We have all witnessed Poverty porn many times in our life. Whether it was on your T.V. screen or in the news papers. Poverty Porn has been defined as 'any type of media, be it written, photographed or filmed, which exploits the poor’s condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause. It is a term also used to explain when media is created not in order to generate sympathy, but to cause anger or outrage. However Poverty Porn does almost nothing to address the real structural problem of poverty. While reading a few articles and doing some research here and there I came upon a website called Unite for Sight. While reading I realized that they define poverty porn as “words and images that elicit an emotional response by their sheer shock value. Images like starving, skeletal children covered in flies…” that exploit “the poor’s condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause.” This is just mortifying! these innocent souls are fighting for their life waiting for us to take action and help them out, and whats are we doing? We're using their situation for our own benefits. Taking advantage of every possible moment photographing it and posting it everywhere in order to make some profit off other peoples desperate situation. I don't have enough words to explain how much disgust I feel after seeing how cruel this world is.
For starters Poverty Porn misrepresents poverty all together. Poverty is a result of both systematic and individual problems. However Poverty Porn describes poverty merely as the observable suffering
that is caused from the lack of materials and everyday living essentials. By misrepresenting poverty altogether this causes people who live in developed countries to feel the guilty and sympathetic towards the poor therefore donating money in order to "help out"(Don't get me wrong I believe that we should help the poor!) The real issue here is that Poverty Porn makes the situation in the undeveloped countries look like a complex human experience understandable, consumable and easily treatable. However you and I both know that is not the case! The second point that I would Like to address is that Poverty Porn Misrepresents the poor. we've all seen pictures like the image below right?
For starters Poverty Porn misrepresents poverty all together. Poverty is a result of both systematic and individual problems. However Poverty Porn describes poverty merely as the observable suffering
that is caused from the lack of materials and everyday living essentials. By misrepresenting poverty altogether this causes people who live in developed countries to feel the guilty and sympathetic towards the poor therefore donating money in order to "help out"(Don't get me wrong I believe that we should help the poor!) The real issue here is that Poverty Porn makes the situation in the undeveloped countries look like a complex human experience understandable, consumable and easily treatable. However you and I both know that is not the case! The second point that I would Like to address is that Poverty Porn Misrepresents the poor. we've all seen pictures like the image below right?
At this very moment I bet all of you are probably thinking "awweh that so sad" and you are 100% correct it is upsetting! No child or anyone for the matter should have to go through such horrible situations. However what many of us don't realize is that the Poverty Porn work effect worked on all of us! This is the exact reactions that these manipulating organizations want want you to have. They come to you and show you images of poverty, showing you dirt, rags and helplessness. In reality, poverty has many faces and no simple solution.which is extremely upsetting however these organizations use poverty as way to get money into their pockets and they could care less about what these people are really going through.The Last point that I would like to address is that we should be so embarrassed because the Poverty Porn effect is working on us! When it comes to profitability, poverty porn delivers on its promise. Audiences are more likely to make a financial donation when an ad shows a child that is suffering, rather than happy and healthy. For me this raises an important question. is the profitability of poverty porn worth the perpetuation of false ideologies and stereotypes? I response to this question is NO! This may sound like the contrary to the capitalist nature of Western culture, but it’s really not. Sustainable change in poor communities is more than the number of financial donations that are offered. According to Strivastava, "if we want to truly transform communities so they are economically and socially just, we have to create avenues for their voices to be heard. We cannot impose our constructs on them." In conclusion my dear friends we must open up our eyes and see how manipulating these organizations are before its to late