Human Rights:Sex Trafficiking and Prostitution reading

  I can't believe that in Australia prostitution is regulated by states and that the Netherlands actually legalized prostitution.  It makes the system more corrupt and give the pimps and buyers more power the "right" to abuse the women.  By allowing prostitution to be legal, women are treated even more like property.  They're brainwashed to think that they're unworthy and deserve punishment, so they don't try to escape.  It is a "physical and psychological enslavement".  Most of them do take some drugs by needles that all the other girls use  which give a higher rate for HIV.  The reading talks about it and how they have monthly check-ups that they pay for themselves.  They take drugs and alcohol to escape reality, which they have to pay for-so they can't get out.  They're trapped in a corrupt system.  One factor that causes sex trafficking and prostitution is if the country is poor.  When that is the situation, most times even the government is involved which makes the situation even worse by giving more power to the buyers and pimps in  charge. 
    Some families unknowing sell their daughters.  A women comes and says she has a job to offer that pays well, so the parents let the women take their daughter, but then the women sells the girl to a brothel.  There are so millions stories like Siri's.  One that I can across on youtube was about a girl from Cambodia, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7MJVQJnHcM).  In these small, poor countries sex is a big attraction.  I believe that women, girls, and children should have other options instead of selling their bodies.  They should not be forced and there should be more campaigns/actions to dissolve sex trafficking and prostitution.  A few steps to prevent it may be to give people a better education, for the government to provide the essential material to live, and create more laws against both crimes that are enforced internationally.  How can the world live in peace with a population of more than seven million people, forced in a system that demands the corruption of their bodies-which breaks their spirit and soul?     

Domestic Abuse

    Being married does not give the husband the right to abuse their wives.  It may legally bind them together, and the male may think of his wife as property-but its not true.  Marriage is suppose to be an equal, loving partnership and in the vows it even say, "Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live? (http://www.weddingplanninglinks.com/planning/traditionalweddingvows.html)".  How can you make a vow before all your friends, family, and God that you will love and protect your partner-and then just start abusing her?  These people have issues, and need to resolve them to have a happy relationship with their loves one.  Domestic abuse is a series issue that needs to be solve.  One thing that is helping or exposing domestic abuse are the movies that help people realize that it is a series issue-that the man does not have the right to beat his wife.   
    One film of domestic abuse is Julian Robert's movie "Sleeping with the enemy".  In the beginning, she's very happy, but then things start to go wrong.  She finds out that her husband is a control freak.  He hurts her because of the sense of false power that it gives him.  She finally has to fake her death just to get away from him; so he decide that if he can't have her, no one can. 
   There's another movie about a guy stalking a women, because he "loves" her.  Its called "Stalking Laura" and you can actually watch the movie by going the the link below.  It has Brooke Shields in it-if it effects anyone's decision to watch it.  As you watch the movie, you see that she didn't encourage him in any way.  They never dated, in fact she rejected him-and he just starts following her and popping out-which shows that women are NOT responsibly for their stalkers.  She didn't asked for it as to what some people assume of the victims.  Its never the victim's fault-even if they stay with their abusive partner, they have their own reasons.  They might be too afraid to leave.  They're ashamed or feel guilty and think that the abuse is their fault.  They may have been isolated by the abuser-so they can't get help outside or they can't afford to leave.  I believe that victims should never be blamed.    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XhhFVDhv4g&feature=related
(again high light, right click, and google search)

Teen Porn Stars and Prostitutes

I saw a Tara Banks episode where a father was supportive of his daughter becoming a stripper. It shocked me that he was willing to let his 14-16 year old daughter become one, because it was her "dream".  As a viewer, you could tell he only did so was because he was afraid of losing her.  He kept saying that it was her life and she could do whatever she wanted, so he might as well support her.  I think its sad when a girl dreams about becoming a stripper.  I think the media may have had a major impact on her and made her think it was a glorious job, because how could objectifying your body be "fun".  Or becoming a prostitute for some quick money for shopping is really sad.  These young teenager should have more options and clearer view of such occupations and their consequences.  I don't think that they are fully aware of their choice, or they  think that what happened to other people in the sex industry won't happen to them, (the syndrome: "it won't happen to me"). 

This link is to one of the episodes about teen prostitute and porn star on the Tara Banks show .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxUq_zzvAaA&feature=related   
(again high light, right click, & google search)

The Girl Effect

 I came across a website containing feminist issues like aging, body image, family, health...etc.  It also has articles, news, campaign meetings, and events listed for feminists all over the world.  I watched a video from the website called The clock is Ticking.  It's about one of the issues that young women in poverty face and how it effects their life and the possible solution-girl effect.  "The girl effect is the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world".   The clock is literally ticking as million of girls are reaching that adolescent stage which will set her course in her adult life.  The goal is to reach the girl in time to make sure she receives the education, health care, and skills necessary to live a decent life.  You can put the video on your facebook and spread the message.       

You can watch the video by directly going to the website below.     
http://www.girleffect.org/video  (highlight link, right click, and press google search)

Also check out the website feminist.com

Homosexuals as Parents

   Why are people so concerned about people being homosexual?  The answer is probably because they're not used to it.  It may also be because of religious belief, but who says you have to do everything a books say or believe in-when it was created hundreds of year ago.  Time has change and society shouldn't be able to push their view on people who don't share the same opinion or religion.  They shouldn't push their beliefs/opinions unto the whole society.  I believe your sexual orientation is your choice.  I also believe that homosexual couples should be able to adopt kids.
   They go to such lengths as to travel to foreign countries to adopt a baby and pay as much as twelve thousand dollars.  A line that I remember from the movie we watch in class is, "no pregnancy is unplanned".  They want to have children and that's why they adopt.  Watching the film, you could tell the children were loved and appreciated, perhaps even more than normal parents because of the length they had to go through to obtain the child.  People against homosexual parents are only against them because of their sexual orientation, they don't take into account the love and care that the couples are able to provide for kids.  People are also ignorant and believe that kids raised by homosexual parents may be molested, or groomed to become homosexual themselves.  But research show that heterosexual white males are statically more prone to molest children.   People who oppose homosexual parents don't think of the children, their minds are stuck on the sexual orientation of the parents instead.  They may believe that homosexual couples shouldn't be able to raise children, and yet none of those who oppose-are willing to adopt the children.  One extreme reaction to homosexuals as parents was the case Bottoms VS Bottoms.
   The grandmother was suing her homosexual daughter for the custody of her granddaughter, even though history show that the daughter was molested by her mother's boyfriend as a child and who the grandmother still kept in contact with.  In the end, the judge ruled in the grandmother's case and gave her custody-so he would rather the grandchild be molested than have her be raise by her homosexual mother.  It's a disgusting case of discrimination, and the judge should have been fired.  People should only think of the children and consider the parents' sexual orientation if it poses a threat to the children.   
  

                     

Female Role in the Household

   I am a girl, a female and with that comes many...responsibilities that guys aren't expected to do.  In my family everybody is expected to do chores to pull their weight and help the family.  I remember as a little girl, I was expected to vacuum the living room, do the dishes, clean the bathrooms, dust and clean the TV set.  The truth was that I liked cleaning, I was a bit of a clean freak.
   Every month I was given two dollars for doing the chores.  My older brother by a year was also expected to help with the chores, but he never cleaned the bathrooms or helped out as much as I did.  Every month, my mom gave him twenty dollars-compared to my two dollars.  When I found out, I was so mad and started crying- because the situation was so unfair.  My mom to appeased me, gave me two more dollars.  So I had four dollars compared to my brother's twenty dollars.  That just made me more mad and depress.  It was at that moment that I hated doing household chores.  If I wasn't given the same or better reward, than I would not do the chores which continued to my senior year in high school.
  I rarely did any house hold chores, because I was still pissed off at the unfair treatment between my brother and me, (and this happened when I was 9-12 years old).  But I'm getting older and so are my parents.  Most of my other siblings have left, except for my baby brother, my disable sister, and the older brother I mentioned above.  My brother still doesn't really help around the house, and my parents are okay with that-because he's a male.  When I go back home during the holidays and summer, I'm going to try to help out more and get my two brothers to help-which I know will be a challenge.  I want to ease my parents' burden since they're getting older, and they deserve it with all the years taking care of my siblings and me.  I'm not doing them because as a female its my job, but because they're my parents and I want to help them.               

Rock Camp

Misty's story is so inspirational!  Her wish became reality, because she took the necessary steps to create it.  When she needed help, she asked for it and received it.  I thought it was great that people from her school and community voluntary to help her create the camp.  I also liked that younger girls ages eight and up could go to this camp.  It reaches girls at early age and teach them that they can do rock'n roll and anything else, no matter what guys say.  It something different from what society expects of girls instead of all that pink, girly, fairy tale stuff.  Watching the video, you could see that it was a dramatic change for most of the girls who went there.  They learned that they can do anything if they put their minds to it.  Most girls who went to camp didn't know how to play an instrument, but learned to played it within a few days.  It takes motivation, concentration, and courage to play well in front of an audience, especially if they just recently learned how to play it.  What also helped them was that for the most part they were in a positive atmosphere.  They were encouraged and given compliments.  There weren't any "mean girls" there, everyone was very accepting.  When you are given the necessary equipment and the encouragement, you can do anything you put your mind to.  If women in society received even the same treatment in the rock camp, how far we women could go.  We could walk on Jupiter in one year, solve the homeless problem, bring the economy up, discover the cure for cancer, and bring peace to the world---okay a little exaggeration, but so many possibilities if women were treated equal.  If women were treated equally, given the same opportunities as males, without the typical gender racism- what we as a whole society could accomplish would be so much more.  But before that can happen, society must demand it and take the necessary steps to create a society that is not gender classified-where everyone is treated equal and given equal opportunities without gender classification.