Blog #7- Sydney Gray

 

In Half the Sky, Kristoff starts off by telling a story about a young girl named Rath. Rath went to Thailand with four of her other friends to work at a restaurant to help her parents pay the bills. However, the trip quickly took a turn for the worst. The job agent sold Rath and her friends to gangsters. These men treated the young girls as property, explaining that he had paid money for them and they are obligated to repay him with their services. Their job was to obey the men and serve the “customers” so that the gangsters could earn their money back. When the girls disobeyed the men or resisted the customers, the gangsters beat them and threatened to kill them until they eventually gave in. Basically, the girls were slaves to the gangsters. Slavery is described as “the state and condition of being a slave, who is someone forbidden to quit their service for another person and is treated like property. Slavery relies heavily on the enslaved person being intimidated either by the threat of violence or some other method of abuse.” This is exactly what is happening in sex trafficking. In Half the Sky, Kristoff explains that “an essential part of the brothel business model is to break the spirit of girls, through humiliation, rape, threats, and violence.” This abuse is used because once a girl is broken and terrified, all hope of escape is lost and force may no longer be needed to control her. These young girls are being sold and traded as property. They are being beaten and abused so that they are more likely to “obey” their “owners”. Sex trafficking is the definition of slavery.

When reflecting on the issues of gender stereotyping and sexual violence, belittling women is a common factor. Jackson Katz made a great point when he stated, “We talk about how many women were raped last year, not about how many men raped women. We talk about how many girls in a school district were harassed last year, not about how many boys harassed girls”. This is something that everyone needs to realize. People are shifting the focus off of men and putting the focus onto women, ignoring the fact that this abuse is coming from MEN. As a woman, I am constantly being told how to stay safe, “don’t go anywhere alone”, “cover yourself”, and “don’t drink too much”, but I am rarely seeing men be told how to respect a woman. Women are the victims and men are the attackers, so why is all of our focus on the victim rather than the attackers. For example, if a student is in class minding their business and simply taking notes, and another student gets up and punches him out of nowhere, completely unprovoked, which student would be the focus? The school wouldn’t educate the victim on how to behave, they would educate the attacker and discipline him for his abusive actions. So, why are people shifting the focus off of men, the attackers, and putting the focus on women, the victims? In my opinion, this issue needs to be more of a focus.

In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, “We Should All Be Feminists”, she focuses a lot on gender expectations and gender inequality. When it comes to work, many men get paid more simply because they are male. She points out how men used to be seen as the most qualified leader because they were physically stronger, but that the world has changed. In today’s world, the person more likely to lead is the more creative, intelligent, and innovative person, which a man is as likely as a female to have the skills and qualities. Adichie describes a feminist as a man or a woman who says, “Yes, there is a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it. We must do better.” I believe this is a great way to look at feminism.