As time goes on, films about sex workers are using more and more diverse perspectives and storylines. It can be seen between films in the 20th and 21st century, there are some differences about how sex workers’ lives were portrayed.
Since the 20th century, films are starting to dive deep into the life and feelings of sex workers. Films like Working Girls (1986) and Pretty Woman (1990) were popular as these films have sex workers as the main character. Then in the 21th century, recent films like Sauvage (2018), Good Luck To You, Leo Grande (2022), and Anora (2024) show some shifted perspectives of sex workers that can be seen through the characterizations and storylines.
A deep dive about the lives and perspectives of sex workers had started to show at the end of the 20th century. For example Working Girls (1986), directed by Lizzie Borden, tells about the life of sex workers under a pimp named Lucy (Ellen McElduff). The film focused on portraying the complex and hard work of sex workers.
Molly (Louise Smith) and her friends had to bear with various fantasies that their clients had. Their work demanded them to bear various sexual fantasies, from casuals to disturbing ones. Often, they also had to bear with the exploitation from their pimp, Lucy. Lucy often pushed the sex workers too much without putting much concern to their well-being.
A similar issue was brought up in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande directed by Sophie Hyde. Like in Working Girls, the film also highlights the complexity of sex workers. The main character was Nancy (Emma Thompson), a woman that desired to experience orgasm ‘cause she never had it even until her old age. She wanted to experience the ecstasy of sexual experience. So she ordered a young sex worker named Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack).
Through this encounter, Nancy learned how sex workers are more than doing sex. Leo told about how some called him for sex, some needed a company of a friend, and there are other types of wants that needed to be fulfilled with energy and empathy. The unique thing about Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is this film was one of the films that brought up a male sex worker as the focus of the story.
In the 20th century, films about sex workers usually focused on females. But in the 21st century, films have started to bring up other genders as well, like male sex workers in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande and transgender in Tangerine (2015).
Other than gender, films are also starting to show a shift of perspectives about sex workers’ needs and rights. In the 20th century, some films portrayed sex workers as some people that needed to be safed. For example in Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall. Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) was a sex worker that worked for herself.
But after she met Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), it is known that Vivian actually had a terrible past, and so she dreamed of getting rescued by a man. Edward, who is a rich man, and actually fell in love with Vivian from the beginning of their encounter, finally decided to propose to her.
Meanwhile, in 2018, a similar storyline was found in Sauvage, a film directed by Camille Vidal-Naquet. The story followed Leo (Félix Maritaud), a street sex worker that had some serious illness. After some years, he found Claude (Philippe Ohrel), a person that wanted to make him his. Claude helped Leo in his most critical moment. He saved him after he got beaten and he paid for Leo’s medical care until he got so much better.
But then, the film ended with Leo leaving him. Even though Leo knew how much Claude loved him, he didn’t want to be Claude’s shadow for the rest of his life. It is very much shown through a long back shot of Leo following Claude. There are no words, but that scene where Leo was following Claude in silence really transferred the emotions that he had before he decided to leave him.
Sauvage’s ending seems to point out that sex workers can decide what they want. It breaks the usual ending where the main character usually got rescued and decided to be with their lover.
In this film, sex worker is portrayed as a human that has free will and can live independently. They’re not owned. They can do whatever they want and they’re not something that needs to be helped and owned to survive.
Another film that has stolen public’s attention is Anora (2024) directed by Sean Baker. Anora tells the story of Ani (Mikey Madison), a sex worker that’s proposed by a client named Ivan Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn). They married without the knowledge of Ivan’s family. So after two weeks of marriage, when his family knew, they straight up went to Ivan and Ani’s house to demand a divorce. Here the film shows how helpless Ani is without Ivan. Ivan only liked her sexually. He enjoyed the sexual experience that he had with Ani so he wants her to be his.
Ani, as a sex worker, used to this perspective where she’s only worthy by her sexual attractiveness. So she accepted the marriage for the sake of fulfilling her material needs, and gave all her hopes to Ivan even though it’s clear enough that he’s an irresponsible partner.
On the other side, the film brought Igor (Yura Borisov), one of the men that worked for Ivan’s family. Even though at first he looked more like a clown, the end of the film showed that he played a significant role in the film. He made Ani realized that she, as a sex worker, deserved to be treated nicely as well as other humans.
In one of the ending scenes, when Ani and Igor were alone in a room, Ani started to question the reason Igor was being kind to her. In one of the iconic lines, Ani asked, “Why wouldn’t you raped me?”. Then Igor simply answered, “Because I am not a rapist.”
Anora showed the thoughts and feelings some sex workers might have because of the objectification that they often got. This film, covered in comedy genre, portrayed sex workers seriously as people that often got mistreatment.
In short, from the 20th century to the 21st century, films about sex workers are bringing up more and more diverse perspectives about sex workers through the characterizations and storylines. Through these various perspectives, it seems that films are diving deeper and deeper about the reality of sex workers.
