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.

While I understand sex workers call for decriminalisation as this gives rise to support in terms of rights and safety.

until survival sex work is eliminated it’s just not possible. It’s exploitation

Exactly. Great post.

decriminalisation as this gives rise to support in terms of rights and safety

I think the Romanian trafficked women in legal German brothels would beg to differ.

I refuse to use the terms "sex work" and "sex worker" because it conflates a raft of people together who have widely differing roles and experiences and differing levels of risk and autonomy. "Sex worker" includes pimps, enforcers, and human traffickers, who aren't risking pregnancy and STIs for money and have huge amounts of power and control. It includes camera models, who have autonomy and low physical risk but risk their streams being captured using screen recording software and uploaded to porn sites or used for blackmail. It includes trafficked and enslaved women. It includes independent prostitutes who command a high price, often dubbed "escorts". It includes professional dominatrices. It includes strippers. It includes women who walk the streets and give blowjobs in shop doorways to pay for drugs.

When "sex workers" lobby for decrim, the voices we hear are the pimps, the independent escorts, and the dominatrices. The silent women they talk over are the trafficked enslaved women, the women sucking dicks for drug money, the women who are pimped.

I don't think the film glamorised sex work and Mikey Madison does a great job in the lead role but this interview with the director made me think he's a #metoo waiting to happen
https://variety.com/2024/film/festivals/sean-baker-movies-sex-workers-remove-stigma-next-film-1236012783/

I know a woman who does OF. She’s not an addict or trafficked but she does have incredibly low self esteem and before she was doing OF she was in a string of bad relationships with men who treated her very badly. And she is desperate for the money; so that she could get out of living in shitty flat shares and rent by herself. There has to be a correlation there between her own poor self worth and what she now does for a living. She has a public IG and the sorts of men that comment on her pictures make my stomach turn, I find it pretty sad and seedy and don’t see it as empowering at all.

I don't know if it's wise to remove stigma when stigma serves a purpose unforunatly. How do you remove the stigma for women but not for men and the 'industry' as a whole? I think the stigma is there not to punish individual women but to act as a barrier to try and shame the men involved and act as a barrier to women going down this route. It is really difficult because you don't want to demonize individual woman but you do in my opinion still need a general societal stigma (which does exist) in my opinion.

I also find it find it a bit off having a male director acting as some kind of ally (Maybe that just me)....

I regard men professing that they are feminist allies as a red flag.

A million times this.

Manipulation. As usual.

Totally agree mids. The end conclusion of removing the “stigma” is basically the end of humanity! Sex as a paid for commodity and love, dignity, relationships and all protections for women are gone. We are just sex dolls. Basically a hellscape for women.

Why would you ever want to remove the stigma of something that is degrading and harmful to women, even for those who go into it willingly.

No-one would want to remove the stigma around rape or trafficking, or drug trafficking and organised crime, with which prostitution is intrinsically linked.

The only people in whose interests removing the stigma of prostitution is men.

It doesn’t though. It simply increases trafficking of. women and children and increases the illegal kinds of sex work as those are easier to operate in a country where prostitution is decriminalised.

No-one would want to remove the stigma around rape or trafficking

We should absolutely remove the stigma from the victims of those crimes.

We can recognise that a majority of prostituted women are also victims of crimes: pimping, coercive control, rape.

We should absolutely remove the stigma from the victims of those crimes.

No shit but that’s not what I’m referring to, nor can that be done by glamorising the context in which it happens.

Massive eye roll at the "we're trying to destigmatise sex work" BS. Every single year we have more films about strippers and prostitutes because of course it's so important that we tell their stories and it's definitely not so that men get to ogle famous womens' tits and fannies.

I made a resolution last year that I wouldn't watch any more films containing gratuitous female nudity, especially when they're made by men, and there's barely anything left. This shit all ends up on pornhub for pathetic men to wank over and I wish Hollywood actresses could stand together and tell these pervy directors and producers to F off.

Absolutely agree. The enduring popularity of Pretty Woman is also fucking sinister if you think about it. Remember mums watching it with their young teens as a fun rom com WTAF. As a woman spending money to see these trashy films is turkeys voting for Christmas frankly.

My eyes are rolling out of my head at these men’s valiant efforts to “de stigmatise”attractive young women being paid to put out for them.

The enduring popularity of Pretty Woman is also fucking sinister if you think about it.

Hell yeah.

Every single year we have more films about strippers and prostitutes because of course it's so important that we tell their stories and it's definitely not so that men get to ogle famous womens' tits and fannies.

Right. Do we ever get films about women going into sex work feeling degraded and abused that do not involve close ups of their body and the sex itself? You don’t hear much about sexworkers ending up despising men.

Instead we get age old tart with a heart male gaze fantasy dressed up as destigmatising sexwork or showcasing misogyny.

Prostitution is boring, gross, depressing and disgusting the fact men are obsessed with making mainstream films about it needs to be called out.

I think this Sean Baker's preoccupation with the topic is deeply sus.

Do we ever get films about women going into sex work feeling degraded and abused that do not involve close ups of their body and the sex itself?

Exactly. Imagine a film where we see the life of a "sex worker" and it shows everything but the sex. Sitting in the waiting room of the STI clinic, dealing with pathetic losers who think they're your boyfriend, reading disgusting reviews of yourself on the internet, lying to your friends and family about your job. Yes I bet the men will queueing up at the cinema to watch that.

As always, Mitchell and Webb nail it.

💯

I also watched this interview with Mikey and couldn't help but wonder if she'll look back in a few years time and think yes, she would've felt more comfortable with an intimacy coordinator on set but didn't feel she could tell Sean that.
https://youtube.com/shorts/-LiJ10024EM?si=AsNtXTRYnShhXTYZ

Taking pregnancy tests, taking cystitis powders, booking abortions...

I remember watching a documentary called Chicken Ranch when I was far too young to do so. It was set in a Texas brothel and was very bleak.

We should make it.