Thoughts on Skyfall

 

There was an interesting moment in Skyfall as a beautiful looking woman who had been portrayed as extremely powerful had a conversation with Bond where he remarked on the bodyguards observing her every move. He then pointed out her tattoo mark on her wrist that showed him that she was 'owned' and used as sex slave by a trafficker. At this point she began to display her extreme terror hiding behind the perfect presentation. 

This scene is helpful to rattle some myths around trafficking including the myth that trafficked survivors always look pathetic and needy and can be rescued by whisking them away to a ‘happy ever after’. 

However, that one aspect is the only positive point in the issue around human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The terror that came across her face as she began to question James bond’s rescue suggestions was painful to watch and realistic in expressing the extreme panic of facing the seemingly impossible task of ever hoping or trusting again. What would safe, trust, rescue or hope even look like?

To see her rush off, looking 'confident and purposeful' whilst being surrounded by intimidating men watching her every move was difficult and reveals the complexity of the task of rescuing trafficked people. This is why we need professionals and intelligence in rescue operations.

In contrast, the scene where she is having a shower and James bond enters that shower and they kiss passionately is a shocking, unrealistic, horrific and wrong portrayal of any human’s reaction when they have endured being sold, used, manipulated and abused by others. She could have shown many realistic reactions such as horror, fear, freezing, robotic emotionless responses, anger, tears, running away, fighting, shock, staring, etc but not relaxing into the arms of a man who she had met in the bar. 

Trust in another person would take a long time to build and would need proving.Trust in a powerful man would almost definitely take longer. 

To see her kissing Bond with no negative responses of fear or shock only informs the audience that women can't help but respond to a handsome resucer and will easily trust others quickly. This is extremely unhelpful in the work by professionals to try to explain the horrific powerlessness of people trapped by fear, terror and manipulation in the pain of sexual exploitation. 

This scene is appalling, not factually correct and totally detrimental to the understanding of the recovery from trafficking or sexual exploitation. 

A trafficked person usually has to recover from the terror of threats that are used to manipulate and control, the confusion of broken promises, loss of autonomy, loss of personhood, loss of trust and hope… and this can take years of strategic, therapeutic care, support and help from people dedicated to supporting them through a tough journey.