Somaly Mam Internships & Jobs

   

JOBS

The Somaly Mam Foundation is currently seeking a full-time Executive Director. Please contact theBridgespan Group for more information.  

INTERNSHIPS

Somaly Mam Foundation is currently seeking interns based in our New York office. All positions are unpaid, and we ask for a commitment of at least 15-20 hours per week.

To apply, please send your resume, a cover letter, and a brief writing sample tointernships@somaly.org. Please include your name and the position that you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

For Spring internships, please apply by December 1. For Summer internships, please apply by May 1. For Fall internships, please apply by August 1. We consider applications on a rolling basis.

Cause Marketing Intership

Development Internship

Volunteer Coordinator Internship

So as I was looking at the Somaly Mam cite I looked up ways to get involved with the Somaly Mam foundation and other than giving donations there are internships and jobs you can get involved with. This would definitely be a future I could see for myself and many people in our class. Half the Sky has opened my eyes and I don't think I could forget about it even if I tried. I wish this documentary was shown in high school possibly our senior year. I think a lot of students would possibly consider helping the cause if they knew just how bad sex trafficking has become. It's a problem that can't be ignored once people are exposed to it. So I hope these internships are in my own future because I don't think I can watch this documentary and read the book and not do anything to help the cause. 

Women Laughing Alone With Salad

http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/women-laughing-alone-with-salad/

In my Adolescent Literature class, we were doing a mini lesson on media literacy and began discussing the blog "women laughing alone with salad," and how this particular advertising trend is hilarious. I'm pretty sure that most women do not break down laughing every time they take a bite of their salad, but apparently that's what we should be doing. Us women should be so happy about consuming this green, leafy salad.

Don't get me wrong- I can definitely have a great time eating salad. Eating a salad can be a great experience for me, especially when it has ripe tomatoes and good Italian dressing. But it's just another marketing ploy geared towards telling women that being healthy, and by extension skinny, is what will make you happy.

Why can't women eat some baby back ribs and laugh about it? Or a bacon cheeseburger? And why can't men laugh about eating salad? In my Adolescent Lit class, we decided to take pictures of our guy friends laughing alone with salad to counteract this advertising trend. If any of you or your guy friends want to take part in it, let me know!

Response to Gretchen's post about Victoria's Secret

This is awesome! I work at Victoria's Secret and often have to explain to people why I like working there because everyone knows what a feminist I am and people often question why I would work at a place that seems to exploit/ over sexualize women. I just tell people that I like helping women and making them feel sexy no matter what. Plus it's a fun job! Being a feminist doesn't mean we don't still want to be sexy, right? Now this is another reason to be happy to work for them! I think it's awesome that a company known for their provocative lingerie is still reminding women (and men) that NO means NO and just because a woman is wearing sexy stuff under her clothes does not mean that she wants to have sex; and just because someone doesn't want to have sex from time to time doesn't make her prude. We all have the right to say no (and yes) whenever we want. No one should ever be pressured, and a popular company reinforcing that is definitely a step in the right direction. Thanks for posting this!

World AIDS Day

So World AIDS Day was last Sat. Dec. 1st. For my internship at Planned Parenthood, I helped at an AIDS Day event at UB. We had a table of information, free condoms, and were signing people up for a new Planned Parenthood student group on UB's campus.

It was nice to see a different campus and talk about sexual health and answer questions that people had. I also love spreading the word about an awesome organization.

One thing that struck me was how many guys did't know about the services we had for men. Besides pap smears, pelvic exams, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, pre-natal care and birth contro/Plan B prescriptions for women, Planned Parenthood offers STD testing and treatment and cancer screenings for men. They also give free condoms to anyone who comes in. They will even give Emergency Contraception (Plan B) to guys if they ask for it. They also have an education program and some sites even offer counseling to people who want it. I also had some LGBT students asking what we could do for them, and I explained that the organization is non-judgmental and provides services for everyone, and they also do a lot of advocacy work for the LGBT community.

I figured I would share this info in case anyone ever needed their services! They are all confidential, don't need parental consent to go, don't need to be a US citizen, and their fees are based on an ability to pay, so a lot of college students get their services for free or really cheap. They're website is plannedparenthood.org if anyone wants to check it out! They're also always looking for interns and volunteers, which would be awesome for anyone declaring the Women's Studies major/minor.

Holiday Hotspot and Tumblers

So I think the Holiday Hotspot was successful. I saw a lot of people I knew, which is always good, and I was able to teach a few people how to make square knot bracelet. I also saw that, besides the other student union group’s winter solstice related holidays that were there, Women’s Student Union and the LGTB Student Union had tables. Both WSU and LGTBSU had booths relating to important events for both groups- WSU was raising awareness about sex trafficking and LGTBSU was raising awareness about the Stonewall Riots.

For those of you who haven’t found them yet, I give you the Escher Girls tumbler and The Hawkeye Initiative tumbler. The first is a gallery of the impossible poses women are drawn in in comics and manga, and the second is a gallery of Hawkeye (of Avengers fame) in those impossible poses. I think both of these are great arguments for requiring some kind of anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology* class as part of art curriculum. Because some of those poses are physically impossible to do if you have bones and internal organs. Switching the poses male and female characters helps emphasize how women are sexualized in comics.

*The study of how humans and other living things move.



Make Your Familly Watch Half the Sky

Watching Half the Sky has being, almost paradoxically, bot heartbreaking and heartwarming. We see women and girls who are living in poverty, many who were raped and abused or who have escaped from sex slavery, often having been sold into it by their own parents. But at the same time, someone was helping them, giving them access to healthcare and education and at least trying to get them legal help. Seeing that things can be done, even with very little resources, makes me see that it’s not a hopeless situation. Seeing a father so supportive of his daughter’s education, even willing to take days off of work to attend parent teacher conferences was wonderful.

I am going to force my family to watch this over break, and you should too. Except maybe if you have young siblings, then you should just force your parents to watch it.

Victoria Secrets Consent Underwear

When I saw this the other week it really did brighten up my day. Victoria's Secret as you can see from the photo is on this new kick where instead of coming out with underwear that has  provocative sayings they are coming out with underwear that is reclaiming a woman's right to say NO! Honestly it's nice to see that a popular brand like Victoria Secret is promoting such an important cause. This seems like such a small step but it makes such a huge impact. Society is actually taking an interest in what woman have to say. It also establishes that saying NO doesn't mean you actually want to have sex. Its thought that women are not the ones who want sex typically. So they are expected to say no when a man proposes to have sex. Throughout the years this has been twisted into a sort of flirtation. Unfortunately when women say no to sex its usually misinterpreted as the woman actually wants to have sex they are just expected to say no to it at first. This is not the case a lot of times though. NO MEANS NO for a lot of women, and Victoria's Secret is trying to establish that with this new line of underwear. 

Journey

As the semester comes to a close it's hit me how much a class like this does for students. Everyone can say that we've learned a lot about issues that we might not have heard about if we didn't take Woman's Studies. For example, Somaly Mam and the sex trafficking that is happening all over the world. They talked about in the documentary how important education was to everyone, not only to the girls who suffered from sex trafficking. I knew this was true but I don't think I fully realized it till I was telling my friend all about Somaly's book. If it wasn't for Woman's Studies, I would have never been able to spread the word about the cause. My friend wants to help out just as much as we, as a class, do. I just created another supporter who in return  could tell others. People say that the only way to make a difference is to have money. I don't see that to be true at all. The more people who know about an issue the more people, as a whole, will try to do something about. Like its been said before countless time, good or bad press, at least their is still press.

In Novels and Tales

This week in my Novels and Tales class I had been responsible for giving a small presentation to the class called a contemporary body issue where I could share a recent newspaper article, or video etc. relating to the body, and connecting it to something we've read. Lately, i've been interested in everything Kevin Bales stands for. I entail his idea on Modern Slavery and how it has much to do with poverty and why there is a business behind it. I found a video of Kevin Bales speaking about modern slavery in a TED talk, and I presented a clip (8:30- 11:45) when he speaks about the mind-blowing price of slaves today and the price it takes to reintegrate these slaves back into society. I was able to directly relate this to the book Beloved when former African- American slave Paul D speaks of the discovery of his price. I explain how people are even more disposable now days then they were hundreds of years ago, which would result in many psychologically damaged people in the world similar to Paul D, when reflecting on their low value. I believe I was able to make my peers interested in checking out more on Kevin Bales, especially when mentioning how human trafficking is happening in not just places like Africa,and Southeastern Asia but in the U.S.

Kevin bales- How to Combat Modern Slavery

Spread the Word

I wanted to take this final blog to post about this movie 1/2 the sky and the Somaly Mam's book. These two things together have been a great source of inspiration to me. They have changed my view of the world and have shaped the way that my future, at least for a little while will be. I have been spreading the news left and right for people to read Somaly's book and will be giving gifts of the book to some people that I know. I want people to know about this. I think it is desperately important that the people should know so that people will want to change some of these situations in the world. I'm not sure that it will amount to anything but knowledge is power. I think that Somaly and her foundation are on the path to changing the world, one person at a time. I hope some of you are sharing this info too.

US fights for human rights in Russua

This next article is about a bill that the US Senate passed two days ago. It insures that the human rights will not be violated in Russia and the consequence if Russia does not punish its own citizens for violations of these rights are trading sanctions by the US. Heck yeah United States, I say we have to fight for it one step at a time! FROM: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/vladimir-kara-murza/principle-over-realpolitik-us-approve-russia-rights-bill Principle over Realpolitik: US to Approve Russia Rights Bill 7 December 2012 On December 20, 1974, as the US Congress, over the vehement objections of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, passed the historic Jackson-Vanik amendment limiting trade with the USSR over its lack of the freedom to emigrate, Soviet political prisoner camps were in almost open jubilation. The United States has established a vital precedent: for the first time, economic relations with a country were linked to its human rights record. Forty years later, the amendment is no longer relevant. But the principle carries on. On December 6, 2012, the US Senate approved the House-passed bill H.R. 6156, which simultaneously repeals Jackson-Vanik and adopts the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which directly addresses the modern-day violations of human rights and the rule of law in the Russian Federation. The presidential signature has already been promised. “With this vote, we are setting a precedent for future trade agreements that tells the world that gross violators of human rights cannot escape the consequences of their actions even when their home country fails to act,” emphasized Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and the bill’s principal author. “Human rights cannot and should not be open to compromise.” Sergei Magnitsky was a Moscow attorney who died in police custody in 2009 after being tortured and denied medical care. His “crime” consisted of uncovering a $230 million tax fraud scheme—the largest known in Russian history—which involved the previously seized assets of Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund he was representing. Magnitsky’s testimony implicated several law enforcement officials. It was the same officials who placed him under arrest. More than three years after his death, not a single perpetrator has been punished: indeed, a number of Interior Ministry officials involved in this case have received promotions and awards. The most prominent investigation by Russian prosecutors involving Sergei Magnitsky has been, incredibly, the ongoing posthumous case against him. The new US law imposes targeted visa and financial sanctions on individuals “responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky,” as well as for “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” in Russia, which include “the freedoms of religion, expression, association, and assembly, and the rights to a fair trial and democratic elections.” The expanding provision of the law is especially important: the story of Sergei Magnitsky, alas, is not a one-off tragedy, but symptomatic of the general situation in Putin’s Russia, where politically motivated “justice,” state-sanctioned extortion, wrongful imprisonment, police abuse, media censorship, suppression of peaceful assembly, and electoral fraud have long become a horrendous norm. The Magnitsky Act ends the impunity for those who continue to violate the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and to treat state coffers as their personal pockets. It is no secret that many Kremlin officials and oligarchs who prefer the style of Belarus or Zimbabwe at home are opting for the West when it comes to their bank accounts, vacation homes, and schools for their children. Nothing will strike at the heart of Putin’s corrupt and autocratic “power vertical” more than the realization that even its boss—with all his patronage and oil money—will no longer be able to protect the ill-gotten gains. This is, without doubt, the most pro-Russian law to have ever been passed by a Western country.

Documentaries vs. Books

Though I feel that books and publications about causes are very important, I think that documentaries have are very crucial in lobbying for change. For example, the documentary "Half the Sky" had a huge emotional impact on me, and though I haven't read the book I feel if I did the documentary's effect would still be more powerful. To be able to see the faces and hear the voices of the advocates was very substantial to me. Though I'm sure the author did a very good job recreating these perspectives in the book, it had so much more of an impact on me hearing them first person. The same is true for their surroundings. To actually see footage of the villages and schools was very powerful.
I also think documentaries are more accessible to the public. Reading a book is time consuming, while watch a few hours of a documentary can have the same if not a better effect. The famous actors also add an element to the documentary that can not be replicated in the book.  

No More "Save the Tatas"

Earlier this semester, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, making her really the first person in my life to be affected by this type of cancer. Since then, I've found myself drawn to articles on the internet dealing with the cancer and ways to support the fight for a cure. An article that really stood out to me was called "No More 'Save the Tatas'" by Jessica Luther. 

http://flyoverfeminism.com/no-more-save-the-tatas-please/

If you don't have time to read the article (it's super short!) I'll post the main point.

"There are survivors living with conditions and scars (both physically and emotionally) that remind them daily of the cancer that haunted their bodies and minds, that continue to haunt them with every check-up at the oncologist’s office or every daily morning prevention pill. Focusing on breasts and breasts alone obscures the reality and the faces of the people who are at the center of the fight against breast cancer. It reminds the survivors who either don’t have their breasts or have scars across the breasts they do have that they are now not as wholly feminine as they once were (and they never will be). They may have beaten the cancer but they lost their breasts, the things everyone seems to actually care about."

Luther's point really struck a cord with me. Our society not only objectifies women in the media and in magazines, but objectifies women that are fighting cancer. We've all seen people wear the bracelets that say "Save the Tatas" and maybe most of us have laughed. But, like Luther said, this takes the focus away from the battle these women and men are fighting, discriminates against the men who've had this disease, and sexualize a disease. 

Women Hold Up Half The Sky

Watching Half the Sky has been so eye-opening. Not because I wasn't aware of the problems that it addressed, but because the things that are being done to help fix all these problems are never highlighted. In our culture we have this fixation on the bad things. We want to know all the bad things that are going on. As long as they aren't happening to us, we love to know about misery. And we want to know what we can do to help right the wrongs.
But when you start showing people what's already being done to help, they start to feel bad about themselves that they aren't doing more. There are these amazing women all around the world doing such amazing things that I can't believe. And that I had no idea most of these women were doing these things really bothers me. It's so incredible that they are tackling these huge problems with little to no help, and no recognition and I feel so moved and inspired by them.
I consider myself to be a fairly active feminist; I do what I can with what I have and I seek out information about what else I can do. But even with the celebrity involvement in Half the Sky I might not have heard of it. My mother actually sent me in its direction when it was first on PBS, but I unfortunately missed it because of class conflicts.
Women do so much, and really do hold up half the sky. They need a louder voice to shout all the great things they do.

The Importance of Education

One reoccurring theme of this class that I have noticed is the importance of education. The documentary "Half the Sky" made this point very clear. The most substantial changes these advocates, such as Mam made was through education. Whether it is young girls who would, without education, be forced to work difficult low paying jobs or older women learning to be proper midwives to improve birth rates, education is so crucial in moving a country forward. It's not just women that need educating. As illustrated by Mam's effort to educate men on the risks of unprotected sex, in order to induce cultural change as well as economic change, developing nations need better systems of education. But, change is very difficult to initiate with in places with deep cultural roots and poverty, which is why I think it is our responsibility as the more fortunate to help.   

The impact of documentary filmmaking

Half the Sky being a documentary film allows the audience to have an inside look at the rising problems of third world countries. The exposure and information is momentous, it really allows your eyes to be opened to a problem that is widespread and important to recognize. I only have one real problem with documentary filmmaking, which is that it tends to be biased and one-sided. As I watch documentary's I feel that the issue being covered is receiving coverage and attention, but I wonder if the attention is only to what the filmmaker wants? The Half the Sky documentary included very intense and emotional footage....this artistic choice is purposeful and it does the job. I see this documentary as a positive usage of the sometimes flawed attempt of a documentary. It is easy to get caught up in TV and films, but the best thing to remember is that a documentary film is coming from a real place. Even though the material can be one-sided if the coverage is important and worthwhile then this is the the thing that matters the most.

Half the Sky; An Inspiration

While watching Half the Sky I cannot help but to think how useful this documentary is for raising awareness in different parts of the world. I find this documentary both inspiring and very interesting. Half the Sky is an easy way for people to become more aware about topics that are foreign to their own home turf. Our culture today is deemed sometimes as being quite lazy. If more students were shown this video they could become easily involved and aware without doing any research themselves.

This film was very smart by including celebrities of the modern day world. By including very important actress such as Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes creates more of a draw for different audience members. We can only hope that these celebrities will be more involved with these issues in the future. This is why this documentary is very different than others. In Somaly Mam’s book she discusses how often celebrities send her money to donate to her foundation. She tells the readers by sending money you are helping but you do not know what the living conditions or the situations are actually like. This is why I feel it is important that celebrities actually visit the place in need of awareness. By visiting celebrities can understand the hardships from a more personal experience. Once developing a personal experience the celebrity will feel most likely connected to this foundation and we can only help that they will use their limelight power by putting a spotlight on a country in need.

Dana Perino tells Female Violence Victims to "Make Better Decisions"

http://youtu.be/E9TKvge11QQ

So, I was on tumblr and came across this gem. Apparently women who are victims from a violent act (rape, domestic violence, etc.) need to "make better decisions". Hmmm..... really now? This comment was made in a discussion about Kansas City Chief's Line Backer, Javon Belcher, who murdered his girlfriend prior to killing himself this past weekend. While her co-hosts were talking about the merits of female gun ownership as a way to avoid violence against women, Dana Perino decided to quickly blame women themselves for being victims.

"PERINO: I think it skirts the issue that women are victims of violence all the time –

CO-HOST: They should have guns!

PERINO: Well, maybe, or make better decisions."

Misogyny is a work that comes to mind after seeing this clip. Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. It can be manifested in different ways including sexual discrimination, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women. It is unbelievably unfortunate to hear a woman portray such disgusting comments to victims of violence in a conversation that didn't even directly address this. Such a terrible view on women that I hope to not continue to see in our society. 

Also, I say an interesting post on tumblr. The post address the well known Christmas song, Baby It's Cold Outside by Dean Martin. This is what the post suggests. I thought that it gave an interesting perspective of such a well know Christmas song. “Occasionally referred to as the Christmas Date Rape Song, this duet was written by Frank Loesser in 1936.  While the song has a sweet melody to it, this style of duet is often referred to as mouse and wolf where the mouse part is traditionally sung by a woman and the wolf part by a man.  The predatory style description is amazingly accurate given that the man spends the whole song subtly pressuring the woman into staying with him for the night."

CALL FOR ART

"CALL FOR ART:

I am accepting submissions of the responses of victims/survivors of sexual abuse (rape, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, etc.) that they would like to say to their perpetrators.

What I Need:

Your first name
Date assault happened (est.)/ date of submission
a handwritten paper of what you want to say to your perpetrators: you can draw, write, or both
City/village/town

 you are from
* You are open to do whatever you want for your submission. Any size, any medium, any content, anything!

*please message me on here or email me at neumannhanna0531@gmail.com for mailing information"

So, I have decided that I want to help people who had been silenced to be able to have a voice. The theme of silence that we learned about in Somaly Mam's book really inspired me to create a way for people who have been sexually abused to have the voice that they have always had and deserved. I am really excited to be a part of something like this. I have already received a decent amount of feedback about making submissions and it is so exciting. I am working on contacting some contemporary art museums to see if they would be willing to spread the word to a bigger audience. I am hoping to expand this project to more than just Fredonia. I really hope that word gets out and I receive a great amount of submissions by February 28, 2013. I am planning for the exhibition to be sometime at the middle or end of next semester. Spread the word and keep an eye out on more details and information!!

The Plight of Ms. Marvel

The first thing I've really learned while working on my research paper is this- the comic book universe is a weird, weird place.
Don't believe me? Take a look at this: Favorite Ms.Take
In short it's a video about the iconic Avengers 200 where Ms. Marvel is kidnapped, transported to another dimension, seduced via mind-control by an old enemy of the Avengers who proceeds to impregnate her with himself and send her back to earth so she can give birth to him and he can be in this dimension again.
Yeah, weird.
The thing that really irks me most, is when this is all explained to the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, they aren't really that bothered by it even though she was obviously raped. Cute baby, romantic story, everything's cool. And the readership didn't have anything to say about it either.
Watching this video infuriated me, and what was even more frustrating was that this wasn't something I had found out about while conducting my research- this was something I had been directed to by a friend. None of my searches had turned up any of this information about Ms. Marvel.
I feel like this reflects the culture of silence that surrounds rape in this day and age. We don't talk about it because it will encourage the act, instead of teaching people about it and discourage it. There's also this weird connotation with Ms. Marvel's story that seems as though there is also this under-toned idea that Marcus (her kidnapper among other things) was entitled to do what he did because no one really got angry at him for it.'
As weird as comic books are, and as horrible as they are to women, they are changing and getting better and I'm going to keep doing all I can to support both my favorite heroes and heroines and speak up when there are things that happen that are not okay.

Sexual assault in Buffalo

When you go away to school no matter if you live in the dorms or off campus housing provided by the school you should always feel safe. I was watching the news earlier and saw a story about a man breaking into the houses of two girls who go to Buff State and Canisius College and sexually assaulting them. My first question to this report was were the girls raped and what constitutes as sexual assault in New York. I understand that those campus' are in Buffalo which has a higher crime rate than Fredonia does; but if something like this happened in Fredonia where girls houses in Park Place broken into and some assault occurred there would be notifications everywhere and our campus police would be very dedicated to the case. It later says in the story that Canisius did respond and put another security camera around where the event happened. Because they installed another camera they were  able to find the man who was guilty because they caught him on tape creeping on another potential victims house. Just think, if the college did nothing about it, like Buff State, another girl(s) would have been assaulted and the case would still be hot. Colleges really need to show that they care about their students safety and would do anything to protect them. I would expect Fredonia to react like Canisius did.

What's the big deal over the Victoria's Secret fashion show?

Tonight is the Victoria's Secret fashion show, which means tons of fb statuses are going up about girls feelings of inadequacy and guys admiration of unrealistic body types. I am personally not watching the fashion show because it does not interest me and I would rather not support something that contributes to the cause of women's body issues. My roomate and I were talking about the obsession over events such as this and how sickening it is that tons of people MUST watch this and yet they are not aware of much more pressing issues. Our time is consumed by negative media images constantly and rather than thinking about how seeing skinny models can cause for women's bad feelings about their own bodies, the focus lies in obtaining this unrealistic ideal. Girls watch the fashion show and believe that they can actually be that skinny or reach this unhealthy body image that is only possible for a very small amount of women (sometimes not even until after surgery).
Hearing about the fashion show and reading people's posts brings me back to the Jean Kilbourne talk and makes me wish more people were aware of issues like this. In a perfect world, we would be watching activists and individuals supporting advocacy rather than doing things to cause further problems in the world. I wish people were motivated to watch the Half the Sky documentary that reveals real lives and world tragedy rather than a fashion show with highly priced merchandise and unobtainable body images.

Sports bras and Jenna Marbles

Me and my roommate one night were staying up late watching the lovely Jenna Marbles and her weekly viral videos. We found out that we missed a lot of videos over the summer because we were too busy to watch them and we found that she talked about the summer Olympics. Warning this video is vulgar but she still makes very good points. The video here explains that a Turkish journalist, Yüksel Aytuğ, wrote an article and made the statement that the women who compete in the Olympics don't represent women and how their even appearance is "pathetic." He also said that women need to watch the Victoria Secret Angels instead of the Olympics (which is funny because the fashion show is tonight at 10 CBS). Here's a quote from him: "Aytuğ said women's associations should protest the Games and added that it was enough for him to 'take a look at female swimmers' to reach that opinion. 'Broad-shouldered, flat-chested women with small hips; [they are] totally indistinguishable from men. Their breasts – the symbol of womanhood, motherhood – flattened into stubs as they were seen as mere hindrances to speed,' Aytuğ said." Although Jenna makes this subject funny, but it really has seriousness behind it. This man obviously feels that women shouldn't compete because we don't belong there and aren't filling the shoes of a "real" women who is supposed to have big breasts and hips for birthing and the males favor. Apart from this man being an ignorant fool, lots of men really don't know any woman facts. Granted I'm not too aware about how to use jock straps or compression shorts, but I know they are essential for men and boys to wear while performing in sports. If they didn't have that support they wouldn't be able to play the best they can; the same concept is used for sports bras. As Jenna put it "you can't workout with cantaloups on your chest you will end up getting a black eye."   

Gaga Feminism

I read a book recently called "Gaga Feminism" by J. Jack Halberstam and it was amazing! I wanted to recommend it to anyone who wanted a good read over the winter break. It was reasonably priced on Amazon and was all about a new wave of feminism, re-thinking gender and sexual orientation and what is "normal", and how pop culture effects how/what we think about love, sex, gender and relationships. He uses Lady Gaga (among other pop references) as a type of mascot for this new movement.

He references some gender and feminist theorists for those of you who are interested in that type of work, but it's an easy read and very relatable (especially after taking this class). Plus he's super funny! His whole idea on Gaga Feminism is not so much about fighting for women's rights to vote and have equal pay, but more about all of us fighting for equality and breaking down norms. Like I said, he breaks down gender binaries and makes the "abnormal" seem like the new normal. He talks about females in the media like Gaga, Ke$ha and Nikki Minaj and how they are strong and sexy, but own their sexuality and are in full control of it. He criticizes some movies that have come out in the last decade including Knocked Up, The Hangover and Bridesmaids and talks about how they a) further buy into the idea of a hetero-normative society and b) put so much pressure on young people to get married, settle down and start a family.  His whole idea is that we should be representing the diverse society that we live in, and we should not be telling people what the norms should be and making them feel inadequate if they aren't buying into them.

He also explains that in order to start this new revolution, we can't be afraid to go a little "gaga" ourselves. What he means by this is that we need to be a little crazy, foolish, naive. However, we need to do this with purpose. It's not just about being weird; it's about being weird in order to get noticed in order to get people's attention and have them listen up when we have something important to say. It's also a statement about not conforming and being comfortable being ourselves. Some of his ideals involve- Letting go of your basic assumptions about people so you can be open to the unexpected and unanticipated, transformation is inevitable, practice creative non-believing, and don't be afraid to be bold and outrageous.

One of my favorite quotes in the book is "If you don't go gaga soon, you may wake up and find that you have missed the future and become the past." He also suggests that we need to "be loud in a world of silent collaborators, be crazy in a room full of nice and normal people, be unpredictable in a world of highly structured systems of meaning" and that "gaga feminists want to uncover bigger political prizes rather than splendid individualism." We need to be aware, flexible, and accepting. We need to acknowledge the change going on around us and dive in!

Somaly Mam

Reading Somaly's story about her experiences as a young sex slave and seeing her on the Tyra show was so informational, sad, and moving. It's shocking how things like this happen and how (in my opinion) there isn't too much going on to stop it or prevent it. I think there needs to be more awareness, more light shed on the issue, and more funding to get those girls out of the brothels and into trades that are profitable for them, healthy, and legal.

I went on Somaly's website over the weekend and the thread bracelets they are selling are only $15. That would be such a great way to donate to the cause and talk about it with people when they ask about the bracelet. However, I just don't think that's enough. Like we were talking about in class, people like to donate  once or twice then we tend to think "my work here is done" and we move on with our lives. We don't all have the time or money to make huge social changes, and sometimes it's discouraging because we think "there's not much I can do anyway." One of my goals is to see how else I can get involved and what I can really do to make a difference. On the website they have internship and volunteer positions, some even in Cambodia! They are very limited, but that would be such an amazing experience. Maybe they will need help in the summer or when I am done with school. All I know is that I want to give back somehow- no matter how small- and her story will not be forgotten anytime soon.

TAKEN

TAKEN TRAILER 
http://youtu.be/wCbDUREBwUg

So last night while I was procrastinating my homework my friends and I decided to pop in TAKEN. Now if you have never seen Taken the movie is about two young girls go off to Europe to enjoy themselves and get taken by European men, then sold into sex trafficking. Liam Neeson happens to be one of the girls fathers and kicks some European ass and ends up saving his daughter in the daughter. This has to be one of my most favorite movies, but unfortunately it has a very Americanized view on sex trafficking. Much of society believes that sex trafficking only occurs to white women in foreign countries just like Taken. Also I think just like the Tyra show we watched on Friday American movies dumb controversial topics down for the audience. For instance the end of the movie Liam Neeson saves his daughter from the bad foreign men that were trying to sell her. The movie has a happy ending. Sex trafficking in real life doesn't usually end happily in real life. In order for this to appeal to the public we believe that we have to show the happy side so that people won't feel as bad that this is going on. Yet it is good that we have Taken to expose the public to this kind of environment. The argument is that its better to have some kind of representation than nothing at all, but when does it become important what kind of representation it is? This is something our society needs to consider more.   

Somaly Mam on the Tyra Banks Show

Although I do believe that all publicity is good publicity, I think that Somaly Mam's appearance on The Tyra Banks Show was misleading. Somaly was never referred to as an activist, and never had the chance to truly tell her story. I felt as though Somaly was rushed through her interview and was never  able to explain her past or her current project. Her foundation was barely mentioned, and she was never even referred to as an activist. At the end of her segment the program showed the shelter she had for young girls. Facts about sex slavery across the world were never stated, so the audience was not as informed as they should have been about this topic to begin with. When the segment ends, Tyra wraps up the show by talking to a young girl who used to be a sex slave. By coming to this vague end, it is safe for the audience to assume that sex slavery in Cambodia is coming to an end. No websites for Somaly's foundation are given out at the end of the show, so no one knows that they can help. As a major media outlet, Tyra Banks, and all talk show hosts, should be more aware of the messages they are sending to viewers.

Disney's Subliminal Messages

Okay, so what I'm about to blog may offend some people, or can change all your childhood memories, so sorry in advance. But I figure it can't be too bad to show considering that Disney and other children's movies have showed these images to millions of people. Being a psychology major I have studied subliminal messages before, and we all touched base on it when Jean Kilbourne came to talk to us. Usually we talk about the messages in alcohol or sexual perfume sales but we haven't really touched on the messed up images that are specifically directed towards children. One day during high school on a snow day my sister and I heard about these supposed images and decided to look into it. What I found was so disturbing, I really feel almost violated in a way that I was shown these images when I was a kid. Some of them are hard to see but the one's that are obvious when they are pointed out is sicking that millions of children were forced to watch pornographic images with no idea that it's happening. This just adds to the super sexualized culture that we are bombarding on not only children, but everyone. Here's some of the links that I found that had some examples of the images that are in movies:
-http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-Not-A-Member-Of-The-Elitist-Fashion-Group/2135209 
-/http://quicklol.com/disney-subliminal-messages-collection/

Somaly Mam

Since we started reading the novel, I've been asking friends and family if they've heard of Somaly Mam.  Most of them don't even recognize it as a name when I ask and literally no one I've asked has heard of her.  Even though I had never heard of her before the class, it still upsets me that no one else has either.  In class we were getting worked up because it seems that our government, media, and society has covered up sex trafficking in the United States and even in other countries- so I started to think about why this issue is ignored by so many people.

The fact that Americans think that child sex trafficking does not exist on our land is just ignorant, and this ignorance is what is letting it continue.  Once we recognize something this terrible is real, it will become easier to fix.  Ignoring an issue does not make it go away.

I also read online that most sex-trafficked youths are from "crack houses" where they were raised around drugs and parents or guardians who physically or sexually abused them.  To the children, life with a pimp sounds better than a life with people who were supposed to love them.  I think that these situations could be avoided if more people recognized when children come from these kinds of homes (people like teachers, neighbors, or relatives), or if CPS decided to really crack down on certain families.  So, young girls lives in prostitution could be avoided from the very start if we were less afraid to admit the dangers that are around us.

Pretty Little Liars goes to Cambodia

Shedding light on the sex trade is something that I feel is on a difficult path and I was't sure how society was going to fix it, until I saw the video about Shay Mitchell going to Cambodia. Us as a class, didn't really hear about this topic until we got to college. I feel like that if more and more people that are in the spot light join the cause, it wont take that long for others.  Yes Susan Surandan is an advocate, and she is doing wonders, but I don't think the younger generation is keeping up with what she is doing. I think its great that Shay Mitchell, from Pretty Little Liars, went over to Cambodia to learn from Somaly what is going on there.(link below) I feel like the younger generations will look up to her and want to know more about what she is doing. Or at least they will tell their parents about the issue. I feel more and more young people should get involved because usually that's who other young people follow. Also in the video that I've linked to, I feel like Shay handled the situation much better then Tyra did. She talked about what the girls were doing to improve their lives, not just talk about the sad side to it. Even at the end of the video, she said where others could go to help out the cause.


http://prettylittleliars.alloyentertainment.com/exclusive-interview-shay-mitchell-shares-details-from-her-trip-to-cambodia/

A threat to anyone's rights is a threat to everyone's human rights, on the planet.
Even Tyra Banks.
That's why we should take this seriously, because it starts with isolated incidents.

The holidays are starting. Try not to think about religion, though, focus on other people, our families but also other people's families.We are all supposed to start putting pennies in the old man's hat.
Concepts of charity already play into our personalities, or at least our own ideas of responsibility, because I know that buying fair trade chocolate makes me feel better about my place in the world. Even political discussions affect the way I interact with my environment, day to day.

How far back do we go? Slavery throughout history has been so different, the conditions dependent upon so many fluctuations... ". ...because if we do not understand History Channel, we are doomed to repeat History Channel”

—

Blake from Workaholics. At the same time though, things have seemed to stay the same.

Preventing Sexual Slavery

Though I firmly believe that Somaly's efforts are incredibly important in aiding those who were victims of sex trafficing, I feel that an approach presented by Bales excerpt "What Can be Done" would be equally benifitial. While Somaly mostly works to heal the effects of sex slavery, which is definitely incredibly neccessary, Bales propses that we attack the problem at its core. Slavery usually manifests in places of extreme poverty and population explosions. Povery leads to violence and extreme measures to find the money that in these situations are hard to obtain,while large populations lead to a lack of jobs; a perfect storm for illegal activies such as prostitution. In order to completely eliminate the new slavery we have to attack these underlying problem by helping to buld a better economy and effectively teaching women about birth control methids.
I also think another central issue that needs to be addressed in order to perminately end sexual slavery is these society's additues towards women. If even wives are treated as objects, being beaten and objectified for sexual pleasure, why would  men treat prostitutes, who are thought of as less human that respectable wives, any different. Educationg men, as Somaly did in her book, is essencial to changing these beliefs.
Though it is important to support victims and money should be continually be given to charites such as AFSIP and the Somaly Mam Foundation, in order to really have an impact on the situation in Cambodia, to prevent further suffering from happening, we need to address these central issues.   

MY ART SHOW TONIGHT!

http://www.facebook.com/events/464729390232487/

Somaly Mam and Journalism

"Journalists make it difficult, in a way, though I am very grateful to them. The attention of the world's newspapers helped save our operation from being shut down. But often reporters want a "sexy" project, something hot, to wake up the readers and viewers.They ask me to talk about my past- if not, how will they convey the importance of the work we're doing?" (p.188).

One of the points brought up in our class discussion on Friday was how the media tends to bring only the victim and their story to light and not the ones responsible for committing acts of violence. This is very true with Somaly Mam and sex trafficking, not only evident from the clips of Tyra's show, but in Mam's autobiography as well. Throughout the novel we see government officials and police officers get away with going to the brothels and raping women and girls without any repercussions, and esoecially without any real coverage by the media. Their crimes are never exposed. When AFESIP tried to take down The Chai Hour II, where many big time businessmen and other important men frequented, Somaly was the one that was told to "just keep quiet and not interfere in what didn't concern" her (p. 179).

Instead of reporting the truth about what really happens in The Chai Hour II, "some of the local press began reporting that the girls from the Chai Hour II had pushed down the gate in an attempt to escape because AFESIP was holding them against their will. They also reported that all the girls were over 18" (p. 178). The media turned AFESIP into the criminals and reported that the only reason the girls were victims is that they were being help captive in the AFESIP house, not the brothels.

What are the duties of a journalist, and the media as a whole? In order for crucial issues to come to light and begin to be changed, the truth must presented to the people, not some "sexy" story or an alternate version of the truth paid off by the criminals involved. One way to go about this is to go to one of the sources, Somaly Mam's book, which is a fantastic start in understanding the issue of sex trafficking.

This is a very short documentary on child slaves in the chocolate market. This is the Ivory Coast the same place Hershey gets it's chocolate from

This next article is from http://www.nl-aid.org/domain/child/the-child-slavery-behind-your-chocolate/ The Child Slavery Behind Your Chocolate Posted on | oktober 25, 2011 | 2 Comments October could almost be designated “candy month” in the United States, thanks to the consumer buying power and commercialization of Halloween. As I wrote in my post, Trick-or-Treating Minus the Slavery, the chocolate industry in the United States alone is a$13 billion industry. It is led by Hershey’s, which holds 42.5% of the U.S. chocolate market. Yet the global cocoa industry often traffics children to work as slaves, according to UNICEF (The United Nation’s Children’s Fund). In West Africa, 200,000 children are living in conditions of forced labor and slavery on cocoa farms. Sadly, Hershey’s uses large amounts of cocoa harvested in the Ivory Coast, which according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), produces 43% of the worlds cocoa. The Hershey Company has been aware that their products are tainted by slavery and child labor rooted at the beginning of their supply chain since at least 2001, when along with the other major chocolate companies, made a commitment to end child and forced labor in their cocoa supply chains. In September 2001, chocolate and cocoa industry representatives signed the Harkin Engel Protocol, developed by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel, in an effort to eliminate child labor in the industry. The protocol has a six-point approach to solve the problem, including a time sensitive process to establish credibility and eliminate the use of child slavery. The protocol was signed by the industry’s large cocoa producing companies and set forth an action plan to eliminate the worst forms of child labor and forced labor from cocoa farms worldwide by 2005. However, Hershey’s has continued to produce their products undaunted by the knowledge that their profits come with a high human cost. They continue to source cocoa from this region without ensuring that child labor exploitation does not occur in the production of the cocoa they use. I have known about this for awhile now but I was talking with some of you in class about it. Also the professor has mentioned it, so now that you know where it comes from does it make a difference? Would you buy your chocolate from somewhere else if you knew that it wasn't produced by slaves despite the difference in cost? I know that I really love chocolate and was upset to learn that the chocolate I eat is produced by child slave labor. Since this article Hershey's has made one of their candy bars through free trade and only as an incentive from activist groups. The slave trade is all around us and despite what we may want to believe even you and I are a part of it.

Any Publicity is Good Publicity

During class we watched Tyra’s interview with Somaly Mam. There was a lot to be discussed between the class when referring to Tyra’s attitude and media’s portrayal of the sex slavery topic. The class spoke how Somaly’s situation was referred to as the next be hot topic as opposed to a topic that deserves advocating for. Although I agreed with these points I could not help to think to myself that sometimes any publicity is good publicity.

When looking back to our talk with the Pride Alliance panel a student in our class posed a question referring to how they felt about the representation of the gay community in the popular sitcom, Modern Family. One of the members responded to this question by stating, although the portrayal of the gay couple in Modern Family is very stereotypical, she said she would rather have a stereotypical portrayal than no representation at all. I think this quote really correlates to our discussion about the Tyra Show and her interview. Although Tyra did a poor job of introducing Somaly and advocating for her topic, I do believe she brought some awareness upon this topic. Just by having part of her talk show centered on this issue, we can only hope that this topic has inspired numerous viewers to do further research. I do wish Tyra would have put further information on her website or included at least the link to the Somaly Mam’s foundation. The important thing to remember that just because a topic is put out in the media with an inaccurate representation does not mean that it does not completely raise awareness to the every viewer watching. Topics such as sex slavery might instead influence viewers in a more personal way to make them think they need to take action.

Any Publicity is Good Publicity

During class we watched Tyra’s interview with Somaly Mam. There was a lot to be discussed between the class when referring to Tyra’s attitude and media’s portrayal of the sex slavery topic. The class spoke how Somaly’s situation was referred to as the next be hot topic as opposed to a topic that deserves advocating for. Although I agreed with these points I could not help to think to myself that sometimes any publicity is good publicity.

When looking back to our talk with the Pride Alliance panel a student in our class posed a question referring to how they felt about the representation of the gay community in the popular sitcom, Modern Family. One of the members responded to this question by stating, although the portrayal of the gay couple in Modern Family is very stereotypical, she said she would rather have a stereotypical portrayal than no representation at all. I think this quote really correlates to our discussion about the Tyra Show and her interview. Although Tyra did a poor job of introducing Somaly and advocating for her topic, I do believe she brought some awareness upon this topic. Just by having part of her talk show centered on this issue, we can only hope that this topic has inspired numerous viewers to do further research. I do wish Tyra would have put further information on her website or included at least the link to the Somaly Mam’s foundation. The important thing to remember that just because a topic is put out in the media with an inaccurate representation does not mean that it does not completely raise awareness to the every viewer watching. Topics such as sex slavery might instead influence viewers in a more personal way to make them think they need to take action.

Obama On Modern-Slavery

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/17/human-trafficking-california-_n_2150518.html
^ Scroll to the bottom under the embedded video. Click the first video icon, titled "Obama's Anti-Human Trafficking Plan". 

---

      Well in recent news, Obama calls out the truth in human trafficking and the estimated twenty million faces around the globe by responding to it as modern-slavery, in a firm speech on what can be done in response, which has the same concept Kevin Bales contests under "Three Things You Can Do to Stop Slavery".

      "The President said the trafficking of people contributes to "the debasement of our common humanity," ''tears at our social fabric," endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. He listed victims ranging from workers who toil for little pay, are abused and barred from leaving their jobs, young boys who are turned into child soldiers and forced to kill, and impoverished girls who are sold into the sex trade."

      The first step to Coda is to learn. After reading Kevin Bale's book and our text on Somaly Mam, something I could do to make a difference is relay this information on human trafficking, and lend somebody a copy of The Road to Lost Innocence.  The President touches upon the ways our educators, and law enforcement can cooperate to be better equipped to take action, and utilize technology as a way to aid, in correspondence to ways technology can exploit their victims. Obama highlights the importance in treating the victims as victims, not criminals, and rebuilding the the lives of men and women, not to mention child victims. He entails the need for support in anti-trafficking organization and causes that find new ways to care for victims, like the Anti-Slavery International.  President Obama's focus and zero tolerance of these present issues in our boarders, and internationally make me very glad. :-)

Somaly Mam You Smart Woman

Somaly Mam, when she gets to the point where she can help the cause of human trafficking and brothels, does wonders. I think it is fantastic that she decided to give supplies and treat the women of the brothels. However, what really struck me as genius was the fact that she decided to respond to the men in the culture as well. People seem to only focus on those who are getting hurt, the victims. Yes, this is very helpful, but people seem to ignore the fact that these victims are only victims because of their perpetrators. I see a connection with the rape culture in the United States, at the moment. Society teaches women to not get raped, but they don't teach men to not rape. Rape is a foreign concept in this society, it seems. The definition is very unclear, as it is in Cambodia. Rape is very normalized and something needs to be done. Somaly Mam starts this change in Cambodia by creating a better perspective of the treatment of women in the Cambodian culture. We need to take advice from Somaly Mam and we need to start to do this in our own rape culture.

C-c-combo Breaker!

Reading the other blogs entries was making me depressed, so I’m setting aside the blog entry I had about California's new, badly written anti sex-trafficking law...

Let’s talk Christmas gifts for younger kids. Feminist Christmas gifts.

New Graphic Novel Addresses Human Trafficking

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/17/human-trafficking-california-_n_2150518.html

     After reading Somaly Mam's book so far this week, I read up more on human trafficking throughout the web. I came across this article which speaks of General Kamala Harris vow to crack down even more on sex trafficking as well as forced labor in California. California is one of the nation's top four destination states for trafficking, which is a global industry reeling in over $32 billion a year. The board of law makers are attempting to strengthen the training so investigators and law enforcement are better equipped to spot victims. California passed Proposition 35 in which people who support human trafficking will pay the highest penalties possible. The number of victims identified has tripled in the last two years, but due to the awfully large number of people currently in these situations it's not good enough. Of those, 72% have been born in the United States. A substantial amount of foreigners would be in California due to it's closeness to other nations in the world.
     And in this day and age, people are able to lure other's in of all ages from their homes using the Internet by promising better lives and great pay, when really they are getting into something the complete opposite. How unsurprising that horrible people are using social media to recruit. Because of the ever so progressing form of trafficking, new ways of spreading awareness has to make its way. A local writer and illustrator have written a graphic novel that releases next year that brings attention to human trafficking. The video about it is at the bottom of the provided link. Addressing this dark world of modern day slavery and tapping into a newer demographic through this comic book called Home of the Brave taking place in a "third world" America, could go a long way. It makes me relieved that better awareness of the issue is in the future.
     Though Somaly Mam's book is just an account of the slavery in Cambodia, broken women of all ages are everywhere in the world, not to mention the United States. In the article, a victim of trafficking in L.A states, "My message for the victim out there is don't be afraid to come out," she said. "There's still hope." Though I do like the message, there are people in places of the world that are even more under the gun. Like Sry Roat from The Road of Lost Innocence. When she wanted to escape she asked a client for help but this man knew Li, whom looked over her. He tied her arms and held a pistol to the side of her head and shot her brains out. So, though in an ideal world it's best to seek help, I think part of the awareness in human trafficking is that it's not so simple to be able to reach out to the world. In Cambodia, this was extremely hard for Somaly because the lack of communication in Cambodian culture. So far this book has been disgusting to read because of the hyperactive sex drives in every single man. Literally, every man in this book can not help but rape. It almost seems rape is worked into the culture; and it baffles me wondering how many other nations have or had a similar outlook. While reading the book, I long for Somaly to meet someone who will not deceive her, and beat and rape her (even the police), but find her to be a beautiful human being. 

"With more than 20 million victims of human trafficking around the world, we've got a lot more to do." -President Barack Obama

Sex traffiking close to home

In discussing Somaly Mam's book this week, it has been difficult for me to remember that this is not an issue specific only to Cambodia. It is crazy to think that something like sex traffiking could be happening right in Buffalo, NY. It's easy to think that these kinds of things don't happen close to home and that we are always safe, even though this is obviously not true. The images that Somaly Mam depicts in her novel are extremely graphic and hard to read at times but the way that they reach an audience such as our class is incredible. 
I decided to look up sex traffiking in New York and see what kind of results would show up. Cases of human sex traffiking that are reported are actually all recorded and kept in a resource center(http://www.polarisproject.org/state-map/new-york). The site that I found includes reports of hotline calls as well as data from cases that reference human sex traffiking. I am currently interning at a domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center where we have a hotline for victims to call, so when I saw that there was something similar for sex traffiking this connection intrigued me. I am really enjoying the novel that we are reading but in some ways it has reinforced my idea that the issue of sex traffiking is not an issue of the United States. It would be nice to see more about this issue in a global perspective and not so focused in remote areas. 

Sex Trafficking in America

I googled "sex trade in America" and this interesting article was the first to pop up:

http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/resource/past-articles/enslaved-in-america-sex-trafficking-in-the-united-states

It is about a woman in America who fell for a man who was soon to become her pimp.  She makes a point about media though, which reminds me of past readings.  Commercials, ads, and movies have forced Americans to believe that they need to buy this product or look this way or go to this place, but it has also made things like the word "pimp" look glamorized.  A pimp is looked at as something a man ought to be. It's just seen as cool.  A few years ago my friend and I actually dressed up as pimps for Halloween.  We wore fur coats, big hats, used canes, and had gold teeth.  We thought of it as a joke.  But pimps and prostitution are the farthest things from a joke.

Somaly Today

The book, The Return to Innocence, is such a fantastic book in my opinion. Once Is started to read it I couldn't put it down. This issue of sex trafficking really has shocked the hell out of me. I had some inkling that     it was still going on but from what we've talked about, ITS SO COMMON! I feel like we need to defiantly be more informed about this. Why isn't this being talked about in the presidential debates? They already openly talk about what women should or should not do with their body, why not look at it on a national scale? To me someones freedom is the most important thing. You can't help someone have health care if said person is never allowed to even steps into a hospital. Everyone is so worried about how to get richer; they don't even realize that people would love to just simply have money they could call their own. Perhaps having this book put into the history classes in high school perhaps will get people thinking about it the way I am now. I've been doing a lot of research on the topic, seeing if their is anyway I could some how help. We need people to know that sex trafficking isn't something that just happens in the movies, like Taken. It's something that's happening possibly right down the street.

Discussion about "The Road Of Lost Innocence"

"The Road Of Lost Innocence" by Somaly Mam is a story that saddens me greatly. Her story makes me realize that sex trafficking is a huge problem that many people including myself don't think about. Everyone should have to read this book so that it can open peoples' eyes to what is going on around the world including in our own backyard. Mam has told her story in such a beautiful yet saddening way that makes me want  to try harder to help fight this horrible problem. I never fully understood the pain and torture both physical and mental that these girls have to endure on a daily basis, even now I can't really understand what they have gone through. I also am now understanding how much corruption there is in the government in Cambodia and even our government here. The fact that Mam managed to fight her way through everything she has been through and come out the other side a better person makes her a warrior. Somaly Mam is a hero and by writing this book she is standing up to these problems and trying to make a difference.