Jezebel 
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New York, 9:28 AM
Mon Nov 9
19 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/13/09
10/13/09
I'm confused. Is there an inherent problem with MCs mix of fluff and gravitas? Isn't that what Jezebel does, with Dirt Bag and fashion alongside rape and wage gap stories?
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
Can't women be interested in dresses, shoes, and ending sex slavery all at the same time?
10/13/09
Ten years after getting out, Sreypov still shrinks at the thought of sex and love: "As for marriage and children? 'I don't want that,' she says, shaking her head. She can't imagine herself ever being with men." Sreypov's real life doesn't have a Hollywood ending. She may be doing far better than most child sex slaves can ever hope to do. But her history of sex slavery is still impeding her ability to live a full life. She may never enjoy something most of us take for granted: romantic love.
This kind of made my head explode. I can't believe I read it on a feminist blog.
10/13/09
Yes, the worst thing about her story is that she will never have the "pleasure" of living out some stupid pretty princess Disney fairytale.
10/13/09
I will admit that the phrase "But her history of sex slavery is still impeding her ability to live a full life" is problematic in that I think she can have a full life without romantic love, particularly since she has dedicated her life to helping other girls. Mother Theresa led a full life and I'm fairly certain (/sarcasm) that she led a full life. But Mother Theresa was a nun and she chose to give up romantic love, Chan wasn't given the choice. Her ability to engage in a romantic relationship was robbed from her by her abusers.
10/13/09
10/13/09
Men don't deserve her.
10/13/09
10/14/09
10/13/09
What a sad, sad story though. Sreypov Chan is not only hope personified, but strength personified. How anyone could come back from such horrors is beyond me. I despair for those poor girls.
10/13/09
I guess one way of interpreting that is as Anna has, which is to say that it's simply a ladymag concession to frivolity. But I also think that Pesta is trying to use the example of the raw-silk dress and the button-down blouse and black pants to show how stark Chan's transformation has been, from a sex slave to a professional young woman. I don't think that's a frivolous thing to note, although I think Pesta could have framed it better. But don't you think that's interesting, the idea that someone who probably spent a lot of her time naked or being forced to wear whatever skimpy things the men who paid to sleep with her found attractive, can now make those kinds of choices for herself?
10/13/09
One thing is the audience: they are interested in fashion. Hearing what this woman is wearing, thinking that she sounds like then, gives them a connection to her that they didn't have before. "Why, that sounds like something I/my daughter/my friend would wear!" can translate into a shared connection instead of "those foreign things that happen in foreign lands". It's a frivolous connection, but it's still there.
Also, that many people living in less-than-ideal situations often treasure their nice things. The nice clothes they have, or the jewelry. They are proud to show them to others to assert their value and improve their status in society, as well as to enjoy fine things. Pesta could have framed it a little better, but I got more of the shock-and-horror aspect of the article, and the clothes serve as a tool to bring it back to realities that readers are familiar with.
10/13/09
I agree. In both mentions of clothing, the clothing she is wearing to contrast her life and personality before. The pink, eye catching dress is contrasted with her personality when she was first released: a teenage girl so terrified of people and made to feel so dehumanized that she couldn't believe other people would look her in the face and greet her kindly...but a year later she was wearing a bright colored, probably attention grabbing outfit and greeting people with ease. And the mention of her professional outfit (and posture) comes right after this paragraph:
"It's around 10 a.m. and the women are wearing pajamas and earrings, resting from the night's work. They look beaten up. Their garish evening dresses hang in the bathroom, beside a door frame that's been decimated by termites." She's gone from a similar situation to being a proud, put together, professional woman.
10/13/09
Frankly, anytime there is a description of the outfit that an interviewee is wearing, it usually serves to describe how the person is projecting themselves to others.
Did anyone else read this and think it was a non-issue?
10/13/09
10/13/09
I agree with you; I think it's fantastic that someone who has been through such horror can outwardly project such a positive image.
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
Ideal mag issue: pull out on how pick a good wine with interview of women-owed wineries from different countries, on the street work attire make-overs (and make-up make unders) Interview with female presidents/queens/ prime ministers about looming global issues, spread and interview with Anderson Cooper vs. Jon Stewart titled "The Two Sides of the News Man", fashion spread with the ladies of Mad Men with a tutorial on 60's inspired make-up, special interest piece on the alternatives to monogamy (NO sensationalizing, please), and a "last look" on musician Paolo Nutini. :D
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
09/18/09
This story is dangerous because it is an attempt to establish a false equivalency to the corruption of the right. Is what this lady did on video more or less dangerous then female workers for haliburton and KBR being raped and the cover up being sponsored on our dime?
I'm sorry but some minor corruption by a bunch of poor people just doesn't rise to
the level of that other stuff, but we can't talk about that in this country, that would be disrespectful to the president and the troops.
09/18/09
09/18/09
09/18/09
09/18/09
It's possible that those were simple mistakes and errors in judgment on the part of the employees, especially as ACORN's screening for the voter reg staff was minimal. However, knowing that the same error popped up in at least 4-5 different states in the 2004 election season makes it seem like it may have been intentional.
I was also dismayed later on, to find out about the history of ACORN in Kansas City, MO, where the office closed with short notice, and ACORN national continued to withdraw membership dues from the affected members for 8 years with no staff to support them and no active chapters.
I soon left, because I had grave concerns about the stability of the neighborhood chapter I was supposed to build, and those concerns were seriously affecting my ability to recruit members.
It was soon after that that I discovered the non-profit for whom I had been doing community organizing had been convicted of union-busting among their own employees not a year earlier. I've included here a link to the decision by the National Labor Relations Board.
[www.nlrb.gov]
I agree with Lymed in her assertion that ACORN does do some fantastic work. They were one of the first to raise awareness publicly about predatory lending. They have spoken out on behalf of the poor and the marginalized in multiple communities, and given low-income neighborhoods alot of power in deciding their own agendas for their neighborhoods, something I admire and respect.
However, I also think the methods they have used to achieve those means are reprehensible. I hope that, with their federal funding revoked, other non-profits will step in to fill the gap, and fill it in a way that is more ethical. I support the revocation of their funding by the government. When I found out that my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) had given them a generous grant from our funds to support community organizing, I also advised our national staff to take a closer look at their history of labor relations and structural stability. I still stand by that advise.
Doing I think this interview served as a form entrapment? Certainly. Do I think the organizer really thought she wsas just playing along? Definitely. However, I also hope the publicity this brings to ACORN will also allow us to look more closely at their problematic history, and criticize them fairly. We on the left need to criticize them as well, to hold them accountable for justice within their organization as they proclaim the need for justice in our society.
09/18/09
Are they perfect? Far from it. When the claims of voter fraud emerged I laughed saying there is no way ACORN could pull it off even if they wanted to. That is what I see in this instance. Not malice, but incompetence. Workers thinking they are helping people in need and doing it incompetently.
But what happens now? What happens to those people ACORN did help? What happens to all the people ACORN mobilized in elections to vote for people who stood for the under-represented?
It would have been one thing if it was discovered ACORN was regularly giving out this advice. But this was a set up and a few people acted really stupidly when they were set up. Now the poor and disenfranchised in America will suffer.
09/18/09
And that's a feature, not a bug.
09/18/09
They are trusted by low income people who are in need of assistance.
This has always been, for me, the greatest value of ACORN. When I see ACORN organizers and volunteers around, they are always people from that community, helping people in that same community. They generally aren't seen as outsiders coming in to tell the poor folks what to do and how to live as so many well-meaning liberal organizations tend to do. It engenders a lot of trust in what they have to offer and what they have to say.
09/18/09