Today, I attended a training on the Safe House Project—an initiative dedicated to ending sex trafficking. The statistics are staggering, but this is not a new issue. Women have been exploited through human trafficking across the globe and throughout history.

"Sex trafficking is the commercial sexual exploitation of an individual through force, fraud, or coercion."

Empress Dowager Cixi's rise to power was deeply tied to the imperial concubine system—a structure that, for many women, functioned as a form of sex trafficking under the guise of courtly duty. Young girls were selected, bought, or even gifted to the Forbidden City, stripped of their autonomy, and trained to serve the emperor’s desires. Once inside, they had no freedom to leave, and their survival depended on the favor of powerful men.

Cixi herself entered the palace as a low-ranking concubine, yet through intelligence and strategy, she ascended to become the de facto ruler of China. The system of imperial concubinage, much like modern sex trafficking, relied on power imbalances, coercion, and lack of consent. Though Cixi defied the system to seize power, thousands of women remained trapped, their stories erased from history.

Many concubines endured cruel fates, including:

• Forced Suicide – Ordered to die alongside an emperor or as punishment for disobedience.

• Lifelong Confinement – Locked away in the Forbidden City, never allowed to leave.

• Political Elimination – Killed or discarded if seen as a threat to those in power.

• Religious Exile – Sent to Buddhist nunneries to live in forced seclusion.

• Erasure from History – Their names and stories lost, remembered only in whispers.

While history often celebrates powerful figures like Cixi, the countless women who have been stripped of their autonomy and denied the right to consent should not be forgotten.

Submission, when it is chosen and consensual, is a beautiful expression of trust and connection. But no woman should ever be coerced, silenced, or denied the agency to make her own decisions. Consent is the foundation of all power dynamics, and every woman deserves the freedom to choose her path with dignity and respect.