One of the workshops I went to at the JuST Conference was about “The Bottom Girl.” What or who is “The Bottom Girl?”
Bottom
Shared Hope International’s definition: female appointed by the trafficker/pimp to supervise the others and report rule violations. Operating as his “right hand,” the Bottom may help instruct victims, collect money, book hotel rooms, post ads, or inflict punishments on other girls.
What’s the difference between a Bottom Girl and a female pimp?
A female pimp:
- Works for herself.
- People work for her.
- Doesn’t engage in prostitution.
- Every dollar collected belongs to her.
- No one is abusing her.
- She has free will.
- She is a trafficker.
Bottom Girl:
- Works for a pimp.
- No one works for her.
- Must engage in prostitution.
Why do you need to know this? Because the Bottom girl may be your daughter’s new best friend at school.
She may be the one to recruit your daughter by bringing her to a party or by meeting some cute guys at the mall or a hundred different scenarios. Looks are deceiving. She may be the most beautiful, darling girl and you would never in a million years suspect anything nefarious. Your daughter may envy her new clothes or her fancy designer handbag or the attention she gets from her “boyfriend.” Your daughter is listening to her and may care more about what she thinks than what you think and that’s why I’m sharing this with you.
How does she become a Bottom Girl:
She may have fallen in love with a “Romeo Pimp” who convinced her that he loved her and they would get married one day. He may have been her boyfriend for several months before he asked her to “help him out” because he was low on cash. She just needs to sleep with this one guy this one time (it’s not big deal, right?) and earn a little cash (money she will never see)….
He may have met her online, in fact, chances are they met using the app on her phone, the one you don’t even know she has.
He wants to marry her and take her away from all her troubles, after all, he’s the only one that understands her.
So this new “boyfriend” eventually gives her a “promotion” making her the Bottom Girl.
Here’s where it gets complicated:
It would be easy to hate the Bottom Girl, right? Something to understand though is that the Bottom Girl is the one that gets the most “privileges” however she will also be the one driving minors across state lines. She’s the one that is collecting the money (money which she will never keep). She’s the one booking the ads and hotel rooms.
Therefore….
- She will be the one that has a felony on her record.
- She may be the one that is now a registered sex offender.
- She’s the “fall guy” and the pimp’s scapegoat.
- To make it even worse, some residential restoration programs won’t accept Bottom Girls.
And what are some of her “privileges” anyway?
Her “privileges” might be that she can take a nap one day a week or maybe she can eat lunch once. Not once a day or once a week mind you. One time. Another privilege may be that one time she might have the “privilege” of sitting in the front seat or she may actually get to sleep next to the pimp one night.
Why would she stay with him if she’s treated so poorly? She believes that this is “temporary” and things will change and one day he will marry her.
The person that gave the workshop was a Bottom Girl. Thank God she escaped from being trafficked and is now thriving. Her name is Shamere McKenzie and she is the CEO of Sun Gate Foundation. Her inspiring story is shared here, I hope you take the time to read it!
Do yourself a favor and do not search online for “Bottom Girl”–trust me. And oh, there are rappers that sing about “Bottom Girls” and glorify them and our youth are singing right along. People, we have work to do….
For reflection:
- How can we raise our daughters to know they are loved by God so they don’t need to look to others for attention and affection?
- Can we as a community mentor girls who may not have a solid family foundation so they will know they are loved by God?
- What can we do to come alongside at-risk girls and support them so they don’t choose to follow this path?
*A note about the image I chose for this post. This is a stock photo and I prayed hard over using it but I felt that it’s important to show that The Bottom Girl can look just like the adorable teenager next door. The two models in this photo are not victims of sex trafficking but they could be. All of our children are vulnerable which is why I chose to use this photo.
