“The message thread reads like the play-by-play from an alternate reality game, wherein complete strangers work together to solve a complex mystery. But the drama that played out on MetaFilter this week was no game. If not for the intrepid members of this 11-year-old digital forum, a couple of young Russian women might possibly have fallen prey to sexual slavery.”
An amazing story: “MetaFilter Saved My Pals From Sex Traffickers.” To view the original thread click here.
3 responses
Does no one else see this as total colonial/Cold War American fantasy propaganda?
I know sex trafficking is serious and a terrible violation of human rights. Just to get that out of the way, I don’t think anyone should be trafficked against their will or by coercion or deception.
The problem with this story – which is being posted everywhere, not coincidentally – is its presentation. The familiar themes of Liberated American Man saving Confused and Weak Non-Western Sexualized Women. And why did the whole presumably American internet population unquestioningly *know* that they had better judgements about safety than the women actually in the situation?
The Internet, with its identity as Western and the liberated moral authority and protectors of the world, assumed they had the skills, duty, and right to protect the victimized Others from the backwards Eastern tyrant lurking in the shadows.
I’m just saying, realities of danger and ethics of interfering with crime aside, this story is totally racialized. Honestly it’s like the freakin’ Progressive Era around here.
PS. By “here” I mean the English-speaking internet culture in general, not the Rumpus in particular. I like the Rumpus.
I’ve also wondered why this story got so much attention. I’m not sure if it’s a Cold War fantasy, but I agree there is something a little off about the way it was covered. The women are characterized as completely helpless, stupid and stubborn: “the girls insisted they were fine, “they’re young women. They want to have fun and go to New York City…”
Is the moral of the story that young women are completely incapable of making wise decisions? That they are continually at risk of being tricked and taken by crafty, bad, anonymous men? This could be just an interesting, feel-good story about people coming together against a potentially horrifying turn of events, but somehow it was presented, in my view, as a fairy tale. I’d love to know what the women think about the way the story was told.
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