The documentary Very Young Girls leaves us with a rather optimistic view of the situation that leaves me not sure where to stand on how to address the situation. On one hand, the film opens with a compelling snapshot that human sex trafficking in urban America is a real problem. The majority of the movie shows the aftereffects of the life on the victims and how the GEMS program comes to their aid. At the conclusion, most of the featured victims are shown to be making progress, with only one or two exceptions.
The focus of the film was on the personal stories of the victims, with less focus on the problem itself. In that way, the movie, as a whole, functions more as oral history than a public service announcement. Critically, the film could have explored more solutions to the entire problem. While the work that GEMS does is excellent and has made progress, the root of the problem is not addressed in the film. In VYG, GEMS is presented as helping victims only after they have become victims, with rehabilitation efforts. The opening of the movie was the most compelling because it showed the victims' fall into trafficking--the very thing that needs preventative measures.
The 45 second footage of the education meeting for johns and Carolina's 30 day jail sentence show the failure of the criminal justice system to address the problem in perspective. Additionally, the interviews with the girls about their entrance to prostitution and their parents show a wealth of issues that cause the problem in the first place, from education, to poverty, to social patterns and dynamics. Unfortunately, due to the sense of closure presented in the film, the casual viewer would not realize the depth of work that still needs to be done.
Though I have not seen "Very Young Girls," I did go to the Uni Period discussion about human trafficking that the Gender Studies class hosted, and I see what you mean about certain aspects of human trafficking needing more attention. In the discussion, we talked about how media, stereotypes, and a demand for prostitution contribute to girls being sold as sex slaves around the world, yet we did not discuss many preventative measures used to stop human trafficking in the United States. One program in India that we discussed educates women and teaches them valuable trades in order to give them an alternative to selling their bodies, but we did not see similar programs reaching out to women in the United States. As you point out, there are many factors that contribute to human trafficking, and I would like to know more about groups that address such problems in the United States.
ReplyDeleteGood insight about such an important issue! You raise valuable points about what kinds of activism still need to be done and how much things must change in order to overcome this huge global problem.
I was at the Uni Period discussion, and I was stunned at the depth and sheer size of this problem. Good response to the film. I'd be interested to hear your ideas about prevention. In India, as Gabby notes, it helps a lot to get girls out of a culture that is seen as their fate. In the US, there are many factors, but the "family business" aspect is not necessarily one of them.
ReplyDelete