi is being transported from Nepal to India with “Uncle Husband,” a man pretending to be both but really selling her to the brothel, she witnesses a girl being publicly shamed for trying to escape an abusive husband. The woman has had all her hair shaved off and is sobbing on the dirt road while a group of men (including her husband) surround her and throw dirt and rocks at her. This reinforces the idea that women should be completely under the control of their husbands and serve them in any way that pleases them. Sold also describes how traditional views on womanhood, such as menstruation, virginity, and child marriage, are still commonplace in modern society. When Lakshmi begins her first period on