‘Deliciously Consumable’: aesthetic problems in anti-trafficking campaigns

Jane Arthurs (University of the West of England) [BIO]

Email: jane.arthurs@blueyonder.co.uk

 

ABSTRACT:

The public response to trafficking as a global issue depends to a large extent on its circulation in the media. Charities working in this field have a sophisticated grasp of the issues, but face a difficult challenge in getting their message across to solicit support for their campaigns. For example, the semiotic logic of the rhetorical and aesthetic choices made in such short films as UNICEF’s More Precious than Gold or the MTV Foundation’s Parallel Lives, interact in problematic ways with audiences’ prior orientations, formed within a media context where sensationalist reporting of the issue is the norm. Moreover, in seeking to connect with audiences whose political commitments are shaped within an individualistic, consumer culture, these campaigns not only expose the deleterious consequences of global inequality but, I will argue, also inadvertently reinforce the problematic positioning of women’s bodies as consumable products in a pleasure oriented service economy. In contrast, longer films such as artist Ursula Bieman’s Remote Sensing or Abi Morgan’s television drama Sex Traffic avoid some of these traps  by exploring what has been termed ‘the grey zone’ in ways which capture the ambivalent complexities of the issues, but they may not reach the audiences that matter.