I recently came across a movie that takes on the issue of human trafficking called Trade of Innocents starring Mira Sorvino and Dermot Mulroney. Although it doesn’t look like the film is getting wide distribution, it is available for individual screenings and seems like a perfect film to create an event for a human rights-based or anti-human trafficking club. The film also has other resources available. Check it out:
Trailer
Synopsis:
In the back streets of a tourist town in present-day Southeast Asia, we find a filthy cinder block room; a bed with soiled sheets; a little girl waits for the next man. Alex (Dermot Mulroney), a human trafficking investigator, plays the role of her next customer as he negotiates with the pimp for the use …
Every morning when I take the train, I put my iPod on shuffle and let various thoughts run through my head. But as I think about how tired I am or about the math test I have during first period, I don’t pay attention to the lyrics that are being whispered into my ear by various artists. As the E train pulls up to Roosevelt Avenue, I hear Kanye West talking about a girl who “got an a** that can swallow up a g-string/and up top, uh, two bee stings.” And as I step off the train on Spring Street, I listen to Fergie telling me about how guys love her “lady lumps…spending all your money on me and spending time on me.” Most of the time I would just …
New book from Rachel Lloyd, “Girls Like Us”, is more than a memoir—it’s a life-changing experience. Lloyd, Founder/Executive Director of Girls Education and Mentoring Network (GEMS), tells the story of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States. She does this by weaving her story in with the stories of people whose lives she has touched, and the genesis of GEMS itself. But the stories alone are not what made this book the best one I have read in a long while—it’s how effortlessly they get to the heart of what choice really means. In short, “Girls Like Us” is where theory and practice, activism and ideology, all sing in perfect harmony.
As a feminist, I feel that the concept of “choice” is an ideological cornerstone. That’s …
Over the summer, I read Half the Sky. The entire book was incredible, but I was moved by the chapter on the sex trafficking industry. I wrote this story as a way to try to imagine what that experience must be like. After all, though I am American, with just a slight twist of fate I so easily could have been one of these girls.
There is a fly buzzing by my head. I can see three more scuttling on the wall. In my peripheral vision there are posters hanging pathetically. I try to ignore the pornographic images. I already know the images too well. Far better then any girl my age should. My own experiences are burned into my memory. Painted behind my eyelids.
