A poster from Atlanta's "Dear John" campaign
That title goes to Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, who, in addition to being the first female mayor of Atlanta, and the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city, has been working on ending the sexual exploitation of teens in her community since 2006.
And not by throwing underage prostituted girls in jail, but by addressing the men who buy sex the right to rape already-exploited teens and pre-teens. Apparently, Atlanta is a hub for trafficked girls, although it’s far from the only city in America with a major trafficking problem (…Independence, Missouri? Salt Lake City?). Read this post from Change.org (a digested version of a huge study put together by Shared Hope International) about the latest numbers on child sex trafficking; the upshot is that underage girls are the majority of victims in commercial sex markets, and because they are seen as criminals, rather than victims, they are typically arrested and then returned to the streets, where they suffer further.
In the “Dear John” Campaign, Mayor Franklin herself appears in PSAs and posters informing the men of Atlanta in no uncertain terms that using girls for sex is not just illegal, it’s wrong. It’s harmful. It hurts girls, their families, and the community as a whole.
Mayor Franklin seems like your cool, smart, tough-as-nails Aunt Shirley, who isn’t going to let you pull any funny business, so watch it, kiddo. Even though I am slightly skeptical that pedophiles and perverts are going to snap to attention and say “Yes Ma’am, Mayor!”, I love that the ads are about valuing and protecting girls for themselves and for the roles they play in their communities. Not only do the ads send a clear message to johns, but they also point out to the entire community that girls have worth and their well-being is the responsibility of all Atlanta citizens.
You can see some of the posters here, and the ads, which were produced by Women in Film & Television Atlanta (WIFTA) on YouTube (I’m having trouble embedding them) here, here, and here.
A big Harpy salute to Mayor Franklin, her Policy Advisor on Women’s Issues Stephanie Davis, and the women of WIFTA for acting on behalf of Atlanta’s girls and young women, and the people of Shared Hope International, who work every day to help end sex trafficking.
Go get ‘em, Mayor!
Now, let’s see if the (male) cops will actually enforce on the johns. Yeah, I’m still pissed over last week’s macho-fest.
I figure this has more effect on the general public. It’s a way to make people look at their own assumptions about the situation and challenge them. If the public opinion on the matter starts to change and have more empathy for these girls and young women then there is hope for very serious change.
Kudos to Mayor Franklin, she sounds like an amazing person.
Way to go, Mayor Franklin. You rock.
This is awesome. God bless her. A true WIN for Womanity.
So great to read about this and know that active steps are being taken. As Martha mentioned, I hope that it does have an effect on the general public. It’s easier for some to sympathize and “get it” when a personal story is brought to your attention (like the 8th grade scholarship student being pimped out by her mother who only spoke up when her private school was getting ready to suspend her for missing so many days of school), but hopefully these ads can do the same without the personal context being necessary.
Glad to see my city of birth getting some love here.
Mayor Franklin, as far as I know, has always been a badass. There are always poorly-spelled letters to the editor in the local paper talking about how horrible of a job she’s doing, which makes me think that she must be doing something right.
I spent a year-and-a-half at a college in MIssouri, and got to hear David Batstone, leader of the Not Fro Sale Campaign talk about how trafficers use MO’s I-70 corridor as a way to traffic young girls. I hope campaigns like these spread to other cities.
[...] Badass du Jour – The Pursuit of Harpyness "That title goes to Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, who, in addition to being the first female mayor of Atlanta, and the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city, has been working on ending the sexual exploitation of teens in her community since 2006." Can you say awesome program. (tags: prostitution atlanta politics health rape sexual feminism sextrafficking) [...]