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Letters

By Our Readers, Katha Pollitt & Jennifer Baumgardner

This article appeared in the April 5, 2004 edition of The Nation.

March 17, 2004

Link to original article.

THE NICHOLAS KRISTOF MONOLOGUES?

Kingston, RI

In her March 1 "Subject to Debate" column, "Kristof to the Rescue?," Katha Pollitt briefly mentions my work against the global sex trade, but in a way that leaves a false impression of the scholarship and advocacy I do. Pollitt writes that I oppose the distribution of condoms in brothels. This is absolutely false. My research has documented that AIDS prevention programs have a policy of overlooking slavery when they distribute condoms. I have criticized the priority of distributing condoms over freeing women and children. I advocate for policies that require NGO workers to report slavery when they encounter it and for laws that penalize pimps, traffickers and the men who go to brothels.

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About Katha Pollitt

Pollitt's writing has appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Ms. and the New York Times. her most recent collection of Nation columns is "Virginity or Death!." Her volume of personal essays, Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories, has just come out from Random House. For more, visit her web site at www.kathapollitt.com. more...

About Jennifer Baumgardner

Jennifer Baumgardner is the author, with Amy Richards, of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots:A Field Guide for Feminist Activism and the producer of the documentary I Had an Abortion, distributed by Women Make Movies. more...

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