Born Into Brothels Rhetorical Analysis

Alex Kotlowitz’s There Are No Children Here is a documentary exploring life in inner-city Chicago during the late 1980’s. The book follows the lives of two African American youth, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, who live in Chicago’s Horner Homes over the course of two years. It tells of a lifestyle that is a reality for many Americans and forces the reader to acknowledge a broken system that so many turn a blind eye toward. Kotlowitz does not sugarcoat the struggles and hardships that the citizens of the inner-city face every single day. The Rivers’ boys, like all the children of inner-cities, experience situations and know of unimaginable horrors that rob them of their innocence and childhoods. Lafeyette and Pharoah have to face and overcome many forces that can change their lives for the worst, such as: gangs and drugs, the social system, the Chicago Housing Authority, and the battle within them to give into the worst of society. Sociological concepts, including: racism, strain theory, and social stratification can explain some of the exploitation of Lafeyette and Pharoah.

Childhood is a crucial time in a person’s life and it needs to be kept innocent and pure for the child’s well-being later in life. The most important recurring theme in the novel Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill is the loss of innocence at a young age and the profound complications later in life. The complete loss of innocence is built-up with multiple different experiences over time. For Baby, these experiences are: when she is first exposed to drug use, when she spends time in foster care and when she becomes engaged in prostitution.

In the CNN article: they describe how the girls were forced to grow up: “Geeta was 9 when she began wearing makeup, staying up until 2 a.m. and having sex with as many as 60 men a day” (CNN, 1). At 9 years old, a girl is dressing up, and acting like a women which in the sex trafficking world is no big deal. Many girls continue to be forced to dress how why they have to in order to get the most men and the most money. Geeta is only doing these things because she is being blackmailed into the situation and owes money and the longer she waits and has to be involved in the sex trafficking experience. Lakshmi also goes through having to wear unwanted makeup to get the men to want her: “I’m wiping the makeup off my face when the dark-skinned girl comes in” (McCormick, 105). The search for want from the men is a big struggle in sex trafficking and many girls are forced to go to the extremes to get out the faster without being there any longer than they have to. “The youngest turned out to be a seventh grader from Vietnam three months earlier, making her about 12 years old” (Kristof, 2). Girls are taken into sex trafficking when they are so young and are forced to perform actions that they would usually do as adults and not teenagers Having sex with an abundance of men per day is nothing a young girl should do for a job. In the book Sold, Lakshmi was taken from her home at 13 years old like the girl in the article. They both had to experience things that no girl their age could ever imagine. “The pimp might take a girl across the border in a cycle-rickshaw and put a tikka dot on her forehead so it looks like she and he are married” (Orlinsky, 2). They will do anything to make sure that they don’t get caught because they police our aware of the sex trafficking in the country. The pretend that they are married o it doesn’t look suspicious

The telling of a story is never easy, especially when the topic is racy, emotionally charged, and highly taboo. Rachel Moran deftly covers all aspects of her life in prostitution in “Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution”, from addiction to abuse, and every moment in between. Moran utilizes macro level structure by dividing her memoir into three parts, and further dividing her book by chapters organized by topics concerning factors that contribute to prostitution, all in order to create a cohesive story that is compartmentalized for easy access to specific information, and creates a story that is used as a support system for a deeper message about the need for social and legislative change regarding prostitution.

These youth rarely have the chance to experience the simple joy of being teenagers. They often suffer pain, humiliation and degradation in the hands of their pimps and costumers. Pimps are the men or women ho rape or take the illegal custody of these kids to sell them in the world of prostitution. Costumers or you could said the consumers are usually reach people (politics), gangs and sometime just regular mans from the community who don’t care about the suffering of this youth but to satisfy their own sexual need. The effect of juvenile prostitution in our society is getting worst and victims of juvenile prostitution will often abuse their own children, which is way juvenile prostitution has risen to such an unbelievable level.

The girls are told when they arrive that they can work their way to freedom and will eventually be able to go home once their debts are payed off but, as Lakshmi learns that is not what actually happens. “ I have seen Mumtaz’s record book; I know she cheated me.” (McCormick 234) After she learns this, Lakshmi realizes that she is not actually going to get out of the house because of Mumtaz’s greed. Like Lakshmi many young girls are forced into prostitution and if they resist they are beaten or starved. In Girls Forced Into Prostitution By Rebecca Raphael there is a girl named Bharti.

More organizations like the one that rescued Lakshmi could be made along with campaigns and fundraisers to raise money. In the documentary Born into Brothels children in Calcutta, who were from birth doomed to be in brothels, were given cameras. The photos depicted life in the brothels through the children's eyes. The woman who gave them the cameras, Zana Briski, worked to get the children out of the brothels and into schools. Unfortunately, most the schools would not take the children because of their backgrounds. “There is nothing called hope in my future.”(Weiss) were the words of eleven year old Avijit Halder who was one of the children born into the brothel. However, Halder is now a junior at New York University and studying film. The documentary he was a part of turned his life around and gave his future hope. Creating organizations and groups that raise money to aid the children affected by sex trafficking could make an education possible for them. Every person aware of brothels who are willing to assist the children involved in achieving a better life can make a difference.

The efforts from the United States to promote education in Cambodia are revealed as one of the possible solution. Yet it is then discussed that such efforts were not fully successful for all girls. In particular, Kun Sokkea was not able to get her education, even with repeated tries, due to financial pressure. The second solution for women in prostitution focuses on regulations on prostitution. In particular, a place in India, Sonagachi, is introduced where brothel service

"Unicef recently reported that an estimated 1.8 million children enter the sex trade each year. Some are in the United States, but the worst abuses take place in countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Cambodia" (Kristoff), but while saving some life outside is very diverse, some girls go on to be very successful while others return to the life of prostitution.

To help prime the later discussion of the individual influences, it would be useful to understand the history from which prostitution emerges and the manner in which the nature of the work is portrayed in the film. Prostitution is defined as “the act or practice of engaging in sexual activity for money or its equivalent” (as cited in Salmon, 2008). This practice goes back thousands of years and was present in many cultures, however, it was around the Middle Ages when the Church’s attitude shifted towards perceiving the act as “evil” (Salmon, 2008). Though it was seen as an “evil,” it was kept around because of its perceived utility towards helping young unmarried men and was subsequently housed in brothels (Salmon, 2008). This is the environment we find the characters of the film, a 1900 Paris brothel located in the district of Montmartre. The notion that prostitution is regarded as a social ill in this environment is supported by the warning

Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, is a science fiction thriller about humankind facing extinction due to infertility, set in a dystopian society. The protagonist of the film, Theo Faron, is a former political activist who becomes the unexpected caretaker to Kee, who is a young African refugee woman whose journey commences when she miraculously becomes pregnant. They both become a part of a dangerous journey, where he ensured to safely send Kee and her baby to the Human Project, where they will receive sufficient care needed and therefore, restore faith for a future. Throughout Kee’s character development, she conveys themes of hope and courage. The film implements excellent cinematography and stylistic conventions, including mis-en-scene, mis-en-shot and sound, which had a significant impact on the audience.

In regards to their essay on sex trafficking and child prostitution, Kristof and WuDunn note their successful and failed efforts to help these women. Each time they interviewed a woman, they “bought” her from the brothel owner and aimed to set her up for economic success outside of forced prostitution. However, one girl quickly and willingly returned to the brothel due to her drug dependence (where she obtained the addiction from being forced to take drugs in order oblige her customers). Kristof and WuDunn indicated, that in order to effectively help women, advocates need to focus on prevention, through education, empowerment to give women a voice, and putting brothels out of business. Prajwala’s model is effective for those already in the

Prostitution has always been a worldwide problem especially in Chicago, Illinois. The exploitation of prostitution seems to be one of many serious issues in inner-city Chicago. Some may ask the question as to “what changes occur in a woman’s life to make her want to live this type of lifestyle?” Are prostitutes always the victim or do some control their work, and even enjoy sex? After experiencing human trafficking, drug addiction, and prostitution for 25 years of her teenage and adult life, Brenda Myers-Powell’s life story answered those questions. She survived the harsh lifestyle of prostitution and serves as a mentor to the youth to prevent them from encountering the trauma she did for many years of her life.

Blackburn, Taylor and Davis (2010) found because of poverty in Cambodia and Thailand parents tend to give up or sent their children (mostly females) to recruiters or creditors in order to make ends meet, pay off a family debt and their children were a part of debt bondage. These children became prostitutes and they were accepted to do these acts to pay for food and shelter to the recruiters. Singh and Hart (2007) indicate that their findings were that many of the women involved in sex work were interested with making money because they were facing financial hardships and sex work was able to help increase the standard of living for themselves and their families. Parents spent money raising their daughters and the daughters would become prostitutes to repay the debt. Singh and Hart (2007) explain that the earnings of one daughter can support a whole family in the rural villages of Thailand.

When Zana Briski traveled to Calcutta’s impoverished red light district in 1997, she did not expect her documentary capturing the lives of eight marginalized children would arouse the consciousness of millions of people around the world. By displaying the poverty and grime of the brothel while publicizing children’s artwork and their lofty dreams to become educated, the documentary “Born into Brothels” succeed in raising awareness and attracting financial support worldwide to provide these children with reachable quality education. In other words, it is the film as well as the discussions related to it on various media platforms that brought about life-changing opportunities for those eight children, which evidently unfolds the