PWA Essay

            Have you ever been forced to do something, that you didn’t want to do? In the book Kindred, by Octavia Butler, the main character Dana who is living in the present time, is taken back to the 1800s to the Antebellum South, to save her ancestor Rufus, who happens to be white. Her stayings in the South were very confusing because while it seemed like she stayed for a very long time, when she got back home discovered that it wasn’t more than just a few seconds, hours, and sometimes days. Her mission every time she went was to save Rufus, who seemed to summon her every time his life was in danger. Her stayings were much more longer every time, but the weird thing was that while she was home, the time in the South kept going, so when she was summoned, Rufus was older each time. During her stayings she was treated just like any other slave, and although Rufus was too young to understand oppressive conditions, still knew the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately, things changed as he got older. He became oppressive, unfair, treated people as “property”, and was a spitting image of his father. Among the things that made him just like his father, was the fact that he treated women as toys. Would use them whenever he pleased for his satisfaction, and he didn’t care whether the woman wanted to or not. Many times Dana tried ti\o instill in him that women had to be respected, and that he couldn’t force someone to do something she didn’t want to do. But he never listened. He never did try to force Dana to have sex with him until he felt that he felt like he was losing some of his power, and she was gaining it. Unfortunately, because of this, Dana ended up killing Rufus because she was NOT going to put up with that, because she had forgive everything else Rufus did to her, but that was too much. My thesis, we can determine that forcing someone to have sex against their will is unjustifiable, was based on reading Kindred.
 
    The quote, “you raped a woman-or tried to- and her husband beat you up.” “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you” explains that Dana is trying to let Rufus know that if he doesn’t change his ways, he could get in a lot of trouble. I think this is important because it shows that even though Rufus is an oppressive man, Dana still does care about him, and cares enough to let him know that he is very oppressive and to try to change him. Not just for his sake, but for every one else surrounding him. I can relate to this quote because I’ve seen on shows like Maury, Jerry Springer, and on news, stories of women getting raped either by strangers, or by the people they love. They feel like it’s their fault because maybe they did something wrong, when it was really the oppressors fault because they probably are so insecure of themselves, they have to make helpless peoplel feel bad, in order for them to feel good.

     Another quote that is personally the most important one of all is, “She had the right to say no.” This quote is important extremely important because it gives not just women the right to say no, it gives EVERYONE that is being forced to do something they don’t want to do the right to say no.This quote reminds me of a case I heard about where a young girl got gang raped by a bunch of drunk men, right outside her school after a school dance in Richmond, in 2009. This ocurred late at night, and although there wasn’t anyone outside when it ws beginning while they were raping her, bystanders were just passing by, but NONE of them did ANYTHING to help the young girl. This type of oppressive behavior could have been stopped if the guys weren’t drunk, and although you cannot justify your actions because you were under the influence, it is a very big part of oppressive and self-defeating behavior. This could have also been prevented if the people passing by wouldn’t have been bystanders and would have been upstanders instead, so they would have helped the girl, instead of causing her more pain.

   The last and most intense quote of all is, “So you’ll be rid of the man and have possession of the woman just as you wanted,” I said in digust, “rape rewarded. This quote is important because it is trying to show that people go to great lengths just to get what they want. And they won’t be satisfied until that happens. I can connect to this quote because I once heard of a story about a girl that was kidnapped from the time when she was 8 or 9, until she was about 18 or 19. When she escaped, she already had 2 babies with her kidnapper. This story reminds me of what the quote is trying to say. The kidnapper kept her for many years because that’s what he wanted. And if she wouldn’t have had escaped, I’m positive he would have kept her longer.

   As you can see, my thesis, you shouldn’t force someone to have sex against their will because it is unjustifiable, is very important because everyone has a voice that has to be heard, and everyone deserves respect, and for their needs to be respected. After writing my essay on this topic, I’ve learned that if I don’t want to o something I don’t agree with, NO ONE has the right to force me to do it. I’ve also learned that I won’t ever force someone or pressure them to do anything against their will. Some advice I would give to rape victims, or people who are being pressured is one, make sure your voice is being heard so they know you don’t want to do that certain thing. Also, I would tell them to talk to someone. To their friends, parents, family members, co-workers, ANYONE, so they won’t have to go through the pain by themselves. And lastly, I would tell them to get away from the perpetrators causing all of this harm, even if they think they love them because if they are harming you, they obviously don’t love you. Don’t be a victim of this type of abuse. If speaking up hasn’t changed anything in your life, take action. Always remember that Actions Speak Louder Than Words !

Sex Trafficking Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dq9s5zc_9dp3hbrfb&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=sparkling&cwj=true