Media

Through television and film, narratives have been told about sex trafficking to get awareness out to people who may not know about the subject. This is in fact how we ourselves found out and became interested in the topic.

The television film //Human Trafficking// gives us an insight into the trade of girls as sex slaves around the world, featuring several different stories that have similar issues. We see 4 young women, with different backgrounds and ethnicities, who all end up in similar situations. The reason why this movie is effective in achieving awareness about the topic is because it allows for a sympathetic view of the victims, so that viewers can relate to their stories and emotions. By making the protagonist also a victim, she relates to the trafficking victims and another level of sympathy is achieved. The film gives a gritty look at the dangerous, violent and scary side to this global crime. The victims here are unaware of the entire trade when they are becoming involved at the start, and that is the demise of them. So by letting young girls know about the ways in which they can (unknowningly) become involved in the crime, they can act thoughtfully and become more aware of their surroundings. media type="youtube" key="1-YlugUoDVE" height="385" width="480" Human Trafficking, Christian Duguay, 2005.

Even the women who are involved in this kind of work, whether on their own prerogative, who may think they are going to have a better life in another country with a steady income, or forced into labour, are in danger. The film //Remote Sensing// by Ursula Biemann delves into the topic by addressing the notion of moving across borders. The term “remote sensing” is used to describe how satellites track the movement of the women across borders. These women look for a better opportunity in countries different from their homeland because they may be safer or free from oppression, or they can go to a country where they are guaranteed work, whether it is safe or not, and they can send the money back to their families in their homeland. For example, the women in the film are tricked into thinking they are working for a restaurant in another country; meanwhile they are actually being trafficked as sex slaves. The precarious nature of their work can lead to many dangers like personal safety. These people can be taken advantage of because they are naïve and in many cases don’t know the language of their host country they have transferred to. Women who are migrating across borders are therefore in even more danger because they are travelling from their country where they are recognized as a citizen to other places where they may not have the same rights or laws. Politics and agency therefore come into play when speaking about these specific cases.

media type="youtube" key="15urJPX663U" height="385" width="480" Performing the Border, Ursula Biemann, 1999.

In the movie //Taken//, a father who is a former central intelligence agency paramilitary operative, finds himself traveling to Europe in order to track down his daughter who was kidnapped by slave traffickers. In the movie, the daughter is abducted after she shared a cab with a man she met at the airport. He learned where she lived because he let the cab drop her off first. This movie shows how easy it is for women to unsuspectingly become involved in these tragic practices regardless of race, education, or position in society. media type="youtube" key="CvUxdQ4q-Lg" height="385" width="640" Taken, Pierre Morel, 2008.