Tag Archives: madame

Family Burden

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While watching Joy this scene stuck with me more than most. The Madame just came back from Nigeria after Joy had been assaulted and found out that her Father was very sick. She brings news of how great her family is doing back in Nigeria because she’s rich. These women travel to other countries to work as prostitutes and live in a house with multiple women sleeping in each room. These women are being mentally twisted to think that they have to bear the load for their families back home. The Madame mentions that Joy’s brother has a brand new shiny car but Joy doesn’t have a car from what I could tell. Why must their families enjoy all of the rewards but share none of the burden. Women like Joy are indentured servants to their madames and the rest of the money they make they send back home to support their families. Scenes like this one really show that these women are conditioned to believe that this is normal by everyone around them. At one point in the movie Precious’ mom is yelling at her because she isn’t making enough money. That she needs to sleep with more random men because it’s easy. All so that they can live luxurious lives back in Nigeria.

Real Struggles

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The movie Joy is overall a large eye-opening experience for anyone, like me, who does not fully understand the world of sex trafficking. Of course, the majority of us have heard of sex trafficking but it is more common than not for individuals to not understand the scary and life-threatening world that it is.  For me, this movie changed my whole understanding and perspective of the safe trafficking industry. The moment that really spoke to me and made me realize what horror this industry is was the scene I show above. This particular scene shows that many of these women who “sign up” for this in fact really do not know what they are getting into when they agree to move to another country “for a better life”. Many people are so desperate to go to places like Europe to make more money to help out families they left behind in their homeland that they become such an easy target for sex traffickers to take advantage of. Through this scene, we are able to see the blindness that goes along with it because Precious is stating that this is not the job she thought she would be doing here. I think this movie serves as a good learning tool for people who don’t understand the full circumstances surrounding sex trafficking and can be used to educate many.

Freedom Means I’m Free Right?

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In this clip, Joy has paid her debt to her madame and is now free. She is given her passport symbolizing her freedom from the madame and will no longer be a prostitute. However, there is still a problem, Joy does not have a visa. Therefore, she cannot stay and work legally in Germany. This presents a problem because Joy needs to make money in order to take care of her and her daughter. However, one way to make money without having a visa is to become a madame. In this clip the madames at the party are encouraging Joy to become a madame. They paint being a madame as a source of income and independence, telling Joy that if she becomes a madame she will be able to make money and would not have to be subservient to a man who would spend her money. It is because of this that Joy entertains the idea of becoming a madame. She even goes to a place where madames can buy girls. This demonstrates that even when a woman is “free” from the cycle of prostitution and sex trafficking she is never truly free because the circumstances that she faces after leaving give her very few if any options to make a living other than continue selling herself or becoming the one who sells other girls and either way the cycle continues.