Louis Theroux Last Might

[mikey4444]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b099wspk/louis-theroux-dark-states-2-trafficking-sex

Another hard-hitting documentary, from Theroux. I watched most of it, although I missed the first 10 mins.

It seems to me that the women involved were in complete denial, especially when it came to their pimps. The white girl said that she enjoyed the work, but was very afraid of her pimp, and the black girl said that she was still in love with her pimp, even though he was in prison, mainly due to the evidence that she gave at his trial !

Perhaps I missed something but there didn't seem to be any drugs involved, so I kept thinking why didn't these women just walk away ?

[murraymints]

on hard drive to watch later..he certainly goes right in to some dodgy situations...

[mikey4444]

Minty...he goes where angels fear to tread !

[murraymints]

I really like him..he gets right in and asks all the questions we want to ask.. think he now lives in the states...

[MallyJ]

Maybe they don't walk away because they have nowhere to go to.... or feel that to be the case. They certainly seemed to be on their own, without family support. The pimps were offering a sort of family to belong to and some sort of affection... I suspect that is what these women were desperate for. The young black woman seemed to have been saying that she had not been safe from the men her mother brought home so any family would offer her some feeling of safety that she had not had before. Drugs seemed to be involved in some case...eg the young woman who, hopefully, had just left the life.

[ummmm]

I think he's brilliant and very brave.

Mikey - I don't think you understand the dynamics of brainwashing. Pimps prey on vulnerable women. They can spot vulnerable women.

[ummmm]

And what Mally said. Prostitution might seem like a small price to pay compared to what they've left behind.

I haven't watched it yet though.

[mikey4444]

Ummm....I think I do understand how brainwashing works.

But these women appear to live in continual fear of their pimps. The white woman with the black hair panicked on mic, when she found that she had lost the money that she had made that day....her abject fear was palpable. She confessed that she had been beaten up by her pimp, and she was understandably afraid of him. And yet she could walk away at any time, but didn't.

Its not as if these women was being made wealthy by prostitution. They give all the money that they make to their pimp, and he gives them back enough to keep body and soul together. The woman above was asked by Theroux, where she saw herself in a few time, and she had no answer.

It was a well made but deeply depressing program.

[ummmm]

Walk away to where? No job, no home, no money, no family and prostitution doesn't look great on a CV.

[mikey4444]

I see at the end, that Nicky left her pimp, and he was arrested. But she is still continuing to work as a prostitute, so I guess there is now another opening for a new pimp. Deeply depressing.

[MallyJ]

It is tragic that some people feel that they are of so little value that any affection is better than none at all. Children who are abused will still love their parents...bad attention is better than no attention at all.