TASK #1
According to the United Nations Palermo Protocol, Article 3, Use of Terms (a):
"Traffi transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs" (Protocol, 2000).
In Girls Like Us, Lloyd argues that girls commonly thought of as engaging in prostitution are actually victims of trafficking. Why are they socially constructed as morally bankrupt prostitutes who chose "the life" when other women are constructed as helpless victims of corruption?
Think about Lloyd's argument in the context of the UN Palermo Protocol and the context of our discussion of the "Global Discourse on Human Trafficking."
Then, don't just take my word for it.
Research at least two sources, one scholarly (journal article, book published by a university press) and one popular (magazines, newspapers, government websites), on trafficking to learn more about what scholars, reporters, governments, or activists say.
Then, think: how do all of these discourses compare?
With all of that in mind, chose a quote from Girls Like Us that you believe is rich for discussion (maybe it angers you, you find it confusing, you find it difficult to read). Then, type that quote up and write a 400 (within 100 words) response to the quote that is supported by at least one outside source.
Next, find someone in class to write a 300 response to your response-- engaging in the quote and your discussion of the text-- that includes at least one other outside source (that can't be the one used in initial response made by that person).
Post this to your blog (you can coordinate by email, you can do it via your blog in the comments section, you can have a lunch date to discuss and write, etc.). Include a works cited.
By the time you are finished, you should have written at least two responses to quotes from the text that include reference and support form both sources of outside research. You may write more than two if you respond to more than one person.
This assignment is due by Tuesday at 11:59, April 10th. It will count as your second unit assignment.
TASK #2
For our quiz in lieu of today's class, you can post to the following as a comment on this blog (by tonight at 11:59). Your response can be no longer than 250 words.
In Girls Like Us, Lloyd argues that girls commonly thought of as engaging in prostitution are actually victims of trafficking. Why are they socially constructed as morally bankrupt prostitutes who chose "the life" when other women are constructed as helpless victims of corruption?
Think about Lloyd's argument in the context of the UN Palermo Protocol and the context of our discussion of the "Global Discourse on Human Trafficking."
Then, don't just take my word for it.
Research at least two sources, one scholarly (journal article, book published by a university press) and one popular (magazines, newspapers, government websites), on trafficking to learn more about what scholars, reporters, governments, or activists say.
Then, think: how do all of these discourses compare?
With all of that in mind, chose a quote from Girls Like Us that you believe is rich for discussion (maybe it angers you, you find it confusing, you find it difficult to read). Then, type that quote up and write a 400 (within 100 words) response to the quote that is supported by at least one outside source.
Next, find someone in class to write a 300 response to your response-- engaging in the quote and your discussion of the text-- that includes at least one other outside source (that can't be the one used in initial response made by that person).
Post this to your blog (you can coordinate by email, you can do it via your blog in the comments section, you can have a lunch date to discuss and write, etc.). Include a works cited.
By the time you are finished, you should have written at least two responses to quotes from the text that include reference and support form both sources of outside research. You may write more than two if you respond to more than one person.
This assignment is due by Tuesday at 11:59, April 10th. It will count as your second unit assignment.
TASK #2
For our quiz in lieu of today's class, you can post to the following as a comment on this blog (by tonight at 11:59). Your response can be no longer than 250 words.
Prompt:
After reading this section I felt....
Which left me with this burning question...
Quiz for Global
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Girls like Us for class I felt a lot of anger regarding the state of our current situation regarding human trafficking and pimping. It bothers me to know end how rappers and celebrities are celebrated for being a “pimp”. 50 cents song P.I.M.P is very catchy ,however, the lyrics are grotesque. I will be honest, I have sung that song before and now that I look back and are a lot more educated on this issue I am grossed out by it. Having songs and people in the media portraying “pimp life” is wrong and perpetuates “the life” which is wrong and creates an extremely cyclical problem. Throughout the reading from today I also began to realize the despair in some of these people and how the abuse that one person receives can affect many people, for instance, pimps who were raised in an abusive situation know only that and can potentially become pimps themselves because that is all they know. My burning question is: How do we allow the media to perpetuate these thoughts and how has it become ok? People who grow up listening to these rap songs don’t know the real meaning of the term, pimp. For a long time I thought it was cool to refer to things as ‘pimpin’ and how the pimp lifestyle is cool because that is all I knew. My parents explained otherwise but the media still romanticized the term. People still romanticize it because they don’t know.
After reading this section I was overcome by many emotions; saddened by the things we humans do to one another, frustrated by the fact that people seem to think trafficking is not a US issue, grateful because I see the many ways in which the choices I made during my youth could have led me into the same situations described in Girls Like Us. My most predominant feeling though leads to the following burning question: How can I, as an individual and student, help to make a difference in human trafficking and exploitation?
ReplyDeleteMost importantly, I want to see people not only working with the victims of human trafficking, sex trafficking and forced prostitution but also addressing the larger, systematic issues that perpetuate the problem such as poverty, the construct of masculinity and femininity, misogyny, globalization and neoliberal policies. After all, merely treating symptoms without addressing the cause will ultimately do nothing to stop the problem.
After reading this section I felt initially disgust and then pity for the pimps, as that section is the one that stood out to me most. I felt disgust because they are taking advantage of and causing psychological, emotional, and physical harm to young girls by being one of the factors that is robbing them of a happier life. Hearing the stories of men who beat these girls, take their earnings, and otherwise degrade them is heartbreaking. However, towards the end of that chapter, it seemed that the choice to take advantage of these young girls may not be as much of a choice as first thought. It may be the only thing they know, and the only option they see, similar to how selling their bodies is the only option these girls see.
ReplyDeleteThis left me with the burning question of how we as a society can let this happen, but a question larger and more specific than that one that I was also left with is how can we let the occupation of “pimp” be so glamourized. Countless songs, as described in the book, glorify this lifestyle and portray it as an acceptable mode of living. This should not be the case, but I don’t know how to change it.
After reading this section I felt....
ReplyDeleteDisappointed and a little embarrassed. Although my taste in music has changed quite a bit, I have found myself bobbing my head to many 50 cent songs back in the day, not really thinking about the message that was actually going out. I also felt a sense of empathy for the author, who shared her own recruitment story regarding how she entered “the life”. I thought it was interesting that once she announced that she had left home, nobody jumped up to help her return, which was probably a very critical point in her life which led her to being a stripper. Being neglected and unwanted was clearly a gateway into the life that she began to pursue. I also felt embarrassed for the “Johns” who are everyday men who exploit girls and women for their own benefit. The fact that “Johns” probably go home to wives, girlfriends and children disturbs me and reiterates for me what a dirty society we live in where we accept this type of behavior and often call it normal.
Which left me with this burning question...
Is making prostitution legal a good idea? Why do women exploit themselves, such as the high end educated prostitutes who have gone to college to get at least a Master’s degree? Don’t they realize they are setting us back as a society?
After reading this section I felt awakened. The way that pop-culture distorts societies view on things and the generally accepted perversions of our society in general distress me. However, I was most struck by chapter four: “Recruitment.” There was a definite point in my developmental years that I could have been swayed by the softly spoken words of some handsome man (Okay, maybe I still can be, but in a vastly different context). My mother passed away when I was 11 and within a year it became apparent that my father was too distraught to handle raising me. I was sent to live with my older sister, who did the best she could, but when you’re 20, grieving the loss of your mother, and working around the clock, it’s hard to give the amount of attention a very angry, very depressed, very defiant 12-year-old requires. If there had been a single misstep, the stories that we read could have been mine. Along with this realization came the guilt, the sadness, the anger, and the gratefulness.
ReplyDeleteWhich left me with this burning question…what can we do? Is it just a matter of chance? I feel proud and lucky to have turned out as I have, but it feels like it was just that: a matter of luck. How have I remained ignorant to these things? Why are people like 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg being validated; why is this lifestyle being glorified in media? Why doesn’t society know better?
After reading this section I felt inspired. I know this is a strange feeling to have after reading something that leaves you with such a feeling of disgust. There are just so many things wrong with today's society and the things we glamorize. For example, we believe that beauty is all superficial and that a woman must be a zero with a size D chest to be beautiful. In regards to the reading it refers to the fact that a "pimp" is something to be idolized according to modern music. The reason I felt inspired is because the feeling of disgust or embarrassment that you may have at one point listened to degrading music will do nothing to help the problem. Taking action, however, can be useful. One person may not make a huge difference but it is important to bring knowledge to others who do not know about the negative consequences that come along with supporting such music or references.
ReplyDeleteWhich left me with this burning question...what can I do to help fix this? It is time that people don't just sit back while these things happen. Society must make a change. We may not be able to put an immediate stop to human trafficking, that is out of the control of one single person. But we can be in control of ourselves and what we support.
After reading this section I felt paralyzed by helplessness, sadness, and guilt. The degree of calculation used by those who prey on young girls who are already emotionally and psychologically vulnerable is reprehensible. Finding the words to talk about these issues is quite difficult for me when all I want to do is crawl under a rock and cry about it. Generally speaking, I don’t have an incredibly difficult time separating myself from troubling class material but this book has hit me in a way that is not typical for me and I’m having a difficult time processing it all. In regard to the ways in which the pimp lifestyle is glorified in pop culture, I think that the lack of proximity to issues of sex trafficking for the general public allows the disconnect between the incredibly problematic lyrical content to go unexamined. I think that this functions in two different ways: the first of which is that it desensitizes people to the severity of the issues and helps to mask the issue of sex trafficking.
ReplyDeleteThis left me with the burning question of what I personally can do about any of this. While I am incredibly brokenhearted by thought of how these young girls lives are taken from them before they are even able to truly create a life for themselves, I wonder where I can fit into this. The fact that I don’t know the answer to this leaves me feeling even more guilty and paralyzed.
After I read this section, I felt somewhat upset that Rachel Lloyd's portrayal of domestic human trafficking still allowed it to be a largely racialized, class-based problem. While there are statistic corollaries for this, the lack of diversity in the angles from which she analyzed this problem allows a primarily white, liberal, class-privileged audience to construct a discourse of THOSE victims OVER THERE, even if OVER THERE is just in the bad area of town. I'm sure that not every example of grooming for sex work she gave was the story of a woman of color, yet any deviance from that pattern was not noted, and whiteness was all but ignored/erased. As close as she comes to touching something close to everyone with these Girls Like Us, she allows a majoritarian lens to govern her writings in ways I find rather troubling. Also, I read a comment asking why women "allow themselves to be exploited," and that angle seems to me to be uncomfortably victim-blaming, not to mention myopic about the potential positives of sex work. We are receiving one very isolated lens through which to view this issue, so I have the following question: How can we be more balanced in our analysis of sex work, and better contextualize Lloyd's arguments in terms of its extreme personal prejudices against sex work in all forms?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this section I felt pretty icky inside. I want to talk more extensively about pimps, recruiters, and traffickers with my classmates. I want us to talk more about the addiction to love and attention. And how we may find ourselves living in a loveless world, turn to whatever place or person offers us love and attention, and end up criminalized. There is a connection here. The lovelessness and the guilt of feeling like you owe someone something (yourself is the something) when they give you love…you have to do whatever it is they want you to do or else they will stop loving you. And you need that love. My burning question is…can we please talk about this?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this section I felt somewhat hopeless and disappointed in our society. I'm not suprised, but I'm disappointed that as a society we are contantly able to take really serious issues and minimize them through pop culture, such as the way we have chosen to romantize the Pimp. This also leads me feeling troubled because I obviously have some knowledge as to what a pimp really is, but find myself caught between what I know to be true and what most other people consider to be their truth and therefore act accordingly. I find this with many Women's Studies issues, where I often feel outraged and choose to change the way I speak, etc, but how can I make this clear to others? Those that aren't reading Girls Like Us or Trinh, and think the word pimp is cool and something completely different. This section has put me in yet another bind, asking what I'm suppose to do? And how I'm suppose to conduct myself with the knowledge of women's studies in a "post feminist" society.
ReplyDeleteCorrection to the assignmemt: the unit assignment is due Tuesday, April 10th at 11:59 pm.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this section, I was more than a little furious. I am furious at our society and the acceptance and near encouragement of trafficking of these minors who have not lived their lives. I am furious that the world that I also live in does not discipline the individuals who perpetuate this culture. I loved that she told her story as it made her seem more relatable and give us as outsiders a glimpse into a victims life. I am so furious that despite her fight and concern for these girls who are victims, they don't see themselves as worthy of good life because their pimps have told them so.
ReplyDeleteI would want to know what is the most effective way of educating a large majority, if not all, of our society who the victims really are. My burning question is how does society allow for traffickers and pimps to continue exploiting girls to live "the life" when they should behind bars?