Slavery

[marcus_sez_vote]

I've probably posted about this before, but these kinds of articles make my heart ache and get me so very angry. The author Kristoff writes on his NYtimes blog about the op-ed pieces mentioning sanctions, cracking down on trafficking via the State department, etc. Frankly I think this kind of trafficking is going to be nigh impossible to fully

Comments

[funwithrage]

There is often opposition to labeling one culture superior to one another or eradicating traditions that other cultures cherish. I however believe that around the world the idea of underage marriages/forced prostitution/trafficking needs to be eliminated.

Yep.

It's not just outside the U.S., either: a lot of the stuff I've heard recently in regard to crazy religious polygamy compounds in the Midwest and West makes me want to set people on fire. Nope, not okay; nope, not willing to respect your culture, because your culture marries thirteen-year-old girls to men old enough to be their grandfathers, and there's no possible way this is all right.

I tend to respect (or at least tolerate, even if I find them dumbassed as all hell) any culture's practices as long as members of that culture have the chance to leave without being permanently damaged. And it's a debatable line--I think the way certain fundamentalist Christian sects indoctrinate kids borders on criminal, but as long as there isn't *physical* abuse, it's harder to say the government should get involved--but things like underaged marriage and FGM are way on the "oh, hell, no" side.

How can human beings be so willing to treat another so badly? It can't just be about money or even the sense of power or control.

Without knowing the culture, it's hard to say. Three things come immediately to mind. First, I know that extremes of abuse against women in U.S. subcultures generally come from a very pervasive "women aren't really people" outlook. Second, relatedly, there are a lot of people who are willing to think of their economic "subordinates" as not-actually-people. I hear milder versions of that mindset all the time on customers_suck: people who think that oh, well, this girl works retail and thus it's her obligation to eat shit and smile if I want her to.

(Actually, the corporate world is full of the milder version: this person works for me! They have no need of sleep or a social life or not being screamed at! It's one of the aspects of American culture I hate most.)

And finally, I think there are just a whole lot of sociopaths out there. Most of them work it out via one sort of quasilegal abuse or another, rather than killing people, and therefore don't make the news, but I remember reading somewhere that it was about one in 25 people, scarily enough.

Hm. Midnight makes me crazy rambly. But basically, I agree with you.