Tricked
- Discuss “Boyfriending in” as it is described in the film. What is the process of this practice? What does it tell you about the pimps/traffickers who use this practice?
The movie tricked sheds light on human trafficking and sex trade especially in the United States. In the movie the term ‘boy friending in’ is used in cases where the victim is quite young and the pimp makes them believe that they are in love and it is a boyfriend and girlfriend kind of relationship. It is a process where a pimp appears and deceives their victims that they are potential lovers but after gaining the trust and affection of their unsuspicious victims, forcing them to make money through prostitution. In the movie ‘Tricked’, a teenager called Danielle thought that she was having a normal relationship with a man just above 40 years not knowing he was a pimp. After the pimps have gained the trust and affection of their victims that’s when they start abusing them.
According to the movie, these pimps know exactly what to do to win the trust of their victims. Their main arsenal is the knowledge of the girls vulnerability like in the story of Danielle where her pimp gave her what she thought was love which she was craving for. I think that pimps who use this method are very calculative and patient. This is because they are patient with their clients and work towards gaining their trust. They also have the ability to know when their victims are ready for the next step and that is after they completely trapped. It takes an expert to do this since it is an art which might take a while to perfect, this implies that this pimps have practiced this for a while. The pimps who use this method are also not very senior since they take a lot of time just to make a single recruit compared to others who own a lot of victims at one particular time.
- Discuss the similarities and differences between the pimps in this film. Did you find anything surprising about those similarities? What about the differences (if any)?
The movie Tricked also features some of the pimps appearing in front of the camera. According to the movie the pimps are the masterminds of prostitution since they are the ones who supply the streets with prostitutes. They are responsible for sending their victims to go engage in prostitution and then take the money these young girls and women make. According to the movie the girls are the property of the pimps and so is the money they make through prostitution. When we hear the pimps talk in this movie then we can draw some similarities as well as a little differences. In the film, all the pimps’ main interest is to make money through the girls and that is what makes them who they are.
Another similarity with the pimps in this movie is that they believe that what they are doing is not wrong in any way and share their story comfortably with a lot of openness despite what one might actually think. They do not view their actions as an abuse of the rights of their victims or as the movie puts it, ‘tricking’ their victims. The pimps also very swift in spotting the women or girls who are vulnerable or at their weakest moment. A major difference among the pimps’ in the video is that some actually have some sense of humanity. They say that they actually care about their victims and are there to help them, or at least that is what they believe and have made their victims believe. “I consider myself a good person to this girls” one pimp named Slim explains. TR who is a prostituted woman supports him and explains why he is different from others. She goes on to say that there is mutual respect between her and Slim which cannot be said about the other pimps and their victims. For example Brooke explains how her pimp talked to her like she was not a person a day after they met in Las Vegas after talking in Mocospace.com.
- Examine the idea of Supply and Demand as it relates to those survivors of Trafficking. How does the film describe Supply and Demand in regard to prostitution?
Prostitution just like in the market of any product involves the process of supply and demand. As the video explains, there are the women or prostitutes (products), the pimps (distributors), and the johns (consumers). The pimps are responsible for moving these women from street to street, country to country or town to town according to the demand. The video also explains that there is demand for different type of girls putting some factors into consideration. These factors include age and body size or shape. The survivors in the video explain what made them sellable or desired by the ‘Johns’.
Rain, a former sex slave explains how she used to make around 1500 dollars a day because she had a petite body which the child abusers were looking for. Because of her demand she could manage to make that good money. It is the pimps responsibility to connect the two i.e. ensure that the ‘seller’ and ‘buyer’ met. In this market the women are always arrested several times and released a few hours later and go back to the same business. This is always an attempt to cut the supply even though they are not put in any program to ensure that they do not go back to their initial business which is a failure in the criminal justice of the state. A pimp called Robert Money explains why a pregnant woman was bad for business as nobody would want to buy them. “You have to make sure the commodity is sellable” he explains.
Reference
Hepburn, S., & Simon, R. J. (2013). Human trafficking around the world: Hidden in plain sight. Columbia University Press.
“Tricked: A Feature Documentary”. Tricked Film. Retrieved 22 September 2014.