So it was the final day
of Social Justice week at school today and we had the privilege of
hearing Benjamin Nolot speak. If you have never heard of him then
check out Exodus Cry on the internet and watch his film, Nefarious
but be prepared to never be able to look at the sex industry the same
again. Still encouraging you to watch but just warning you, it is
revealing and hard hitting!
Being in the social
justice track I got to hear Benjamin a few weeks ago when he skyped
in to talk to us and I truly believe that he has uncovered the
underlying heart issue that is behind the entire sex industry. It is
the way men and women are taught through society and the media to
view one another and it is definitely not God's way.
So here I want to start
another conversation, I'm not moving away from my stance that I want
to see sex tourism abolished but I want to start a conversation about
the root causes that enables our society to think it is okay. So
here goes!
Someone told me the
other day that as they were growing up her mum used to take her out
when she went with her friends. This sounds lovely but what her mum
and her friends used to do was moan and complain about their
husbands. In her words she was told, 'All men are dogs!' and 'Don't
get married!' What a way to grow up, believing that all men are dogs
and that you are better off not being married.
Sadly, I do not think
this is an isolated case and added to anything parents may choose to
share with their children is the inundation of identity stereotypes
that society throws at you, especially film and music.
I just want to give two
examples to get this conversation started and to see what you all
think about this out there.
I just want to get us
talking and thinking about the issues and not just allowing ignorance
or apathy to overtake us.
Please comment below.
Please talk to your
colleagues, your friends, your community.
Let's be the generation
that stands up and says not on our watch, we will choose to honour
and not demonise the opposite sex.
Please choose to honour
the women and men in your life for who they really are and not what
society says they are.
Let's stand up and be
counted and model the transformation we want to see!
So, here's my examples,
or Benjamin's to be precise but they are good and I'm sure he will
not mind me using them!
The first is Rihanna,
now I don't know a lot about Rihanna but it appears like thinks have
changed a little since I last watched a music video. Before I wrote
this post I thought I would have a look at her music videos and found
some on VEVO but it wouldn't let me watch them without signing in.
Why? They wanted to know that I was old enough to watch an explicit
video! This to me is crazy, why does a music video have to be so
explicit that you need to be 18 to watch it?
Sadly, I think we have
a culture where sex sells and women have been told that they can take
control by controlling their bodies and using them to make money. I
think this is the ploy of men who want to see those women do things
that they would not do otherwise, but I may be wrong!
I agree with Benjamin
who says Hugh Heffner showed the world this okay when he had a harem
of women who thought they were liberated as Bunny Girls and people
celebrated it. Now that has become topless bars and drive through
coffee shops where girls are serving in their underwear. This isn't
liberated women choosing a career, this is women getting a job where
they can because they have bills to pay, who in their right mind
would stand at a cold drive through window in their underwear unless
they were desperate for the job?
It breaks my heart that
we have sold a lie to men and women then causes them to think that
this is okay for them to see and be seen. This is what underlies sex
trafficking. This is what underlies it being okay for sex tourism to
be a part of our world.
Another example
Benjamin gave that truly shocked me was of James Bond. Now, I was
not shocked that James Bond was a womaniser, he was that throughout
my youth growing up and seeing the movies. No, what shocked me was
what had happened in the latest movie, Skyfall, which I have not
seen. In this (so I have been reliably informed and so will not be
watching it) Bond uses a sex trafficking victim to get to her boss
but they both get caught. Bond, instead of rescuing her plays a game
with her boss where they try to shoot a glass of good Scotch off her
head. Bond misses but the boss just shoots her in the head and all
Bond can say is, 'What a waste of good Scotch.'
How can it be okay for
a multi million pound film to suggest that a glass of Scotch is worth
more than the life of a trafficking victim? It truly does appear
like the culture we live in is one where media says that women exist
for the sexual pleasure of men, as people to be conquered and not
loved. How did we let this happen and what can we do about it?
Lastly, I believe we
are all made in the image of God and that is the identity that we
have but even without that belief, the first 5 articles of the
Declaration of Human Rights are:
Article I All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2 Everyone is
entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no
distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to
which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust,
non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3 Everyone has
the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4 No one shall
be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5 No one shall
be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment.
This is enough reason
to want to change the current status quo in the world, so my answer
is to start the conversation!
My answer is to honour
the men and women in my life and to speak true identity into them and
not to allow society's thinking to infect mine. It may not be much
but I have drawn a line in the sand and I will not stay silent any
more!
Please comment below.
Please share this blog.
Please start your own
conversations about the things you are passionate about, let us not
stay silent anymore.
Thank you for reading,
I look forward to reading your comments and seeing how this
conversation grows.
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