Setting aside the statistics, the shocking sadness, the sociological ins and outs. what just plain as heck fascinates me most is the magnetic relationship these girls have with their pimps. How these slime ball, scum of the earth, mud sucking men could hold so much power over these beautiful and potent little flowers, -just what is that?
For me, all the questions and answers lie right here, what is happening in THAT space, that steel rope between the girls and these men. What is it made of ? How do circumstances set us up to become what they have become?Having seen first hand adult /women involved and addicted to their long term abusive relationships I found it fascinating to realize that many of the same dynamics were at play with the very young girls. I wonder how many women that are drawn to abusive men in their adult lives would have become child prostitutes had their worlds collided with such vultures when they were younger.
4 comments:
Lee, your new posting is beautifully written and heartfelt.I too was struck dumb by the strangely powerful pull these men have over 'their' girls. Seeing them go back over and over again was gut wrenching. I don't know what else to say except how very sad this is but how wondeful that the woman who was able to break free is doing her best to help others out of their plight. I don't know how she does it without burning out. I don't think I could handle it for a day.
Hi everyone.
I want to apologize for not being active for awhile. I have been going through some personal
problems and have not been able to concentrate un my two favorite
things----reading and films---
for more tann 3 seconds.
Wishing you all the best greetings of the season and hope to be back soon.
Yes, it is definitely the girls' relationships with their pimps that is so perplexing. Easy to point out that none of them appear to have fathers in their lives, and quite likely whatever random males have wandered in and out of their childhoods may have been little better than Anthony and Chris. Still, it's difficult to comprehend. Nice to see these pimp brothers did end up in prison, hoist by their own petard apparently. I suspect from a purely financial perspective rather than using their home video footage to shill a "reality" TV show, they'd have had more success marketing their tapes as instructional materials for wannabe pimps and pederasts. Their footage may not explain why these girls hook up with them, much less, go back to to them again and again, but it sure does work as a "how to" course.
For me the sickest thing in the whole film was the scene with the large group of "johns" who - after being reminded that virtually all of these girls were underage, many 13 or younger, all any of them can think of is to ask if it's break time yet. You can't even call what they get a slap on the wrist. Why they're not held equally accountable with the pimps is beyond me. The victims here are obviously the girls themselves while the johns are quite simply accomplices of the pimps. So why aren't they in prison with Anthony and Chris for having sex with underage girls, listed as sex offenders etc. Instead they're treated to a laugh filled group "education" session and told not to do it again and the whole thing will be wiped from their record!!!! I don't even know what to say. Truly appalling.
Otherwise, since this is, after all, a film blog and not a sociology classroom I do have to say I felt that as a film Very Young Girls was less successful than it might have been. I applaud Rachel Lloyd's work, but given that she is more or less the main "character" in this movie I'd have been interested in learning at least a little bit more about her story. And though I'm glad this film did not take the usual sensationalized TV approach to this issue, I did find myself wishing the director would have dug a little deeper, hit a bit harder. Ultimately VYG was not nearly so shocking as its makers seemed to think, and given the subject matter that is saying something. A little sharper focus, a clearer idea of what they were trying to accomplish might have helped. It isn't a bad documentary, but in the right hands it could have been so much more powerful.
We are so sorry to hear that you are not doing well Silver. Our thoughts are with you and please keep us updated. We have been watching all the films each month (six weeks?)but have not been writing as Time sems to be elusive lately. But we do love watching and reading what the rest of you have written so thank you for keeping up with it. Happy Holidays to all.
Post a Comment