Pg. 81: “I understand why she feels that being in the life is the only thing that she’s capable of doing. It’s hard to imagine a life of possibilities when she can’t even read a book, fill out a job application, or decipher a street sign.”
This quote summarizes the hopelessness that can control someone in a situation of this nature. While we wish there was an easy answer: “go to a shelter, go to the police, go to a family member, go to a “safe place,” the harsh reality is that these options often don’t offer the rehabilitation, support, and protection that is needed to escape the cycle of abuse, manipulation, fear, hope/helplessness that human trafficking fosters. One of the main things that Rachel Lloyd stresses in her memoir is the absence of choice for the women and girls that are caught up in the commercial sex industry. In order for a choice to be of legitimate construct, you’ve got to believe that you actually have possible alternatives…(Lloyd, 78).
Lloyd writes to expose the disconnect that exists in our society when it comes to our perception of victims of sex trafficking—-to break down the idea that the women and girl citizens involved in these acts are “morally corrupt” for “choosing” this lifestyle when the reality is that they are often just as scared, vulnerable, and disadvantaged as the immigrants that we have such sympathy for. Police are the most likely officials to come in contact with these victims. Unfortunately, most victims of trafficking are treated as criminals on the local level (Hughes, 9). Tactics of force and coercion that often cause the victim to fear telling the truth in the face of certain threats, or for loyalty to shift to the abuser further perpetuates this (Hughes, 4-7). Girls are encouraged to lie about their age and the prevalence of fraudulent documents makes it difficult to determine a person’s true age, hindering the authorities ability to treat them as victims of sexual exploitation instead of criminals (Hughes, 9). Paired with the overall insensitivity of law enforcement, as Lloyd has described in her book, the cycle continues.
The antithesis of “choice” would be “force.” The article cited above mentions “force” 22 times.
Works Cited
Hughes, Donna. "Hiding in Plain Sight." (2003): 3-11. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.
Lloyd, Rachel. Girls Like Us. 1st. New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.78-81. Print.
Word count: 343
One of the most important aspects of Girls Like Us, as noted in Sara’s response, is the illusion that the women and girls involved in the commercial sex industry “chose” to be involved in that lifestyle. In thinking about this issue in such a way, not only is there the absurd assumption that women and girls caught up in “the life” had possible alternative lifestyles that they passed up in order to live a life filled with violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation, but we also end up painting these victims as hardened criminals. Ultimately, in the discursive framing of victims as criminals and framing the desperation that leads to young women into this lifestyle as some sort of a “choice” absolves everybody but the victim from taking any kind of responsibility for addressing this issue.
ReplyDeleteThe quote used by Sara for conveying this concept I think best encapsulates the hopelessness and helplessness that leads one into “the life” and, as noted in her analysis, it is the antithesis of choice, force, that ultimately ends up trapping them there. In the article titled, “Enslaved in America: Sex Trafficking in the United States,” Tina Frundt addresses precisely this issue through her own first hand experience. She says, “We do not look at the faces of these young women and girls who are forced to be out in the street. Maybe we think this is what they want to do or they wouldn't be out there. Maybe it is easier to believe that it is an empowering choice they have than face the harsh reality of child sexual abuse, physical and mental abuse, and the pimps that prey on the young women and girls.”
In order to truly address this issue in an ethical manner and get beyond the general perception the commercial sex industry, as a society we must listen to those who have experienced it first hand such as Rachel Lloyd and Tina Frundt and I think that this analysis is a positive step in that direction.
Works Cited:
http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/resource/past-articles/enslaved-in-america-sex-trafficking-in-the-united-states