trafficking.

[snugglekitty]

Okay. So something about the media pisses me off. ("Just one thing, LadyA," you chorus? "Please, tell us more!")

In fact many things piss me off about the media, but the one I'm thinking of right now has to do with the media portrayal of human trafficking. Recently, the CSI crossover trilogy was focused on trafficking, and also I saw the movie The Spartan which had that as well.

Here's a brief summation of the portrayal I'm talking about:

A young, pretty white girl, Caucasian, with no history of disciplinary problems suddenly vanishes. It turns out that she's abducted - generally grabbed by some big burly guys and pulled into the back of a van. She fights back but they are too strong. And then you find out the worst - she's being taken to be a SEX SLAVE! No no no! Not that! The angry grieving family goes to the authorities and demand that all available resources be devoted to getting their baby back. Wrath and press conferences ensue until you FIND THOSE EVIL MEN AND STOP THEM.

From where I sit, there are two main problems with this portrayal.



1) While sex work may seem scandalous and exciting, it is not the only form of human trafficking. If someone is being held with no means of escape and forced to work, it does not matter if they are turning tricks, working in a field, sewing Nike sneakers, or washing someone's kitchen floor. It's still wrong and dehumanizing. And quick hint - some of these forms of work are more crucial to the Western economy than others.

2) I am by no means a hardened criminal, but even I know better than to violently abduct white American girls from the bosoms of their loving resourceful families! It's not a very viable business model. It's less risky and way more practical to go to places of great economic hardship and show off the brochures about the rug factory you need to hire girls for, or tell the parents their daughter will be somebody's maid. Or pay her dowry and tell them you're going to marry her to your younger brother who's not quite right in the head. Or find someone who has already run away and is selling sex and make them work for you. Or be her boyfriend for a while and get her hooked on drugs.



This idea of "white slavery" is very titillating, and it has been since at least the Victorian days, I know, but it's pretty hard for me to believe that's how things really work.

Comments

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Law and Order: SVU had a more realistic sex slavery episode. Dudes were looking for young foreign girls in NYC--girls who had come there to go to school and needed extra cash, girls who wanted to be models, idealistic girls who were looking for a better life than what they had where they grew up, and who had no money and didn't really know anyone in the US yet--I think in some of the cases they were befriending girls on the plane to the US. They offered a place to stay while the girl got on her feet, then drugged them to keep them docile while pimping them out. The police found out because one girl (a Ukrainian girl, so the heroine was white) had managed to mail a letter to her dad, who tried to get the consulate to help him, got ignored, flew over to look for her, and then got murdered by her kidnappers. The cops found the letter in his pocket and started investigating further. So there was definitely still an element of the "loving family of white people trying to find innocent kidnapped daughter" theme, but darker than the one you're describing. I just wanted to throw in that at least one show is trying to do a slightly more realistic portrayal.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for chiming in. Yeah. That definitely makes more sense to me.

[girliegoalie.livejournal.com]

I don't know which show did it, but I recall a show where there was something of "adoption rng" run by upper/middle class white families, where they adopted children from other countries around the age of 10 and put them to work in their house cleaning and such.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Creepy! I like it! Thanks for sharing.