Girls Like Us Rachel Lloyd Analysis

Rachel Lloyd’s literary work Girls Like Us is a memoir concerning the problem of sex trafficking. As she recounts her own story and the stories of girls that she has worked with in the sex industry over the years, she brings to light how relevant and dire the situation truly is. Hundreds of thousands of girls are constantly being bought for sex across the country. Little help is given to these girls because, although they are underage children, they are not seen as victims. They are seen as low-life criminals. After reading this book, I feel like my eyes have been opened. I did not realize how serious the problems of sexual exploitation of children and victim-blaming have become. The multiple flaws in the criminal justice system work against the girls in need instead of for them like it should. Furthermore, our frequently intolerant culture has no sympathy for them because of their ethnicity, social class, gender, and a variety of other factors.
When I looked in a thesaurus for synonyms for the word “abuse,” one of the results was “prostitution” (Abuse, n.d.). Needless to say, I was appalled. People don’t understand what kind of horrific things sexually exploited girls and women in …show more content…
Children are being manipulated and abused in appalling ways. Yet, no one helps them because they are judged and seen as dirty prostitutes. These girls, these human beings are victims and should be treated as such. Today’s children shape the future and getting stuck in “the life” with no hope of help or rescue keeps them from living up to their full potential. A girl is not going to believe she can amount to anything if she is controlled by a pimp, looked down on and shamed by society, and shut down by a system that is supposed to protect her. A flawed justice system and racial and cultural biases do not a healthy, youth-fostering society