Twisted consent in modern society (bait & twist vs. bait & switch)

One of the topics that has touched me the most recently is when I read about a couple of cases where people were contracted to do a job and then the job turned out to include the duties that they thought they'd have, and a bit more.

The main one is the case of Judy Garland, who plays Dorothy Gale in the famous film The Wizard of Oz. This case is extreme, but it is representative of a pattern of exploitation that is still very much alive and thriving. If you want to read more about it, here's an article that explains a lot of it.

The gist of it is that she wasn't considered a human being by the studio reps and she was made to smoke 80 cigarettes a day, consume amphetamines, have hyper-strict curfews, among many other things like being shunned by many of the other main actors, and being molested by several of them. When she came out, she was addicted to drugs and pills and had a miserable life until she committed suicide at 47 years old.

Many times, we're led to believe that what we're told about a job is all there is to it, with perhaps some added duties, but then, certain "extra" aspects are taken for granted. For example, when I taught in an institute near my home, I was expected to fail many more students than I ended up failing, and I was scolded by many teachers and by the director for giving students second chances to recover their grades. It was a for-profit organisation, after all, and the more semesters a student has to pay, the more profitable the business is.

I have had similar experiences in every employment I have had, and I have recently started to read about the topic a lot. I also talk about this topic with my friends who enjoy talking about philosophy (which is basically almost the only thing I talk about when I really become friends with someone).

One of my friends, @teruro, mentioned to me a similar case in pornography in recent times. From what I understood in what he told me, there is this company called FacialAbuse where they lure young girls to shoot a "porn film", but they don't include the details, and when they get there, they are treated inhumanely, to a level where @teruro compared it to rape. But as they are already very invested in it when they realise that they are not liking it, they do not dare to say stop (and some don't even think they have the "right") and decide to continue until the end.

There is a similar phenomenon in human trafficking where the victims are lured into prostitution with promises of wealth and stability, but are instead held in inhumane conditions such as debt bondage so that they will continue to work for free for a pimp or an organisation. One interview I read recently had a girl that said that she was told that she would be able to make so much, that the debt she was incurring would be paid in no time, but when she started, she realised that money wasn't so easily made, and they took the money and didn't hold clear accounting, resulting in an eternal relationship of slavery where she could not leave because she was indebted in a foreign country and her passport was being held "until she finished paying". Then, the brothel she was in sold her to another brothel which basically restarted the debt condition alleging that they had spent money to get her. It wasn't until a police raid occurred that she and many others were able to escape.

I believe that this phenomenon I call "twisted consent" is not just present in these extreme cases, but in every interaction that we make where terms aren't clear. Let's say, for example, that I tell you that I'm selling a really good pen for $100. It has parts made in silver and a tiny bead of gold. You make your calculations and decide that it's alright to buy it. You travel to my city and are giving me the money when I tell you that I already sold that pen, but that I have a $50 one that is slightly different. It's not that good a pen, you wouldn't have bought it if I had proposed it to you first, but now that you're there, you don't want to walk away empty-handed and you're proud and we're in a "good relationship", so you buy the pen from me. There are MANY cases like this nowadays and it's a known scam, but it's not illegal, it's socially accepted, and people fall for it all the time.

There are many degrees to this phenomenon, and sometimes we can think that it's ok to fall into using those tactics to get what we want, and sometimes you may think that it's so subtle that it's ethical. Sometimes we don't even have a name for it or compare it to anything else. I wanted to make this post so that you'd think about it the next time you see this tactic being used (or if you're tempted to use it yourself), so that you'd reconsider when you see how gravely dangerous it is and how deep into immorality it can pierce.

Tiny advertisement of the day: