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[2월호, 2021년] Poverty, not a Porn - 6기 한지민

 

Poverty, not a Porn

 6기 Jimin Han

“Parasite”. Winner of 250 prizes, generated $250 million. Such big success often leads people to “cross the line”. In this case, it was the government. The Seoul Metropolitan Government developed the actual filming site for "Parasite" as a tourist attraction. Maybe they forgot that there are actually people living in that “dump”. More likely, they knew too well that some people love to peek into poverty. In short, the government had succumbed to the temptation of poverty porn. Poverty pornography is any type of media that exploits the poverty’s condition for a certain purpose, such as entertainment or increasing charitable donations. The problem of poverty porn is that it ignores the multifaceted nature of poverty and imposes a negative frame on certain countries.



<Picture 1> Tourists taking a picture in front of the movie <Parasite> filming site (한겨레)[1]

Poverty is an interaction of various causes, but poverty porn ignores its complicity. The DAC emphasized that poverty is not only an economic phenomenon but also it has protective, political, human, and socio-cultural dimensions. For instance, everyone knows that not having a regular income or any savings means poverty. According to the DAC, lacking political freedom or not being valued by the community is also an aspect of poverty. However, in poverty porn, all these aspects are lumped together into a single image so that poverty can look more severe. No money, no social status, no education… The people who appear in poverty porn are usually the most obvious cases of poverty that include all of these aspects. This can block discussion on the indefinite standards of poverty, and on what various actions the society can take to solve poverty issues.

Poverty porn also leads to prejudice towards certain regions or cultures. For instance, Africa is still recognized by many as a continent of poor and sick people. Some will be shocked to see the life of rich Africans. They may even go as far to feel that Africans should not be buying expensive products or enjoy their lives. In their perspective, Africans should live up to “the image”, which was, actually, created by the media. Poverty porn's distortion of reality gives no benefit to neither the rich nor the poor Africans. The rich has to suffer from the prejudice that differentiates them from the typical African, and the poor will be treated as if they were some puppets. It is unfair to put Africans, or any group of people, under a single description. Instead of helping them, it will only serve as a basis of discrimination. However, that’s what poverty porn does. They commercialize and sell poverty, manufacturing it the same way every time. Guess who’s being the parasite? Using poverty as a porn should stop, or it will continue to sicken society. 

<Picture 2> A typical example of poverty porn [2]

Even though poverty porn has these problems, many companies or institutions still use them because they believe "guilt" and "conscience" are effective when justifying sustainable actions. Not only for poverty resolution, which is the first SDGs goal, but for all the SDGs goals. They use provocative photos and videos to convey the message, "If you ignore this problem, you're a bad person." When selling upcycled products, many advertisements show pictures of dying polar bears or rivers full of garbage. Although these advertisements come from good intentions, they unknowingly bring dangerous results. The viewers will feel “pity” for the subjects of the advertisement. When these subjects become human beings, people still feel pity for them, which brings upon all the problems mentioned above. The current generation can make their own choices for sustainability. They can share their piece of pie when necessary. They are not forced out of guilt, but feel the need to act and do so freely. In these circumstances, using guilt when proposing sustainability-related policies or when selling products would be an outdated strategy. Rather, if sustainability is consumed as a trend and positive images are related with it, it would be much more effective. That is when poverty porn could truly disappear. Both the producers and the consumers will have to work for it.

 

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