Biography
Sandra Norak (a pseudonym) spent six years in prostitution. Currently, she is about to finish law studies in Germany with a specialty in European and Public International law with a focus on international criminal law and international protection of human rights. She has written about the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and sexual violence in armed conflict. She works to raise awareness about the system of prostitution and different forms of human trafficking, like the "loverboy-method." She is also doing prevention work in schools to teach young girls how to identify and protect themselves and friends from "loverboys." She has spoken in the parliaments in Germany and Italy about prostitution, trafficking, and especially about “hidden” trafficking. She has made many appearances in newspapers and on TV. She is part of Sisters e.V., a German NGO, that is doing enlightenment work about prostitution and offering exit services for women in prostitution. Her homepage is: https://mylifeinprostitution.wordpress.com/
Abstract
This narrative is about dissociation in the lives of women who have been exploited through prostitution. When we speak about prostitution, we do not speak often enough about the dissociation needed for women and girls to survive sexual exploitation. The author challenges the wisdom of governments such as Germany that legalize prostitution, treating it as a “job” and ignoring the violence and subsequent dissociation in women. The author describes her personal journey, explaining how women are traumatized even after the first commercial sex act, which is a sexual assault. They dissociate which makes their lives bearable, but they fail to see its negative effects that continue even after they leave prostitution. Finally, the author relates her personal breakthrough experience to end her dissociation while she was caring for horses. This realization allowed her to identify and connect to her own feelings and to be her authentic self.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Norak, Sandra (2020) "Loss of Self in Dissociation in Prostitution; Recovery of Self in Connection to Horses: A Survivor's Journey," Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 4: Iss. 4, Article 6. https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2019.04.04.06
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