Rebecca Bender moved into her boyfriend’s house. Nothing unusual there, right? She had only been seeing him for six months, but soon after she moved in, the beatings began.
Sex trafficking is simply known as trading of sexual slavery or hard labor. Most believe that human trafficking only takes place in Third World countries. What people don’t know, however, is that human trafficking of any kind happens everywhere, even in Eugene.
At 18, Bender, a former Eugene resident, lived with several friends in an apartment just off the University of Oregon campus.
“I met my trafficker at a party near campus and he started dating me, just pretending to be my boyfriend for six months. He lured me away with false promises, pretending to be my boyfriend, when really that was never his intention,” Bender said.
Bender was taken to escort services, a front for the sex trade system, where she was forced into prostitution. She would then be traded between traffickers across the country, one of whom was a Gorilla pimp — a brutal controller who uses violence and threats to ensure prostitutes follow their strict demands. During the six years that she was held against her will, Bender was traded between three pimps, branded twice, arrested seven times, suffered through a handful of hospital visits unsuccessfully and tried to escape her life of fear on four different occasions.
With the intent of bringing awareness of stories like Bender’s to the university community, Andrew Van Asselt has organized the Abolition Project. The project is a fashion show that raises awareness for human trafficking, which will take place in Gerlinger Hall on May 11 at 7 p.m. The event is $10 for general admission, $20 for premium seats. VIP seating goes for $40.
“I didn’t want it to just be another ad that’s sad and depressing, something just to get money. I wanted to show people that they could stop this issue practically and I have always been into clothing,” Asselt said.
During the fashion show, Bender will speak about her experiences as a victim of sex trafficking.
“I am a local survivor of human trafficking. I was trafficked out of Eugene, so you know (it’s) very fitting to come speak in Eugene,” Bender said.
Six years after she was brought into the sex trade, the FBI raided her home, which the pimp was using as a front. This resulted in Bender’s escape from the trafficking system.
“U.S. Marshals raided the house while the FBI S.W.A.T. team ransacked our things, putting everyone in a corner. They took our computers, paperwork and cash,” Bender said. “The U.S. Marshals, built a case from this enterprise that was laundering money from the pizza franchise. They didn’t come in as there is a trafficker abusing four women.”
Deceit is a trait often found in American traffickers, and Bender is not the only woman to be fooled by a false sense of security.
“It is important to change the mindset of our culture and how we tend to envision human trafficking. We think of movies like ‘Taken,’ envisioning girls clawing at the carpet,’” Bender said. “If people don’t see that and if victims don’t see that, neither one can identify human trafficking.”
She wants to share her story and her experience to hopefully prevent future trafficking in Eugene, and inform students of the dangers of not knowing who you are opening your life up to.
“I feel very healed from the trauma that has taken place, I don’t think that anyone would know by looking or talking to me that I have experienced that kind of life, which is truly what we want for survivors. We want true redemption,” Bender said.
Update: A previous version of this story inaccurately stated that Bender’s former pimp used a pizza parlor as a front for his escort business and that when she moved in with her alleged boyfriend, that the knobs were missing from the doors.