Comments on: A Handbook for Hope

By: ‘Les Miserables,’ Sex Trafficking & Fantine as a Symbol for Women’s Oppression | Fem2pt0

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:01:29 +0000

[...] the book Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn “confront theliberal myth that prostitution is a voluntary vocation for women.” As a reproductive justice advocate, I believe a woman’s body should be her legal and [...]

By: ‘Les Miserables,’ Sex Trafficking & Fantine as a Symbol for Women’s Oppression | The Opinioness of the World

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:56:42 +0000

By: Let’s Talk About Sex: Day 1…Talking Sex & Sex Workers at Soapbox Feminist Winter Term « The Opinioness of the World

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:13:53 +0000

[...] rights travesty that governments and advocates must confront. As I wrote in a book review of Half the Sky, “…Kristof and WuDunn confront the liberal myth that prostitution is a voluntary vocation for [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:28:28 +0000

Of course our helping efforts are most effective when directed at those who are ready (and able) to help themselves. But the desire to help often comes from a place of gut-wrenching emotion; we discover something that our conscience will not allow us to ignore, for example. Something mobilizes us to action. And the illogical instinct is to rush to aid those in the worst circumstances–who may, however, lack the emotional or logistical means to help themselves while we just “write checks or carry bags at the back”.

And sometimes, people do need to be liberated. But maybe not as often as we think. Maybe, part of the solution is a less emotional appeal for help, coming from charities who show us the worst scenes of atrocities and despair in the media. A less emotional appeal could elicit a less emotional (more rational) response, which could yield a more appropriate (and more effective) type of help. But then the question becomes, how many people can be mobilized to action by pure logic and ethos, rather than over-the-top pathos? Spock v Kirk….