Pretty Woman helped bring conversations about sex work to the mainstream, but has been widely criticized for her focus on the subject. Vivian’s trajectory is built with the sole goal of getting the public to take root so that she can finally quit sex work; any other result would be considered tragic. The exit, of course, comes in the form of Edward, a rich, white, tall man who is unable to resist the urge to rescue her. “You could be so much more,” he tells Vivian as they both lie in bed, the dim lights unable to obscure the fact that he perceives her as “less than.”
The film also encourages the idea that this transactional relationship is romantic, which in turn romanticizes the idea of sex work itself. Edward presents Vivian with gifts, gives her an unlimited credit card, and arranges for a personal shopper to carefully cure her new image. This fairy-tale approach to its dynamics reinforces the idea that all sex workers patiently wait for a gentleman in shining armor to keep them away from such a sad situation. If Edward was really in love, it was his own creation.
Comedy is another way out for poor portrayal of sex work, as producer, screenwriter and former sex worker Isa Mazzei tells BBC Culture: “There are many comedies where the plot is” wow, we killed a sex worker “and these kinds of narratives are degrading and perpetuate the damage. The fact that they are often interpreted as a joke is the most insidious part of everything, it means that killing a sex worker is somehow less than killing someone with another. profession “.
Entire comedies focus on the murder of sex workers, such as Peter Berg’s Very Bad Things (1998) and Lucia Aniello’s Rough Night (2017), while many others use the degrading narrative device as a passing joke, such as case of Dirty Work. (1998), where a car salesman is caught live with several sex workers killed in the trunk of exposed cars. Some films take a step back by adopting these harmful stereotypes in their titles, such as Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2019) and Death of a Hooker (1971), also known as Who Killed Mary What’s’ Er Name?
Rethinking sex work
Many recent films, however, are actively challenging these stereotypes, with one example being the 2018 CAM, written and produced by Mazzei. The story, which uses horror to explore the loss of agency often suffered by sex workers who act online, discusses important issues such as consent and separation between person and person. “It was absolutely mandatory for us to include sex workers in every step of the filmmaking process. I can’t speak on behalf of all sex workers, I’m just one. So it was important to include other voices and make sure. we had agreements. on how things were portrayed, “says Mazzei, who is also the author of Camgirl, a heartfelt memoir of her days as a live cameraman.
While Mazzei stresses the importance of employing sex workers in every step of the creative process, he admits that it is still far from easy for current or former sex workers to be open about their past within the industry. “It was a terrifying experience to go out as a sex worker in Hollywood and meet people who didn’t always respect me as a writer and people who just wanted to ask salty questions about the camera,” says Mazzei.
This feeling is shared by Numa Perrier, whose debut as director Jezebel (2019) is adapted from her time as a camgirl in the early nineties. “There is a lasting stigma surrounding any kind of sex work, and that was a big part of why I was afraid to talk about my personal history at first. However, I quickly realized through the script workshop which was a bigger creative challenge to hide behind a story that was mine.From that moment on I became more and more bold in expressing this part of myself and the film it’s much better for that. “