In Class Blog: ARP

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All Dolled Up: The Rich Using the Dollhouse to Fill Their Needs

Jeff Frank

10/4/12

Dollhouse is a spooky psychological thriller. Written and directed by creator Joss Whedon it follows a few main characters as they have their minds wiped repeatedly and then replaced by information that the rich want imprinted upon the Dolls for those peoples own sick and twisted demands. The Dollhouse is run by Adele Dewitt a no nonsense person who is ruthless and straightforward in her business tactics towards the people who want the services of the Dollhouse. Topher has the unenviable task of imprinting and erasing all the Actives that are used. As the Dolls fight their way to regaining a somewhat normal life again they are lead by Echo who seems to be the person who can best resist the continual imprinting by the Dollhouse. A FBI agent by the name of Paul Ballard becomes aware of the vile acts performed by the Dollhouse and the actual personality of Echo to be Caroline Farrell. He knows he needs to save her and anyone else that is under the control of the Dollhouse. As Paul gets close to discovering the Dollhouse they begin to spy on him and send various people or Actives attempting to kill him. Someone in the Dollhouse was able to infiltrate the technology that is imprinted on the Dolls, or Actives as they are also called, and is able to send Paul some messages about helping Echo and the others when she is sent to assassinate him. Along the way Paul is assisted by numerous people including Actives and impeded by many difficult tasks and adversaries as well.

            The first scene is where Joel Mynor hires Echo to show up at his newly bought house imprinted to be Joel’s wife. Mynor stands on his lawn as bodyguards inspect the property he is preparing to show off to his wife. As one guard checks around the back of the property he turns the corner where Paul is aiming a gun at him while simultaneously hushing him. The scene switches to Joel’s wife pulling up and Joel meeting her on the front lawn and beginning to explain the situation. When it goes back to Paul and the guard they begin to fight and Paul easily knocks the other man unconscious. Ballard then sneaks in the back door of the residence where the couple can be over heard flirting in the kitchen. He then confronts them in the kitchen, as Joel and Echo are about to open champagne. Paul is surprised upon seeing Echo close the refrigerator door. Mynor and Echo are confused as to why Ballard is there and what he wants. Another of the guards subdues Ballard with a Taser and as he tries to take him away Paul elbows him and knocks him out. Several other men attack Ballard and he defeats them all. Echo’s handler, Boyd Langton, takes her away for a “treatment.” Ballard and Mynor sit at the kitchen and table to discuss how and why he would do such a thing. Mynor’s initial reasons sound noble and he had heartfelt intentions to impress his deceased wife. At the end of the conversation Ballard asks Mynor if he was going to use Echo for sex. Mynor responded with, “well it is a fantasy.”

            This scene shows a very distinct case of human trafficking. Joel Mynor pays a huge sum of money in order for an unknowing person to come to his house and fulfill his fantasy. Although he has a sort of sob story that influenced his decision to do what he did and pay for a random person to have her memory wiped and show up with an imprint of being his stunned wife seeing their new house for the first time. His actions still are not validated by his intentions. Mynor was still planning to have sex with Echo knowing that she was not his wife. The guards that came to protect Mynor when Paul Ballard broke in prove that they are running an operation that is most likely illegal. Also, the fact that Boyd Langton also pulled Echo out of the situation cautioning that she needs a treatment also lends one to believe that the Dollhouse’s acts are anything but an unjust act.

            Scene two starts with Sierra and several other Dolls walking down a hallway towards their living quarters. Sierra seems a little more distracted than the rest of the Actives in this area. When the rest of the Dolls are out of sight Sierra walks up to a glass wall and a panel slides back revealing a room. She enters, the panel slides back and another silhouette walks up to join her on the other side of the wall. The unknown man asks Sierra, “Do you trust me?” She responds, “with my life.” He asks if she wants to play the game and she declines. He then reminds her not to make noise during this game. As he removes his jacket he tells Sierra to lift up her dress. Right as he removes his jacket Boyd Langton punches him through the glass panel.

            This scene shows how individuals involved in human trafficking and sex trafficking are sometimes to scared of the possible consequences of speaking up either to the person advancing on them or to someone else and seek help. In Sierra’s case this is not the only time that Joe Hearn had attempted and successfully had sexual interactions with her. She knows that she does not want it to happen but does not know any better to stop it. Joe Hearn is the only person that should know better than to advance on an unwilling and an un-wanting girl like Sierra. Boyd Langton was the only one that knew the right choice and he made it in order to keep Sierra getting anymore emotionally damaged.

             The writers of Dollhouse use the many instances of people using Dolls to fulfill their fantasies to argue that, since the Dolls can’t make decisions for themselves, those people imposing their wills upon the Dolls are morally wrong because they are using another unknowing human for their own personal pleasure. In the first scene we see that Joel Mynor used his immense wealth as a popular children's cartoon creator to create a fantasy world for himself. The second scene shows that the Dolls cannot make decisions for themselves because she does not try and stop Joe Hearn from making sexual advances upon her. The real world implications of this argument are that human trafficking is a worldwide problem that affects more people than most realize. Many families are torn apart due to this atrocity and for some it is the only option to survive. In Eastern Asia millions of individuals and families are ruined by being forced into the world of human trafficking. While people may acknowledge that this happens, they do little as a whole to try and prevent it.

            As aforementioned human trafficking is one of the many atrocities that occur in todays world that affects an estimated 9.5 million people all around the globe. There following two articles help back up the claim that human trafficking is an awful occurrence and should be eliminated as quickly as possible with minimal damage to the lives of the affected and to all the countries involved. The first article is titled Human Trafficking by David A. Feinberg. In this article he focuses more on the labor trafficking aspect and how it is a very difficult process trying to find a possible solution for this problem. The second article titled Prevention Prosecution Protection was written by Ruth Dearnley and Steven Chalke. This article focuses a little more on the sex trafficking aspect and how in someway everyone around the world is affected by it.

            David A. Feinberg is an accredited anthropologist and filmmaker that has seen the horrible truths of human trafficking firsthand. He received his Ph.D. in those arts while studying at Dartmouth, Yale, and Columbia. After a three-year study in Southeast Asia Dr. Feingold cofounded the Institute for the Study of Human Issues (ISHI), the first research cooperative in the U.S. Dr. Feinberg backs up the analysis of the first scene with several instances. Paul Ballard is a FBI agent and wants to bring Joel Mynor in for facilitating and participating in an act of human trafficking. Dr. Feinberg states in his article that government sanctions trying to control human trafficking would not work because the threat of sanctions could lead to backfires from those countries in the form of reduced civility and in some cases even violent backlashes. Just like in Paul Ballard’s case when he confronts Joel Mynor the guards attack him and when he threatens Mynor the police sirens in the background that are coming to arrest Ballard for breaking and entering and assault.

            Ruth Dearnley and Steve Chalke are the CEO of Stop the Traffik and founder of Stop the Traffik respectively. Chalke is also a special advisor on Community Action against Human Trafficking in the organization UN.GIFT. Stop the Traffik is a global movement of individuals, communities, and organizations fighting to prevent human trafficking around the world. Their article relates to the second scene where Joe Hearn tries to make a sexual advance on Sierra who does not know what is going on but knows she does not want to participate in the acts that Hearn is alluding to. In the article the two authors state that the majority of human trafficking goes unnoticed by society. This statement is validated when Sierra is walking down the hall with the others and when she peels off to meet Hearn they don’t even notice. Also, this is not the first time that Sierra has been forced into performing these acts.

            Dr. Feinberg has numerous firsthand accounts of human trafficking from his time spent abroad in regions like Southeast Asia. He also has witnessed how human trafficking in the U.S. and how it has destroyed the lives of the person being trafficked and the family of that person. Ruth Dearnley and Steve Chalke are a huge part of organizations whose soul purpose is to end human trafficking and the horrible effects that it has on all the people involved. In both articles the authors are completely against human trafficking, whether it is happening abroad or on domestic soil. The authors also agree that there is no single simple way of eliminating human trafficking due to how well it is hidden or protected by underground organizations. The fight against human trafficking needs work if it there is hope of controlling it or even stopping all together.

Works Cited

"Documentary Educational Resources." DER Filmmaker: David A. Feingold. Documentary Educational Resources, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2012. <http://www.der.org/films/filmmakers/david-feingold.html>.

"Human Trafficking." Foreign Policy 150 (2005): 26-32. Business Source Complete. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.

“Man on the Street.” Dollhouse: Season 1. Writ. Joss Whedon. Dir. David Straiton. Fox. 20 March 2009.

“Prevention, Prosecution and Protection.” 47 U.N. Chron. 52 (2010): 52-55. 5 Oct. 2012.

"What Is Human Trafficking?" STOP THE TRAFFIK. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2012. <http://www.stopthetraffik.org/who-we-are>.