Shaun Says LOVE

In response to requests by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and four provinces, fuelled by lobbying by groups opposed to prostitution and human trafficking, Craigslist recently removed the “Erotic Services” section of its Canadian websites. The action mirrors Craigslist’s removal of “Adult Services” from its U.S. websites following an open letter by 17 state attorneys-general lamenting its support for the “scourge of illegal prostitution.”

While illegal in most of the U.S., prostitution is legal in Canada. Communicating for the purpose of prostitution only constitutes an offence when it happens in a “public place,” such as the street or a park, not a newspaper or website.

Some Canadian politicians were concerned Craigslist “could facilitate” crimes involving child exploitation and human trafficking. Charges should be and are laid in Canada against persons who advertise for, and profit from, such exploitation. But persons can only be charged with aiding or abetting if they encourage anyone to commit an offence or do, or omit to do, anything for the purpose of aiding another to commit a crime. There is no evidence that Craigslist has such a purpose. In fact, Craigslist has a strong record of co-operating with police by providing electronic information used to track down suspected abusers.

Shutting down “Erotic Services” is counterproductive and in bad faith. Following the section’s removal, traffic to other less-monitored websites advertising sex services spiked. This scattering effect hinders investigation and prosecution of actual cases of exploitation.

Governmental intimidation of Craigslist is a heavy-handed move that will likely result in increased violence against sex workers. The Ontario Superior Court recently struck down as unconstitutional several prostitution laws, including the communication provision, on the basis that they “materially contribute to the decreased personal security” of sex workers. Online advertising is crucial to sex-worker safety because it allows for effective client screening. Many sex workers require new clients to provide referrals from existing clients, references from other sex workers, and confirmation of identity.

The anti-Craigslist campaign is part of a backlash against progressive developments toward decriminalization of prostitution-related activities. Concerns about exploitation mask the larger goal of eradicating sex work per se. In casting all sex workers as coerced women and children, the anti-prostitution lobby homogenizes a diverse industry that includes consenting adult men, women and transgendered persons.

Targeting Craigslist perpetuates a strategic narrative of saving and punishing, where vulnerable women and children are saved and parasitic pimps, johns and traffickers are punished. The impulse to punish and save lies at the heart of Western theological and colonial traditions. Viewed in this light, the conservative approach to sex work is part of a civilizing mission that reduces participants to either saved or fallen, victim or perpetrator.

This simplification denies the complexity and prevalence of transactional sex. It thereby restricts the range of social and political responses to the root causes of real vulnerabilities. Alternatively, improved immigration policies and support services for trafficked persons, empowerment of first nations communities, increased funding for drug addiction and mental-health services, and implementation of a national childcare plan are measures likely to decrease sex industry-related exploitation.

We should all be concerned when government uses its power to pressure private corporations to excessively limit legal forms of expression.

Lisa Kelly, a Trudeau scholar, and Heidi Matthews are doctoral candidates at Harvard Law School.

(source:theglobeandmail.com)

Shaun Says LOVE & OTHER DRUGS Is Sexy, Classy But Predictable

When searching for directors who craft unerringly human romantic comedies that never patronise their viewers, who do we turn to?

The list can be counted on one hand; Cameron Crowe (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire), Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan), perhaps even Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy), and most recently Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer). What we certainly don’t expect is for Edward Zwick, best known for his impressively mounted epics and actioners (Glory, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, Defiance), to come out with this refreshingly honest, if occasionally too treacly stab at the genre.

We meet Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he is a lowly, albeit charming, electronics store employee in the mid-90s. Having dropped out of medical school, he instead decides to become a pharmaceutical representative, lobbying doctors through various means to prescribe his favoured brands of medication. In this stead he meets Maggie (Anne Hathaway), an early-stage Alzheimer’s patient, with whom he embarks on a casual relationship driven largely by sex. However, the commitment-weary Jamie soon finds himself falling for Maggie, and the two uneasily must decide whether a relationship is possible with Maggie’s sure-to-worsen condition.

It is important to remember that Zwick’s very first film, About Last Night, a romantic dramedy, in fact, trod similar ground to Love and Other Drugs; it dealt with an emotionally shallow man discovering that he may or may not have a heart, and consequently how he changes as a result. Though Zwick hasn’t touched the genre in two-and-a-half decades, the humanism that infuses all of his works ensures that he is not out of his depth, and while it may reach for an audience-grabbing “You had me at hello” moment a little too eagerly, this is ultimately an actor’s film diguised as a fluffy crowd pleaser.

Zwick takes a two-pronged approach to his subjects; the film begins as a light and entertaining stab at the pharmaceutical boom of the 1990s, when Viagra revolutionised an industry and truly commodotised well-being, before turning to explore more character-based concerns, as the finality of Maggie’s condition comes home to roost. More successful as an honest character piece rather than a barbed satire, the film never explores in enough detail the industry as a whole, and instead presents it often as window-dressing for us to gawp at these two beautiful young people cavorting around naked without feeling too lascivious.

And yes, there is a lot of nudity. Though the two unquestionably own their roles here, Hathaway especially dives into hers by flaunting her undeniably fantastic figure for the camera at seemingly every errant opportunity; it never feels exploitative, though, because the relationship is all about sex, and when we see them lying around in the nude, talking about their lives, it feels more intimate and more real. For any criticism the film might earn about its predictable nature, that sanitised Hollywood sheen peels away as their clothes do; it is more emotionally raw than most of its equally star-studded, glossy contemporaries.

Gyllenhaal and Hathaway, who previously worked together on Brokeback Mountain, exhibit potent chemistry which keeps us invested in the emotional stakes through the few portions that drag their feet a bit. As separate components, they are good – Gyllenhaal is a slam dunk as the charming and arrogant rep, while Hathaway knocks it out of the park as a cynical young woman that has flashes of some of Diane Keaton’s roles – but together, they are great. Their likeability and evident chemistry makes it easy to root for these people, and groansome moments are hard to come by, making even genre cynics unlikely to dismiss this effort entirely.

It balances the comic and dramatic elements a little gingerly, and never probes as deep in its satirical bent as it should, but Gyllenhaal and Hathaway go to bat for Zwick big time, and the result is a pleasing if predictable work that isn’t a classic, but is a more emotionally potent, truthful and sexy film than the vast majority of the year’s rom-coms.

(source:obsessedwithfilm.com)