Analysis of the Book Bitch and the Movie Based on the Book - Essay Example

Comparative Analysis of The Book Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women And the Movie Taken, Based Upon the Book Word Count: 1000 (4 pages) I. Introduction Sexual slavery, human trafficking, and prostitution—whatever label one wants to give the offense—has become increasingly if not more than a problem than it has in the past. A certain percentage of the world’s women are actually missing—which means that people have taken these women captive and used them to their own ends or purposes. In the 2008 movie Taken, directed by Pierre Morel, the story is a spinoff from Elizabeth Wurtzel’s second blockbuster book Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women. Both the book and the movie take into account the following: how girls and women were perceived in the past; how girls and women are perceived today; and how prevailing attitudes towards women result in vices (such as human trafficking and prostitution). II. How Girls and Women Were Perceived in the Past It used to be that in the old days, girls and women used to have to be accompanied everywhere they went. In Medieval Spain, women had to be accompanied by a chaperone when they were asked out by a gentleman who would come calling. There are traces of this in the movie when Liam Neeson’s character, Bryan, insists that his daughter not go alone to France. Even when his daughter insists that she is taking her peer and friend Amanda with her to France—who is also 17 years old—Bryan is not convinced that it’s the best idea. He has a bad feeling about it. His wife Lenore, however, insists that he will never let his daughter do anything. She will come to later regret urging her husband to allow the teen to go with her friend to Paris. It is when the girls take a trip in a Parisian taxi that things go horribly wrong, and an Albanian gangster kidnaps the girls and sells them into slavery. This is when Bryan, the ex-CIA officer, springs into action—as he is told he only has 96 hours max to save his daughter and her friend, before they’re lost forever. III. How Girls and Women Are Perceived Today The author’s contentions that the way girls and women are perceived today—as stated in the book—is an accurate portrayal of what goes on in real life. Women today are celebrated as sex objects and are frequently the subject of many sexually-charged themes in movies and books—leading others to believe that women truly are objects which can be traded like commodities. Take, for example, from Wurtzel’s book Bitch, the example of the kidnapper who kept a girl in his basement for a long time—and held her against her will, which is unlawful imprisonment, and God knows did what with her while she was entrapped there. “[The criminal] who kidnapped little Katie Beers and kept her chained in his underground bunker—another famed Long Island case—was held on only $500,000 bail…”1 The point is, these kinds of incidents are becoming more commonplace everyday. It is not only sad and very unfortunate but dangerous as well. The way girls and women are perceived today has been played out in the media such that these attitudes reveal themselves in the vices of prostitution and human trafficking of women, which is discussed further in the next point. IV. How Prevailing Attitudes Towards Women Result in Vices In the movie Taken, this former spy tries to find his estranged daughter and her friend because they were kidnapped to be sold into sexual slavery. One of the characters in the movie, Sam, tells Bryan, “[This organization’s] previous MO was to offer women from…countries like Yugoslavia, Romania, [and] Bulgaria jobs in the west as maids and nannies. Once [smuggled] in, theyd addict them to drugs and turn them into prostitutes…[but] its more economical just to kidnap traveling young women[, saving] on transportation costs.”2 The fact that teenaged girls are also considered no better than chattel as well, is emphasized by the warning of the movie—that girls and women are not safe in the world when traveling without a male companion or companions, such as a husband, brother, father, or male cousin. Wurtzel’s contentions are definitely valid in light of what the movie reveals—that the vices of these men comes from the prevailing attitudes of women being sold as sex slaves, essentially. The movie extrapolates on Wurtzel’s ideas where one sees the dark underbelly of such an industry which is cold, callous, and unfeeling towards its female victims. Wurtzel’s book reveals about the movie that no one is safe from becoming the victim of a kidnapping and being then forced into sexual slavery—both women and men. This universal truth underlies the basic tenet of the movie and is found woven into the fabric of Wurtzel’s book, Bitch. The movie supports the text of the story found in Wurtzel’s novel, a compelling tale which moves the reader to genuinely emote for these characters who are caught up in a web of the dark side of an industry that mercilessly preys upon those who are too weak to defend themselves and/or find help or seek a way out. Bitch, in comparison with Taken, reveals that one of the most powerful assets a woman has—her sexuality—can also be used against her by forcing her into the oldest profession (prostitution). It is this backward perversion of justice done to women which Wurtzel vilifies in her book and is further demonstrated as a monstrosity in the movie Taken, which clearly demonstrates the greed of an industry hungry for people (especially women) upon which they can prey for their own financial gain. Both Wurtzel’s book and Morel’s movie accurately capture the essences of struggle for women who are trying—at times, vainly—to escape an industry which, like a parasite, drains its victims of their identity and will to live. V. Conclusion Wurtzel’s book Bitch is effectively parsed out in its movie equivalent, the movie Taken directed by Pierre Morel. Without a doubt—it is due to both former and current attitudes towards girls and women, and how they are converted into vices, vices engulfing the missing percentage of the world’s women. BIBLIOGRAPHY Quote from the film “Taken.” Retrieved from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) on 11 Aug 2011 at: . Taken. Dir. Pierre Morel. Perf. Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen. 20th Century Fox, 2008. DVD. Wurtzel, Elizabeth. Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women. US: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1999. Pp. 97. Read More