Film defends women who are sex predators

Catholic Online frequently works to expose the horrors of human trafficking and modern day slavery throughout the world. Most of these stories focus on women and children as the most frequent victims of exploitation. However, what is often overlooked are the women who also partake of the industry. A recent film presented at the Cannes Film Festival looks at female sex tourists, and promptly seems to defend them.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "Paradise: Love," is based on true events and produced by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, is his latest exposĂ© of the human sex trade. Previously, Seidl produced a very graphic and notorious film that showed some of the abuse  women from the former Soviet Union suffered in the west. That film featured overt pornography and was highly critical of the abuse women faced. 

However, in "Paradise," Seidl depicts women as lonely people who merely desire fulfillment in their late middle-aged years. Their need for happiness and tenderness drives them to East Africa where they seek the company of male gigolos. 

The film itself follows the example of one woman, Margarethe Tiesel, 50, who travels to Kenya where she finds other women engaged in the same practice. She meets a young man with whom she begins to trade sex and companionship for money. Later she discovers the man is married and is using the money to support his wife, and she beats him in public. 

Disillusioned, she continues to pursue other men, treating them merely as objects.

Seidl said of the women, ""The exploited begin to exploit in a place where they have power. I don't judge these women, I understand them and I understand completely what they struggle with."

 Ridiculous.

Had this film featured men taking advantage of women and girls, or had it depicted a man beating a woman, and treating other impoverished women as objects because of their male need for tenderness and affection, there would be calls for an international crackdown and justice. 
Instead, women in this case, armed with money and power, are somehow portrayed as sympathetic victims?

While double standards regarding human sexuality are as ancient as civilization, (women have been stereotyped as predators and victims alike throughout history) the time has come to regard all predators as equals. If a person is lonely and desires tender companionship, there are other, less dehumanizing means to obtain fulfillment. There are alternatives to acting out both physically and criminally (e.g. spiritual fulfillment).

There must be no excuses made for women who behave as reprehensibly as men. It is unfortunate that the silver screen embraces a double standard for women who are sometimes just as guilty as the worst male predators. 

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