Jordan Shelby West
Social Justice
Blog #4
Without a doubt, one just cannot judge a book by its cover. We often hear this idea when
talking about suspending judgment, treating all people equally, and in terms of taking time to know a
person before labeling them in a category. I know that we all have heard this idea and phrase over-andover again, but after watching Born Into Brothels for my Social Justice Self-Directed Learning Activity, I
value the phrase even more than before. Born Into Brothels presents many different societal injustices
that exist in America as well as other countries. In particular, the documentary portrays the life of
Indian woman and their children in the Brothels of India. Not only is this community rarely shown or
discussed, but the Indian community is also stereotyped in America very differently than portrayed in
the film.
Born Into Brothels examines the prostitution culture in India through the eyes of children who
have mothers and family members working as prostitutes. Through the eyes of these children, a voice is
given to the women in the Brothels of India and the children of these women. The language used
between people in the film is extremely harsh and vulgar. There is a steady underlying assumption
made by the older women in the film that the female children all were to be prostitutes and that even
children at the age of 10 were sleeping with men. It was interesting because at some points in the film,
the women working in the Brothels as prostitutes would speak down to their children in a way to
encourage them to find other work outside of the Brothels, but when the opportunity was presented to
attend a boarding school outside of the Brothels, that was not acceptable. The contradiction was
interesting because it seemed as though the women in the Brothels recognized that their line of work
was dangerous and maybe a result of the environment they were raised in as children. However, there
was an obvious wall of protection that was presented when the children wanted to leave the Brothels to
have a different life.
Specifically, Born Into Brothels highlighted the mistreatment of women and children in the
Brothels of India. As mentioned before, the language used by adults to children was very degrading and
demeaning. The children in the video were overwhelmingly intelligent for their age and very aware of
the “way the Brothels are,” which was their motivation to leave at the age of 10. These children were
able to speak about the day-to-day life of the women and their mothers, who worked as prostitutes in
the Brothels. Although I never heard any child refer to their mother’s occupation as prostitution, they
discussed times when their mother’s pimp was around, times during the day when their mother would
ask them to leave the house because she had company, and the “mean men” that were always in the
house making their mother’s yell. Women in the Brothels were assumed and forced in some sense to be
prostitutes. The film never showed if all women in the Brothels were prostitutes, but based on the
children’s viewpoint, all women were prostitutes from a very early age. For the children in Born Into
Brothels, education was apparently important and the desire to learn stood out as something significant.
When watching this film, I was reminded of many of the conversations we have had in Social
Justice that link societal problems to the overall institutional system that allows for injustices to exist. In
India, the Brothels are known as a place where prostitution, mistreatment of women, and numerous
injustices exist. However, the government has not recognizably stepped in to better the environment.
Understanding that there are cultural differences in India compared to America, I still believe that the
respect for women needs to exist as it relates to abuse, whether physical, emotional, or mental.
Francine Deutsch’s article, “Undoing Gender,” presents the idea that “doing gender” comes
from different environments and socialization, which we have lived around. Although Deutsch
recognizes and acknowledges the environmental influence and the ways in which were are taught to
believe, these perceived norms are something we should all work to reconstruct all of the time if we are
ultimately hoping for equality. Deutsch referred to these constructed norms as the “taken for granted”
norms, which privilege some to use, express, and/or act more often than others. There is a belief that if
gender is something “we do,” that means it is constructed and can be undone. Remembering the
socialization and “doing of gender” in Born Into Brothels, it would be a great challenge to “undo gender”
in the Brothels, despite the fact that it was something constructed. It seems as though gender roles
have been so internalized that I wonder if it is even possible to “undo” what is so engrained in the
culture. Is “undoing gender” only something that can happen in America? Why would that be the case?