#FoodPorn

I remember when I first started using hashtags…

I was very unfamiliar with how they worked and thought the idea of putting a random “#” in front of a word or phrase was just plain silly. 
#Blessed 
#Car
#Cookie
#LifeGoals
Like, really? Why is this a thing? 
To showcase my dislike (and complete ignorance) I would put long, ridiculous hashtags on EVERYTHING! A favourite of mine was #RealLifeHungerGames in which friends and I would discuss topics and how they relate back to one of our favourite book series. This hashtag was used during text conversations, gmail chat sessions when we should have been working, lengthy emails, and, of course, real life conversations (because who doesn’t let a few “hashtag, basic white girl” or “hashtag, P-T-L” phrases slip out of their mouth every now and then).

As hashtags became more popular (and as I figured out their real purpose and began to understand their significance) I became intrigued with the hashtags people were choosing to use. I found myself both using hashtags when posting photos of my baking adventures on Instagram, and searching hashtags as I would browse social media. Since I was frequently looking up baking related hashtags it was inevitable I would stumble across the raunchy and distasteful #FoodPorn.

#FoodPorn, the second highest search
related to food.

Why, internet?!

This does not make sense! Why are glamorous and enticing images of food being categorized as equal to an industry that ruins the lives of everyone it touches? Is it some kind of metaphor—like the detrimental state of your health after over indulging in sweets (or too much cheesy goodness, or too much carb-filled deliciousness) will actually ruin you and make you suffer? Is it attempting to illustrate how our gluttonous lifestyle can seem ok at first, but then breaks you down the way porn wrecks everyone it collides with? Those are the only connections that actually make sense in my head, but we all know the real reason the general public has chosen to associate #FoodPorn with delicious looking items— It’s not as a warning but as encouragement of the ecstasy which comes from experiencing something almost too good to be true, something you know you shouldn’t.

There are many reasons this hashtag bothers me. One of the biggest reasons is the connection between pornography and human trafficking. The below video really nudged me forward into creating this post. Please watch it-- trust me, it’s worth it.

In my research on how the porn and human trafficking industries are connected, one of the most disgusting quotes I came across is as follows:

"Amateurs come across better on screen. Our customers feel that. Especially by women you can see it. They still feel strong pain." - Carlo Scalisi, Owner of 21 Sexury Video

They still feel strong pain. Why is this ok? Why is this something the general public is ok with watching while ignoring the deeper issues involved in the production of the film?

While researching, the below facts and quotes about the porn industry really stood out to me. Reading these insights, while thinking back to how we associate hashtags like #FoodPorn to mean something amazing, really makes me question the validity and general social acceptance of the hashtag-- and why more people aren't outraged at how porn in it's delusional definition has become so common place.

1. 88% of scenes in porn films contain acts of physical aggression, and 49% of scenes contain verbal aggression.
2. A 2005 study claimed that pornographers were travelling to poorer countries where they could use and exploit women and children with fewer risks. Budapest, Hungary was cited as Europe’s capital for the production of porn films because, as one pornography executive put it, Eastern European actors ‘cost less and do more’.
3. “The Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children both recognize that pornography is an element that adds to the serious problem of sex trafficking. Many traffickers are found with filming equipment and cameras to create and sell pornography”
4. "[Performers] usually ‘consent’ to the acts only in the degraded and demented sense of the word (common also to the law of rape) in which a person who despairs at stopping what is happening, sees no escape,… is often trying to avoid being beaten or killed, is always economically desperate, acquiesces in being sexually abused for payment, even if, in most instances, it is payment to someone else.”

I’d share more of these horrific tidbits with you, but just reading the quotes from those formerly involved in the pornography industry, and the plain facts my mind doesn't want to accept as true, make my stomach turn and my heart ache. Just watching the documentary "Hot Girls Wanted" on Netflix showcases how demented the pornography industry is-- how those involved feel they don't have control over the situations, how many have been taken advantage of in their past leading them to choose this lifestyle, and how degrading it is to the women involved. Pile on top of that the insane situations or 'fantasies' these people are 'acting' out for the viewers-- I just can't handle it. 

While the above information is great to share to educate how pornography negatively affects the individuals involved, those trafficked into the situations, and those who choose to view porn, why has there been no research done on the connection between the various forms of ‘porn’ society has become numbed to viewing on social media (#FoodPorn #HousePorn, #CarPorn, etc)? I’ve attempted to research the connection, knowing it would present a great viewpoint for this post, and the only information I can find is how #FoodPorn can lead you to make bad choices regarding your own dietary needs… Surprised? Me neither.

One of the most unsettling things about all this is seeing peers in the anti-human trafficking space use the hashtag. What message does this send about our commitment to seeing exploitation come to an end? It’s definitely not a good one.

I’d like you to take a bit of time and read through some of the sources and resources available at the end of this post. Educate yourself on what is really happening in the porn industry and know that any reference society can get away with only encourages the pornography industry to continue what they are doing—exploiting individuals for the viewing pleasure of those whose lives will subsequently be ravaged. It’s an endless cycle and we don’t need things like #FoodPorn to become so common place that porn itself, without a pre-cursor word, becomes accepted until it’s too late—the moment the downward-spiral entangles friends, family and those closest to you.

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Sources and resources:

https://moderndayslaveryblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/the-link-between-pornography-and-human-trafficking/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/human-trafficking-month_n_4590587.html

http://rescuefreedom.org/get-involved/refusetoclick/

http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/

http://stoptraffickingdemand.com/

Hot GirlsWanted—Documentary available on Netflix
XXX Church

**Note, as a blog, this is purely my opinion and a presentation of facts. I understand that as pornography becomes more main stream in our culture, my views can be considered 'old school' or 'close minded'. I know magazines and websites promote pornography as a way to have a healthy and happy sex-life, I know pornography is promoted in innocent ways, but the facts I've been presented with portray the realistic, behind-the-scenes portion of the industry many people either don't know or choose to ignore. Let us not turn a blind eye to real issues affecting the people around us.

  

Freedom Sunday and the days that follow.

Freedom Sunday.

A day where the faith community as a whole comes together in their place of worship and devotes their time to learn what it means to end slavery.

This is incredible.
As a Christian I truly believe that we, as the church, should be leading the movement to end slavery in our lifetime.

The night before Freedom Sunday my wonderful husband and I were hanging out with some friends and we chatted most of the evening about faith. We chatted various aspects of faith and at one point my husband said something absolutely wonderful. He mentioned that doing good things like feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, helping the widow and orphan, shouldn't be something of special mention for a Christian. When you die people at your funeral shouldn't be like "Aelea was awesome. She helped the poor, the orphans, etc...". That should be commonplace. That is a given if you are a Christian. It would be like saying "Aelea liked to breathe air to survive everyday." That is just a part of what we do, how we live every single day.
It should have no honorable mention.
We should all be living this way.
Those words have stuck with me.

The next day, Freedom Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak at Pathway Community Church. Since I had worked with Not For Sale as the Tour Fellow, and Not For Sale created Freedom Sunday, it was a pretty good fit. I gave a quick Human Trafficking 101 lesson then their pastor spoke an amazing message on Compassionate Justice. He used the story of the Good Samaritan and I can't even begin to re-tell his message. One of the bottom lines is that compassion doesn't just mean loving God and loving your neighbour, it means going above and beyond to treat your neighbour with the passionate, incredible, never ending love that God has for them.

...And to clarify, your neighbour is everyone.

Talk about no honorable mention... everyone is our neighbour... this is what we should all be doing.

Pathway also showed the documentary Nefarious: Merchant Of Souls that evening, open to anyone who wanted to come. Talking about the sex trade is a tricky thing-- especially when a good chunk people would rather live "safe" faith. Nothing about Nefarious is safe. It's dirty and in your face about the harsh truth and realities of human trafficking and the sex trade around the world. From women treated as cattle, sold to the highest bidder, and even children sold by their own family members. I spoke before the documentary about my time in Thailand in May 2012 (which you can read about on my blog-- check the archives) and how hard it is to wrestle with the emotions that you face while there. These are the same emotions people who saw the documentary are living through right now and they all end up doing the same thing; fuelling a fire to do something.

Doing something about injustice is rarely safe. It requires you to go out on a limb, challenge the comfort of your every day life and stand up against issues others want to turn a blind eye to.

I saw people looking for what to do next. Passionate individuals who want next steps. And this is where my own personal struggle comes to play:
Yes, helping those in the sex trade is huge, but helping EVERYONE involved in slavery is SO IMPORTANT! It's easy to watch a documentary about those being exploited in the sex trade and want to do something, but please don't forget about those in exploitation making your clothes, your food, your toys. Toys for kids, made by kids? The food for your family meal picked by people being abused and exploited? I think it's easier to feel the heart tugs of the sex trade because, for the most part, our view of sex is of how meaningful and special it is in the marriage relationship. To remove someone's choice from sex is unacceptable. One thing to also keep in mind is that those being exploited in domestic servitude, labour, and other forms of slavery are also raped, beat up, taken advantage of, and made to feel worthless... just like those in the sex trade.

I want to encourage you to take steps forward with your new passion to not only end sex trafficking, but work to end slavery all together. Here are a few of my top practical application steps:

1) Pray. So often we look at prayer as a last resort but prayer is huge! Pray for those held captive-- those being trafficked, the traffickers, the johns, and everyone else involved in the process.

2) Support organizations already standing against slavery! International Justice Mission does amazing work, same with Not For Sale and Love 146 to just name a few that I personally know are awesome. Even organizations like Kiva-- providing loans so individuals coming out of exploitation have a future, and those vulnerable never become exploited.

3) Educate yourself, then educate others! Read the book Not For Sale by David Batstone and Disposable People by Kevin Bales. Share what you learn! Tweet about it, share it with friends and family on facebook!

4) Shop smart. Seek out ethical options for your every day purchases using resources like Free2Work, and also know that a lot of artisan made goods (think Ten Thousand Villages) are made by survivors or those at risk for exploitation. Buying their products can ensure they don't end up exploited.

5) Pray some more. Gather with others passionate and pray. If you ask God what you can do to end slavery, and you are willing, He is sure to move you to meaningful action.

We, as individuals with passionate hearts to live out lives rooted in love, can end slavery. Every prayer, every Facebook or Twitter post, every dollar donated, truly makes a difference in creating more activists that will come together to see slavery ended in our lifetime.

"Where am I supposed to buy clothes?"

I was recently on vacation with my family in Hawaii.
When I say family I mean my husband, mom, dad and two older brothers.
The last "family vacation" we took was when I was 16 years old to Disney World.
Needless to say, it was an interesting time to see how our personalities, interests and lifestyles meshed and, at times, didn't mesh.

I'm sure we can all agree that people are in a state of constant development. Consistently growing, changing, evolving into the product of their beliefs and surroundings. Every person in my family is very different. It was quite interesting for us be together for just over a week, and I am consistently grateful for my husband being there as someone I could escape the generic "family craziness" with.

While on this trip, you best believe my family is on the prowl for deals. You're on vacation-- you take in markets, touristy shops, and all the big shopping centres and outlet malls. As a girl on vacation, it's often essential to at least go into a store and see how expensive the high end brand names items are (Coach, Prada, Tiffany's, etc) and compare that with how reduced the prices are at the outlet malls.

But something else occurred.... I found myself standing up for the "over priced" products.

Now I'm not talking overpriced Prada and Gucci purses, or Armani suits, or Channel clothing. I'm talking about the $7.95 chocolate bar and the $24.00 bag of coffee.

These are the items we most often, without a doubt, consistently try to receive the best bargain on. When you go to the grocery store, when you hit up the dollar store, you are looking for the best deal on the little extras we casually supplement our lives (and even our waistlines) with. Should a chocolate bar be only $0.65 or should we be paying $7.95? When you consider the supply chain, $7.95 seems like a small amount to pay for fair wages & labour practices, codes of conduct, transparency, and a company that cares enough about the people making their product to treat them fairly-- from picking cocoa to getting it on the shelf. And while I can't say the company that produced these $7.95 chocolate bars are taking all the necessary precautions, it is a lot harder to imagine that the $0.65 you pay for a chocolate bar is providing even close to the same.

As I make mention of how I now choose to take my business from a clothing company that has a poor. or no, Free2Work rating to a company that does, I am being asked more and more "What is Free2Work?" and "Where am I supposed to buy my clothes?". People ask those questions sometimes in a mean way-- how you get offensive when you are being informed something you have always been doing is not seen as "right" by everyone around you.

Moments like this are a turning point.

You now have the opportunity to share with people about modern day slavery and how it's literally in the fabric of our clothes. It's an opportunity to plant a seed with them that their every day choices-- the bargain they hunt for, the deals the try so hard to find, are contributing to something they may not have even known existed. To put it simply, you could change someones life by sharing with them the choices you are making and the reasons why.


\When people ask where I shop, I love sharing with them the amazingness that is Free2Work and their most recent Apparel Industry Report | From Farm to Factory. Being with NFS at the time this was released and doing their social media posting was a blessing. While the report doesn't feature strictly Canadian brands, it highlights so many of the brands we all have access to (brands like H&M, American Eagle, Lacoste, Forever 21).



I encourage you to take a look through the report and do two things:
1) Put your new knowledge to action.
Be a more conscious consumer when shopping. The hardest thing can be applying the knowledge you have-- when you have a chocolate craving, buy the A or B rated brands, not the D or F rated. When you go shopping for clothes, buy items from stores with A or B ratings, not D's or F's.

2) Share your knowledge with others.
The more that people know they can make a difference when they are purchasing their wants and needs will hopefully result in more people making that difference and shopping smart.

When have you explained to someone why you are a conscious consumer? Has this inspired others to do the same?

Polices | Company Performance from the Apparel Industry Trends | From Farm to Factory Report