Anora- should sex work continue to be destigmatised?

[mids2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/05/anora-missed-chance-to-spark-real-change-say-sex-workers

I am conflicted on one of the results about this Oscars success is that a spotlight has been thrown in sex work leading to calls for more decriminilastion and normalisation of sex work.

Though I have a great deal of sympathy for those whose circumstances that lead into sex work isn't a greater legitimacy of sex work a greater legitimacy of sex work itself including the clientele?

So if you hear sex workers calls for more legal protection and customisation then you have to decriminalize the activities of men surrounding this profession. Although possibly a financial lifeline for some women surely we must take into account the impact on society as a whole into accoint?

I would have to think deep and hard about being an 'ally' to sex work.

Seems to be an unhealthy and dangerous message to me - one that benefits men of course 🙄. Saw the trailer for that and Dh and I eye rolled we like going to the cinema with our 16 plus teen dds but what sort of message would that give them?

It a hard to separate calls for support for sex workers from calls for support for sex work. I think sex work should be a matter of concern and sympathy and not one for praise and respect unfortunately. I thought the Oscar's speech was a bit naive honestly .

Agreed

It just seems a bit of a film for the film purists and one that might get a bit of an if I reaction from now public. Not something I would instantly go to the cinema for.

Sex work is not work, it's commercial sexual exploitation. I have a lot of concern for women involved in this "industry" and in my home city there is far less of the "glamour", freedom and liberation that some people suggest is involved and more of the addiction, vulnerability and exploitation of primarily women.

Yes absolutely to @Jayinthetub, it's all so bloody grim that I can't actually articulate myself! All the 'yay! Sex work!' Are thinking of the 'glam' world of Pretty Woman and now this film where gosh! A good looking MILLIONAIRE chooses you!! As if that's the usual clientele, not the 17 yo from an abusive background getting £10 for a blow job from a grim man in a shop doorway in a shitty area of town.

They should read the “reviews” of men who use prostitutes. They do the worst most disgusting degrading things to them laugh about it and hate them. And we are supposed to cheerlead our gorgeous dds into that!? Over my cold dead body.

It’s not work, it’s prostitution. The buying of bodies should be illegal, like in the Nordic Model.

Exploitation of women, trafficking, abuse, substance dependencies… no thanks, I don’t want that ‘normalised’. I saw what happened in the Managed Zone in Leeds.

I think you can have sympathy but not respect for a profession. Nicky Madison just seems incredibly optimistic about this with a Hollywood sheen which I think she may regret a little.

Unsurprising that an industry known for exploiting women sexually(the casting couch?) is now pushing women to be allies of prostitution and stripping.

I support women who are unfortunate enough to be exploited in this way. But I support policies that help them leave, not policies that increase the abuse.

When I read on a post on here that it was, "paid rape", I initially thought that was too strong as there is consent. However, when you look at what happens - someone with money pays to use the body of someone who needs money and not sex, it isn't desired for sex.
If the buyer (mainly men) was a millionaire as in this film, he could sponsor lots of people without money to train for work, not use their body like he'd use a sex toy. Buyers with less money could still buy people in dire circumstances a meal not unwanted sex.
The buyers and the pimps need to be criminalised as they are the ones in control.

Monetised molestation

Fucking sick of men's attempts to dress up sex work, porn, Only Fans etc etc as glamorous, so they benefit.

I think it's part of the trend of obfuscation using language. Prostitution becomes 'sex work'. I saw a TikTok video recently with a young woman speaking about loving her 'job' as a 'sex worker'. When it came down to it she loved the money. Women wouldn't do it if they had a choice. It's exploitation and not befitting of a civilised society- trouble is with patriarchy we've never had a civilised society that operated with respect for women. Yes the speech was pure cringe.

Being a sex worker should be decriminalised and destigmatised.

Paying a sex worker should be highly criminalised and highly stigmatised.

this nails it

You would be legalising exploitation. Whilst there are a few high end prostitutes who are very much in control of their lives, the vast majority of sex workers are in dire circumstances (or were) which is how they fell into their "profession" even ancillary jobs like dancers in strip clubs would prefer to be in a less seedy sector of dance. They are there because they need the money

Also the “are the men doing it?” test is failed isn’t it? Not on the same scale or level
of organisation and brutality you don’t get middle aged women treating young men like that do you..

No, prostitution is not "work". It's a transaction, sure, but that doesn't make it work.
I think I read that all of the director's films seem to involve sexual exploitation of one form or another. And I read an interview about how he had lap dances as part of his research for the film. I suspect he's personally quite interested in the subject!

Agree with all the posts in this thread. I've been dismayed by the fawning over that film which seems to be just another Cinderella story glamorising prostitution. And I'm really not sure about the motives of the director that everyone is queueing up to praise - seems like misery tourism, these forays of his into the seedy underbelly of society from his ivory tower to increase his cool credentials or something. This from his Wikipedia entry: "He claims to have been directly inspired by exploitation films but has been described as the archetype of a "trustworthy male director" in a post Me Too era." Hmm...those 'trustworthy male directors'...Neil Gaiman comes to mind?

Sex work isn't cool or glamorous, it's dangerous and exploitative.

The majority of sex workers now are trafficked into prostitution and extremely vulnerable. I find the whole idea of legitimising sex work extremely naïve about a very complex, illegal, controlling, criminal industry. There are of course women that choose this line of work and refer more to themselves as escorts and set boundaries for themselves and what they will or won't do but they are the tiny minority. Most women are coerced, trafficked and exploited into this toxic life and I would absolutely agree that it is paid rape and also add to that abuse, slavery, exploitation, coercion and control.

There was a clip a few years ago- I think a session of European Parliament. A MEP was asking another MEP, (one of those appalling sex work is work cool girl types), whether she had suggested sex work to her daughter as a career path. The cool girl MEP absolutely lost her temper and was shouting about how disgusting and misogynistic the other MEP was for suggesting this horrible thing about her daughter. It was a fair question through.

Exactly. Ukpunting.com is absolutely disgusting and just proves the point that prostitution is exploitation.

It was a fair question through.
Why?

There was an article about how the Oscars always go to women playing prostitutes or sex dolls. Can't find it now but a long list from Jane Fonda to Emma Stone.
God forbid it go to Annette Benning for Nyad, for instance..Middle aged women not caring about being sex objects for men, can't have that.