Additional show and tell post Human Trafficking

http://www.katc.com/news/baton-rouge-ranks-in-top-ten-cities-for-human-trafficking/

After reading other people’s show and tell posts about human trafficking I wanted to share something I found as well so people could become more aware. I wanted to share a news report about this issue around Baton Rouge so people will see that it happens so close to home, but I also took a lot of information from the websites shared in other posts (Trafficking Hope and Tigers Against Trafficking). Before I read the other posts I didn’t really consider human trafficking as a big issue in the United States or even Baton Rouge for that matter. I always thought of human trafficking as something that happened mostly over seas, but it is happening everywhere in the US as well. With Baton Rouge ranked one of the top ten cities for human trafficking it is a much bigger issue happening close to home that not many people are aware of.

Girls from all age ranges are taken from their schools or parks, even lured in by false advertisements on the Internet and sold for sex. The girls that are being trafficked are threatened everyday to make a certain quota and if they don’t meet it they are beaten and harmed. Not only are they threatened if they don’t meet their quota, but they are also threatened into silence. Many girls are too afraid to talk about how they were taken from their homes because their life or the their families lives have been threatened by the people in charge of the human trafficking. These girls are only seen as objects to be sold and are so badly mistreated and abused that they often times die because of it. It is a scary thought that there are girls out there that have been taken from their homes to be trafficked for sex and an even scarier thought that anyone of us could fall victim to it.

Not many people are aware of this issue because it is a very hidden thing and people don’t want to believe it is happening. Sex and human trafficking is such a taboo topic that people just choose not to think about it. No one wants to consider that it is happening anywhere in the world much less their own town. The only way to stop human trafficking though, is for more people to be aware of what is going on around them. Taboo topic or not it is happening and it is something that needs to be stopped immediately.

Here is an additional news report about human trafficking in Baton Rouge. It touches in the issue of human trafficking in Baton Rouge as well as how Trafficking Hope and Tigers Against Trafficking got started.

http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/local-news/human-trafficking-in-baton-rouge

Be Aware

I think what really struck me from the Meet the Predator article that more people need to know is that most rapes happen between people that know each other. We all have this picture in our head of a woman being attacked by a sketchy older man hiding in the bushes. This is usually not the case though; most victims of sexual assault knew their attacker prior to the attack. The worst part is, is that victims that were sexually assaulted by someone they know are less likely to tell than victims that were attacked by a stranger. The people that get away with raping usually become repeat offenders and walk the streets holding on to a secret no one suspects.

More people need to be aware that the picture in their head of being raped by a sketchy random hiding in the shadows is less common than being raped by someone sitting next to you at a party. I think the best way to get people to listen and be aware is to put it in the media. First, I think shows that jokingly talk about issues such as rape should reevaluate the message they are sending out. If they are touching on these sort of serious issues in a joking manner then they are sending out a message to their viewers that it is OK to rape and attack people. I also think that sites such as Project Unbreakable should be more widely known. Most people won’t come across a site like this unless they are looking for it, and the people that need a wake up call the most probably aren’t looking for it. I think there should be commercials, kind of like the ones against texting and driving, with the different pictures from Project Unbreakable to get more people aware of the issue. If people see these stories on their television maybe they will get the message that rape can happen to anyone by anyone, a stranger or a friend.

Show and tell Stop Objectification

http://www.stopobjectification.com

I found this website called stopobjectification.com. It was so interesting to me because on this website women are taking pictures of their best assets, basically objectifying themselves, but using it to empower them. They will take a picture of what has been objectified and then tell their story of objectification and how they got through it and used it to become a stronger person. The video at the top of the page titled “Hey Baby” is blatantly objectifying the women by what is videoed, but then they add a caption about that woman that shows just how strong she is. It will scan up a women’s body but stop at her chest so you can’t see her face and then add a caption like “She has a PhD in neuroscience”. It shows that these women have beauty and brains and before you objectify them by just looking at their body you should try to get her story first and then you would learn that she is a strong successful woman. These women are probably more strong and successful than the men that are whistling at them down the street, but the men feel empowered by being able to call them what they want without knowing anything about them.

My favorite example in this video would be when they scan up the woman’s legs to her neck and stop there with the caption “She just made partner” and the it moves over and shows the face of the man walking with her and says “He just made her coffee”. This just proves my point that while this man isn’t being objectified and the woman is, she is still much more successful than he is and we shouldn’t just base all of our opinions by objectifying her. People will base their opinions of a person based on their looks, and by looking at most of these women on the website people would think that all they have going for them is their beauty. That is not the case at all though, all of these women are very strong and successful women that have been objectified and therefore thought less of, brains wise, before anyone got the chance to know them. At the end of this video it finally shows all of the women’s faces with the caption “Stop Objectification”.

If the video wasn’t enough for people to realize that objectification is wrong there are many different women’s stories further down on the page that show how women turned objectification into empowerment. Something that was said in a story about a woman that pole vaults really struck me. She says, “I don’t pole vault for your entertainment or drooling. I pole vault and wear heals and nice clothing because I am powerful. And these things evoke my power, and I will never stop. If it is my power that is luring your eyes to me, than have them meet mine, and ask me about my brain.” I can’t agree more with what she is saying. Many times women are judged by what they wear and people will say things like, “Well if you didn’t want to be objectified you shouldn’t have dressed like you did”. I don’t wear the heels and the cute outfits in the purpose for men to objectify me, I wear the heels and the cute outfits because I feel powerful in them. I believe that when you look good you feel good and in no way am I trying to be objectified because of that. If you are interested in me because of what I am wearing then talk to me like a normal human being would and have a normal conversation to get to know me. Don’t start whistling at me and saying nasty comments thinking it will attract me, because it won’t. Your interest in my personality and my story will get my attention not your comments as I walk down the street.

What I will take from this class

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I went into this class, but I came out with a lot more knowledge and appreciation than I expected. Since this class watching movies and television shows has not been the same. Not in a bad way but in a way that I am more aware of all the issues at play in the movie. I use to watch shows and movies in blissful ignorance and rate the movie on how emotional I got. Now while I still rate the shows based on my emotions I also find myself being more aware of the manic pixie dream girls or straw feminist characters and the way women AND men are being objectified.

The most important thing I think I will take with me from this class throughout undergrad and beyond is how I learned to listen and became more open minded. I never completely wrote off people’s opinions before this class, but it was a lot easier to stick to what I believed in over others. Now I listen to other people’s opinions and take that in to base my own. Sometimes someone else’s opinion can shift mine, because they put it in a way that I never thought of. We touched on so many different controversial topics in this class and I thought I knew where I stood with my opinion, but once I started to listen to other people in the class and what they thought about the issue it really opened my eyes and made me think differently. Some may think that this could be a bad thing because I changed my views based on someone else’s opinion but to me that isn’t the case. Once someone spoke up about what they thought and it might be different then what I believed but I still thought what they were saying was appropriate I didn’t completely shift my views to what they were saying. I made a new opinion that merged my original and what I got from the other person. I really learned a lot from this class; learning to listen and absorb is the main thing I will take away from it.

Abortion

The articles that we read for class and what we learned in class today really made me think twice about abortion. I’ve always been somewhat neutral on the topic of abortion, because I believe in certain instances that some people should have the right to choose. At the same time I think, how could someone take away a life from one that hasn’t gotten a chance to live it? To me it is a very thin line and I’m not sure exactly which side I’m on. That’s why when I was reading the articles and writing down the notes in class it all made me ask the question, when is an embryo considered a person to which it would be considered wrong or murder? to have an abortion? I’ve never wanted to consider abortion murder because I know there are many women out there having abortions because of certain circumstances like rape or even not being able to properly take care of the baby through the pregnancy or after. I also think that I can’t truly say that I am against it because I’ve never been in the position where I would have to even consider it so I don’t know what the reasoning is for some women that are doing it. But after learning more about it I feel that there is a particular point in the pregnancy where the embryo has developed enough that it would be too late and considered wrong to have an abortion. That being said I’m still not sure exactly when that time is, possibly before the embryo develops into a fetus. I am still staying neutral on the topic because I don’t know the reasoning for some people’s abortions and because I don’t know when it should be considered killing, but today did really make me reconsider the possibility of being pro choice because of the thought of taking away the chance at life from something so innocent.

Objectification

I can’t say that I’ve been seriously objectified before, but I have fallen victim to street harassment plenty of times. I don’t know what it is about guys that think that will get them a chance to talk to girls, but if someone says anything to me they will usually just get ignored or a snarky comment back. During tailgating at the LSU vs. Alabama game I had a lot of guys my age and even old men saying crude comments to me as I walked past. I know that alcohol had a lot to do with influencing it, but it got a little annoying and creepy as time when on, especially if I got separated from my friends and was walking alone. One instance in particular was when I was walking with a group of my friends and two older men, that had clearly been drinking heavily, decided to say something as we walked past. I could see it coming as I was about to walk past them, but I decided to try and ignore them because that usually works out. I heard one man say “yeah that one that one” so I just continued to walk with my eyes averted, but once I walked past the other man said to me “you smell like sex”. I was taken aback by that one because it was just so strange, was I supposed to be complimented by that? So to that I just sarcastically said “good one” and kept walking. He looked a little upset that I didn’t take that comment as a compliment, but honestly that was one of the strangest things I had ever heard. Even if he would have given me an actual compliment I still would have ignored him because saying things drunkenly or sober on the street is creepy and should stop because it won’t get you anywhere.

Show and Tell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta-rwTxAfuk

A simple straightforward question: How do you feel about your body? For some it could be difficult to answer and others may not have a problem. In this video people were asked this question at random on the streets by a stranger. Some people talked about a love-hate relationship while others talked about just loving their bodies. People of all different body types were interviewed and people of all different body types gave different answers. There were people that to me looked like they had no reason not to love their body, but talked of their love-hate relationship. It’s good to be aware that you are flawed because we all are, but you need to be comfortable with those flaws once you become aware of them.

I wish that there wasn’t so much pressure on people to have a certain body type or certain facial features. In the world we live in, what matters most to people at first sight are looks. We are constantly comparing, comparing ourselves to other people or comparing everyone else around us. This sparks an issue of wanting to look like something you can’t achieve, because you aren’t them, you are uniquely you and that is something you should be proud of. But not everyone has figured this out so they have turned to crazy diets and plastic surgery to transform themselves “for the better”.  Half the time these crazy crash diets are in no way for the better because they are harmful and unhealthy. If you are harming yourself to become skinny then I don’t see the beauty in it. As for plastic surgery I’m not against it at all, but once you start taking it to an extreme and doing things that are completely unnecessary or doing it at a young age cosmetically, I think you might want to realize a few nips and tucks shouldn’t be the reason you gain confidence. Confidence should come from within and I wish people would try to build some without the help of plastic surgery or crash diets. People should be able to be confident about their body type whatever it is, because everyone is different and we all know that.