This post is a little late....(sorry Professor!) However, the further I get into this book, the more it actually depresses me. As we all know, sex trafficking - or sex slaves - is a huge concern for some countries and this plays a role in the overall theme: the oppression of women. According to some accounts retold in Half the Sky, women are either born or forced into the trade of prostitution or selling their bodies and have little to no choice about this. They are then intimidated, beaten, and coerced into staying in the brothels and continuing such a life. While this seems very concerning to Western cultures and individuals trying to find resources and ways to help rescue these innocent women, there are some women who share and participate in the same values that dominate these cultures and continue to oppress women and continue to keep them indebted as sex slaves.
How can you continue to feel sorry and angry about situations like these when the women willingly subject themselves to this kind of behavior and cultural practices? According to one account retold in this book, "women themselves absorb and transmit misogynistic values, just as men do. This is not a tidy world of tyrannical men and victimized women, but a messier realm of oppressive social customs adhered to by men and women alike" (69). Furthermore, laws can be of some assistance, but the greatest obstacle to halting sex trafficking and it practices and helping women is to change the ways of thinking for these peoples. The author even goes as far to suggest that, "the very best means of combating suffocating traditions is education" (69) which I completely agree with.
Education seems to be the most important thing to women willingly participating and subjecting themselves to these practices and behaviors simply because they do not know better. However, how can you educate so many women and in so many different places? Even if schools and systems for education were implemented, how then would you rescue or save the women currently living in brothels? How would you then convince them to attend school and work towards an education that provides hope and a prosperous future when tradition and their societal customs and beliefs have always stated otherwise?
These questions are all very important and some that I have been thinking of throughout this book. I guess I'll just have to continue reading in the hopes these questions I have are better explained and hopefully answered.
Jenna, I feel you on the depressing aspects of the book. Feel free to skip over the gory details of the more depressing parts, and instead try to get to the inter-chapter "success stories" and positive transformations. As your fellow Trojan America Ferrera points out in the HALF THE SKY documentary, "IF even ONE girl is helped, that's a big deal; it makes a difference." Be aware that looking a the MAGNITUDE of a problem can sometimes blind you from taking a step, any step, toward a solution, or at the very least, a better understanding, of an issue, a problem, a dilemma.
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