“The desire to perceive kindness where there is none, or to magnify small, inconsequential acts of simple human decency to proportions worthy of gratitude and love, can also be seen in other victims” (Lloyd 145).
This quote to me is both intriguing and perplexing at the same time. The fact that any victim can take the act of a boyfriend or girlfriend handing you a towel to wipe your face after they just busted it as some gesture of their true love within makes me troubled. These victims’ perceptions hold them more captive than their actual perpetrators. I don’t believe that the biggest battle is leaving; I believe that the biggest battle is believing you can and having the courage to actually do so. I think that this is the idea that Lloyd tried to relay to her readers by exhibiting other victim situations where the victimized had formed sentimental bonds with those that held them captive or carried out wrongs against them. This is what keeps these individuals imprisoned mentally and unable to better their situations. Once I realized that the formal name for this was Stockholm syndrome, I quickly got flash backs of the Elizabeth Smart case, which was also described in Girls Like Us, where Elizabeth defended her captors even after she had been rescued and tried to expunge them of guilt time and time again to officials (Lloyd 137). It showed me that these feelings are psychological, and transcend various traumatic experiences. In the article I read from Ms. Magazine it discusses how law enforcement uses Stockholm Syndrome, and the feelings that victims have for their captors as ways to further victimize and criminalize them, and how these officials falsely label cases of trafficking as prostitution, thereby othering these women and casting a negative light on their experiences (Heldman 1). This further perpetuates the system where the public looks at those individuals as “those people over there” and “they deserved it.” Just as the public looks at victims of abuses like trafficking, kidnapping, and physically violent relationships as guilty because they could’ve escaped sooner but didn’t (Heldman 2). Instead of perpetuating this crippling and damaging ideal we need to overhaul how we think of sex work and what is trafficking vs. prostitution so that we can help rather than further hurt these people.
Word count: 348
Works Cited:
Heldman, Caroline. “When the missing are prostitutes, police let trails run cold.” Ms Magazine. (2011):Web.1-2 9 April 2012.
Lloyd, Rachel. Girls like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.
