Computers and the internet have made the creation and dissemination of graphics so easy that any ass can accomplish it; naturally, that means there are a lot of wholly asinine graphics on the internet. In the past few years, the “sex trafficking” fetishists have been a major source of these; they’ve absolutely flooded the internet with images of pretty young white girls in bondage, accompanied with absurd claims touted as “facts” and (more often than not) the phone number of the fetishists responsible. These graphics are executed with varying degrees of competence; the images range from the overblown and lurid to the genuinely sexy; the text may be sparse or crowded; and though the racist content could be anything from blatant to hidden, the sexism is always glaringly apparent. I see examples of this all the time (though they’ve slowed down from their greatest production rate 3-4 years ago), but it’s rare that one is as intensely stupid and incompetently-produced as the one below:
I barely know where to start, but my eye flew to the girl’s wrists first (because, well come ON) so that’s as good a place as any. Did you notice she isn’t actually tied? There’s what looks like a loose overhand knot at her right wrist, but it doesn’t look like it’s actually tied around her arm, just resting on it. And her left arm isn’t restrained in any way; the rope’s just draped loosely across it. The ends don’t appear to be fastened to anything, either; it just seems to be a piece of loose rope that the photographer draped on her to set up the shot, then forgot he hadn’t actually tied her with. And what a rope! Did somebody think they were going to be putting a Clydesdale horse in bondage? Or maybe a boat? I mean, one could restrain a girl with that in a pinch, but not in any way that resembles what we’re seeing here. I’d be out of that in a red-hot second.
OK, maybe they didn’t expect people to look that close (though how could they not?) But they certainly did expect people to read the fucking text, else why put it there? Obviously they didn’t bother to hire an actual graphic designer, though, because this text is arranged with all the craftsmanship put into your average protest sign (you know, the kind where they just keep writing up to the edge and then either scrunch the letters up or put a hyphen to continue an incorrectly-broken word on the next line). Though it isn’t by any means obvious at first glance, examination of the text reveals the left side is meant to continue on the right. Concepts like balance and parallelism seem entirely foreign to whoever the doofuses at Magdalene Hope (a tired, derivative sort of name for a group of whore-rescue fanatics) recruited to design this turkey, or else he’d have realized that “Trafficker” and “Girl with low self-esteem & no relationship with father” don’t exactly form a pleasing and eye-catching pair on the page. I mean, who would follow the adventures of “Tom and oversized anthropomorphic mouse” or “The Lone Ranger and stereotyped American Indian sidekick of no discernible tribal affiliation”? Nobody. And the quote marks…are we meant to see these as actual quotations, or as lines spoken by characters in a poorly-written melodrama? Wait, I think I just answered my own question.
I’m going to skip right past the blatant demonization of “males” (except for fathers, who apparently have magical powers like a cornucopia or a Bucknard’s Everfull Purse) and the infantilization of women, because I can safely assume most of y’all probably noticed those while I was still staring in horror at that hopeless rope work. And that brings us to the central message of this mess, its supposed “advice” to young women, which is clearly based in the notion that women don’t work for the same reasons as real people, but because we have “low self-esteem” or daddy issues. Yes, ladies, according to Magdalene Hope all we need to do is look up, say “Thank you” and ALL OF OUR BILLS WILL BE MAGICALLY PAID for the rest of our lives! I’m definitely going to try that the next time someone tells me I’m beautiful! It’s the typical way I always respond to compliments (if I happen to be looking down when I get them, so I don’t trip on uneven sidewalk), but I’m sure THIS time mounds of cash will appear! It’s so comforting to know that the real reason I need food, shelter, entertainment, etc is because I lacked a good relationship with my Daddy. I’m not going to think too hard about why my friends who have good relationships with their dads still have bills, though; it might disturb the funds-generating-magic. And guys, let this be a lesson to you: if you maintain a good relationship with your daughter, even if you can’t stand the sight of her mother any more, all of her future bills will be magically paid with no cash outlay on your part, and she will remain chaste and “pure” all her life and never, ever put her mouth on a man’s weenie for any reason whatsoever. Unless she’s “sexualized” by sex rays from the TV set, or a teacher who got through school by stripping, or a BDSM party in a hotel near her school, of course, but one can only do so much.
