What's It Like to be Born into Brothels

Though the making of this documentary may have invaded the privacy of the children and their families, I think that it is fair that their lives are on display for the world to see. I think that making this documentary allows the general public to be more informed about what goes on in the lives of people who live in the red light districts. From this documentary, I was able to view how children living in the red light districts are negatively affected and treated. I bet that many people aren’t aware of this situation and that there are still active brothels in the world – I know that if I didn’t watch this documentary in ENGL 106, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up to watch in the future. I believe that a child can give consent whether or not to be portrayed in this way. If a child didn’t want to be exposed, then I think that Zana would have respected the child’s wishes and not include that child in her documentary. I think her documentary is successful in terms of informing the audience of the struggles that many children go through and suffer from by living in the red light districts. However I don’t think the documentary is successful in terms of ways that the general public can possibly help.

My Relationship with Food

Even though over these past weeks I have learned about the “bad stuff” that happens to the food we eat, I haven’t been deeply affected by it enough to change my eating ways. I haven’t been influenced by our studies because up to now, I have been eating foods that may have been genetically modified, but that hasn’t prevented me from eating them.

If I ate some strawberries in the dining court and later found out that they were genetically modified, I don’t believe that I would stop eating them just because they were genetically modified. If they taste good, I will continue to eat them. And plus, they would count as a serving of fruit for the day!

After watching the movie Supersize Me, though I was grossed out at the negative effects that eating the food has on health, it didn’t influence me to completely stop eating at McDonald’s. Often when I travel to other places, I eat McDonald’s for a quick meal in order to get back onto the road. It’s fast, convenient, and it tastes good! Because I know of the harmful health effects of eating McDonald’s frequently, I don’t eat it a lot. I only eat McDonald’s about 1-2 times a month.

In our class discussion, I was surprised to learn that the apple pies at McDonald’s weren’t really made of apples, but rather made of potatoes flavored like apples. Every time I go to McDonald’s, I get the apple pies. Even though I feel somewhat “deceived” that all this time I thought I was eating apples, knowing that the pies don’t have real apples in them won’t stop me from buying them and eating them. They are just too darn delicious!