Sunday, December 11, 2011

Scarlet Road: A Sex Workers Journey

So i was finally able to watch the full length version of this today. It's a look into sex workers working with clients with disabilities, and about the connections between our communities, the stigmas faced, and how we can connect and be in solidarity with one another.
Aside from some moments of ugh (in particular, there were several mentions of how "inspiring" and "rewarding" it is to work with disabled clients, which didn't get too into it, but just singed around the outside), i thought this was an interesting look.



(this one is not yet subtitled, but im gonna work on it!)

id love to see it paired with "Every Ho I Know Says So: Advice for lovers, partners, dates and sweethearts of sex workers"
"EVERY HO I KNOW SAYS SO is a response to the total lack of accessible online resources for people looking for advice on how to be a good date or lover or partner to a sex worker. We want to support our lovers to continue unlearning the internalized stigma against sex workers, especially in intimate relationships"
(i did english subtitles for this some time ago, enjoy!)



Have thoughts about either or both of these?




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://fuckthedisabled.tumblr.com/post/19547369416/scarlet-road-and-the-able-bodied-savior-superstar

romham a bear said...

thanks for your comment and piece about the film!

re: "I don’t believe any other genders asides from cis-gendered males were represented in this documentary", there is definitely a focus on (perceived) cis men, but there actually are other gendered experiences talked about.

re: "The whole premise of the documentary posits disabled people as undesirable. The documentary presents sex work with disabled people... as somehow significantly different and separate from other sex work"

Well, in some respects it is. There are some specifics, some realities which simply dont apply to many non-disabled folks, like, at all. i can certainly relate to that in my own life. I never really got the sense in the film that it's a somehow utterly different thing, its shown as a *specialized* thing, which it is in the instances in the film.

i definitely agree with you about the kind of attention given these kinds of films for sure, as opposed to PWD films by and about PWD sexuality, and about the saviour complex, though it wasnt nearly as intense in this film as i was expecting.