RWC English Professor Rhonda Pettit recently had the opportunity to have her collection of poetry on the concerns of sex slavery performed as a one act play at the Aronoff Center. The play is titled “The Global Lovers.” The performance took place February 17 and was sold out. In an interview with the Activist, Professor Pettit said her work was “still in the revision stage.” She explained that in the play she wants to show the similarities between sex slavery and “mind-less consumerism.” As I sat listening to her explain her purpose as to why she picked such a graphic dilemma, my eyes were re-opened to the harsh reality of the lives of young women all around the world, including America.
She explained that young girls are kidnapped and taken as sex slaves, girls as young as 14. These poor innocent girls are taken against their will and “broken-in.” While they are raped repeatedly and beaten, many don’t have any hope. Many, if not all of these women who succumb to sex slavery, have nowhere to turn.
“Police officers and vendors may be customers of these brothels, and will return the girls if there is an attempt to escape,” Professor Pettit explained carefully. She also revealed that in the play she uses language that wouldn’t turn the audience away. She uses a Kentucky woman who is blinded by consumerism and a sex slave on the other side of the world to give us a picture of the parallel between the two.
We are in a culture where we are reading advertisements for sales, while ignoring the news and issues at hand, including people that we should be offering assistance to.
Professor Pettit explained that she has been working on this for about three years now, and the revisions will only make the objective of the poetry more clear.