Sex abuse victim Duffy’s anger at Netf lix f ilm that ‘glamorises rape’
Pop star Duffy: I was drugged, raped and held captive for days
From the Mail, February 26
DUFFY has accused Netflix of ‘irresponsibly’ glamorising sex trafficking, kidnap and rape by screening controversial film 365 Days.
The Welsh singer, 36 – a sex trafficking victim – said it ‘grieves’ her that the streaming giant has approved a film that ‘eroticises’ the type of brutality which left her close to suicide.
Earlier this year, she said she had been drugged at a restaurant on her birthday before being held captive in her home and taken abroad during a terrifying four-week ordeal. In a letter to Netflix’s chief executive Reed Hastings, she wrote that ‘365 Days glamorises the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape.
‘This should not be anyone’s idea of entertainment nor should it be described as such or be commercialised in this manner.’ The Polish drama, which has been likened to 50 Shades Of Grey, charts the imprisonment of a young Warsaw woman by a member of the Sicilian mafia. A petition was launched calling for Netflix to remove the film on the grounds that it ‘perpetuates the glamorisation of rape culture’.
Duffy, real name Aimee Anne Duffy, who had a huge hit in 2008 with Mercy, said she cannot understand how ‘Netflix could overlook how careless, insensitive and dangerous this is,’ adding: ‘It grieves me that Netflix provides a platform for such “cinema” that eroticises kidnapping and distorts sexual violence and trafficking as a “sexy” movie.’
She blasted the streaming giant, saying it is ‘irresponsible...to broadcast the film’. She insisted: ‘We all know Netflix would not host material glamorising paedophilia, racism, homophobia, genocide or any other crimes against humanity. The world would rightly rise up and scream. Tragically, victims of trafficking and kidnapping are unseen and yet in 365 Days their suffering is made into a “erotic drama”, as described by Netflix.’
Duffy said she did not want to write a letter but the ‘virtue of my suffering obliges me to’ and she was ‘compelled’ to speak out on behalf of the 25million current victims of trafficking and those who are ‘uncounted’. She wrote: ‘I encourage the millions who have enjoyed the movie to reflect on the reality of kidnapping and trafficking, of force and sexual exploitation, and of an experience that is the polar opposite of the glossy fantasy depicted.’
She stressed: ‘To anyone who may exclaim “It is just a movie”, it is not “just” when it has great influence to distort a subject which is widely undiscussed, such as sex trafficking and kidnapping, by making the subject erotic...If all of you at Netflix take nothing from this open letter but these final words, I will be content.
‘You have not realised how 365 Days has brought great hurt to those who have endured the pains and horrors that this film glamorises for entertainment and for dollars. What I and others who know these injustices need is the exact opposite – a narrative of truth, hope and to be given a voice.
‘When we know better, let us do better.’ Award-winning Duffy disappeared from the public eye after her second album Endlessly in 2010 and earlier this year revealed she has spent ‘almost ten years completely alone’ following her ordeal. In a post on Instagram in February, she detailed how she fought to stay conscious and was left at ‘high risk of suicide in the aftermath’.
She later described rape as ‘like living murder’ because ‘you are alive, but dead’.
Netflix was unavailable for comment last night.