Invisible Children

In Carolyn Nordstrom's article titled Visible Wars and Invisible Girls, Shadow Industries, and the Politics of Not Knowing she looks at the invisibility of children especially girls in wartime aside from the images that are used as political propaganda to demonize the enemy and there are usually only one child depicted and the other girls aren't even mentioned. Nordstrom illustrates her point by providing three stories of girls.

The first was an image of a girl lying on the ground clothed (uncommon for her society and time due to the wartime nature) and looking vacantly at the sky. She had been raped and tortured at the age of 10 during the time of solider occupation and had not talked to anyone about her story.

The Second story was about a girl the same age who was raped by her family. Nordstrom thinks and compares the too- both seem to have the same outcomes- vacant disengaged prepubescent girls. Nordstrom hypothesizes that because in all cultures people believe that violating children is bad that there does not have to be anymore depth in the story. Hearing of a raped girl makes people feel uncomfortable and upset enough they don't need to her any details.

The third story was about a girl who was dumped as an orphan in the hands of men who filmed her having sex with a dog. In turn the dog mauled her and when taken to the hospital she was not able to be saved. In events to follow neither, the government nor the news media did anything to report this story. Other than having the men escorted out of the town no real measures were taken.

To reinforce her point Nordstrom provides bulleted facts about the atrocities of children in wartime.

The reality is is that those girls were not alone in their pain but, they are also not alone in the fact that their problems have been hidden by the media. Their suffering has gone unpublished in the news. There may be every once in awhile a story of children getting raped or tortured during wartime. However, it is usually the assumption that it is from the opposing side not from family members or those producing child pornography. Their stories are invisible so how can there be a change and a conscious effort to take this invisibility away where there is not information about the happenings.