Since movies began, writers and directors have been obsessed with the idea of the "fallen woman," "the good-time girl," and denizens of the "house of ill repute." From the view of Mary Magdalene being a fallen woman on down through history, novels and films have focused on the "ruination" of women. Watching many of these films as a girl, I internalized some very strange, conflicting, confusing, illogical, misogynist, and paternalistic views of sexuality, what constitutes "acceptable" female behavior, and the parameters of heteronormative relationships.
After all, classic Hollywood had its morality code that was supposed to reflect societal norms. Women were somehow supposed to be chaste and virginal until marriage, and then to be completely devoted, loyal, and submissive to their husbands afterward. But movies being movies, there were multiple narratives about women who didn't follow that path, and there was often hell to pay. So many classic stories up through even the early 20th century involve women characters publicly shunned for being unmarried yet no longer virgins; for being "easy" or "familiar" with one or several men. The shame, the infamy, and the social condemnation that showers down on many of the big screen's female characters -- for being adulterers, courtesans, mistresses and prostitutes -- is stunning.
In many films, the femme fatale, or the woman who dares to flout sexual conventions, pays for her transgressions by losing her her mind or even her life (Butterfield 8, Carmen Jones). The moral to women -- particularly in films from the 1930s through the 1960s -- is to stay chaste and stay in their place until their one true love comes along and transforms and legitimizes them through marriage. Otherwise, they can expect to be outcast and condemned. Oddly, even today, where we supposedly have way more information about sex and sexual desire, and where the sexes are supposed to have equality and freedom of sexual expression, society continues to slut-shame women who have multiple sexual partners.
And yet, paradoxically, the mythology of the bad girl persists in the narrative imagination, spawning dozens of narratives in which their lives are romanticized, idolized, fetishized and admired for their flouting of convention, for their sexual prowess and their power over men. In fact, it seems like most men are gaga over prostitutes. Is it that they view them as honest and straightforward, providing what men see as a valuable combination of service with comfort, but without strings or emotional baggage? Are they embodiments of what men see as the perfect even exchange -- sex for money? If so, prostitutes can't help but gain a disproportionate regard in the male imagination. Just look at the films! While it's true that prostitutes exist in our society, the number of films involving them as protagonists appears to be vastly out of proportion with the rate at which women are working prostitutes in real life.
Yes, ladies who put out for money or favors -- or just because they actually like sex -- remain an endless source of fascination. The cliche of the "whore with a heart of gold" is still prominently featured in a number of films.
So alluring are these "bad" girls that there are a number of screen examples of men falling in love with prostitutes (Leaving Las Vegas, The Duchess & the Dirtwater Fox, Cinderella Liberty, Klute, Mona Lisa, L.A. Confidential, The Owl & the Pussycat, Irma LaDouce, Risky Business, The World of Suzy Wong, and Pretty Woman, to name only a few.) These same men then have to come to terms with the fact that the women continue to work their trade.
"No, I didn't quit. Did you quit?" spits call girl Shelley Long to Henry Winkler, the morgue director and financial wiz-turned-reluctant pimp, as she gets dressed to meet a john the day after they sleep together in the otherwise hilarious comedy Night Shift. Other stories show couples who fall on hard times and the women take to prostitution to help them survive (or at least get their next drug fix, as in Requiem for a Dream).
And lest you think that this obsession with whoredom in Hollywood is an exaggeration, look at how many hooker portrayals have garnered major awards attention! Here are ten from recent memory:
1. Butterfield 8 (1960, drama) - A 1950s potboiler about a doomed, high-class Manhattan call girl (Elizabeth Taylor) who falls in love with a married businessman and teeters on the edge of self-destruction and regret when he won't leave his wife for her. An Oscar for Taylor.
2. Cinderella Liberty (1973, drama) - Pregnant Seattle good time girl Marsha Mason hooks up with sailor James Caan, who is waiting for a missing check from the Navy. After birthing the stillborn baby of another man, she splits, leaving the sailor to raise her black son. Oscar nominated, Golden Globe winner.
3. Elmer Gantry (1960, drama) - In this screen adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel, a fast-talking traveling salesman (Burt Lancaster) helps expand the empire of a pretty evangelist (Jean Simmons) he falls in love with, only to be betrayed as a fraud by the small town girl he abandoned and since turned prostitute (Shirley Jones). An Oscar for Jones.
4. Irma La Douce (1963, musical) - In Beaux Arts era Paris, the gendarme (Jack Lemmon) who busts up a Parisian prostitution ring is fired, Now in love and shacked up with prostitute Irma La Douce (Shirley MacLaine) and must work double time to fend off her former pimp and keep her from sleeping with other clients. A Golden Globe for MacLaine.
5. Klute (1971, drama) - Sophisticated '70s New York call girl Jane Fonda falls for Donald Sutherland, the detective assigned to investigate the serial murders of several of her call girl friends. An Oscar for Fonda.
6. L.A. Confidential (1997, drama) - Investigating a gangland murder in 1940s Los Angeles, LAPD detective Bud White (Russell Crowe) unravels a web of crime and deceit. In the process, he falls in love with a high-class call girl who resembles then-screen goddess Veronica Lake (Kim Basinger). An Oscar for Basinger.
7. Leaving Las Vegas (1995, drama) - Failed Hollywood writer and hopeless drunk Nicholas Cage hooks up with tenderhearted hooker Elisabeth Shue who cares for him lovingly as he drinks himself to death. An Oscar for Shue.
8. Mighty Aphrodite (1995, comedy) - In this contemporary comedy using Greek mythology as a framing device (Aphrodite being the goddess of love), writer Woody Allen is dumbfounded to discover that the biological mother of his genius adopted son is a dimwitted, wisecracking New York prostitute (Mira Sorvino). He sets out to renovate her life with unforeseen results. An Oscar for Sorvino.
9. Monster (2003, drama) - True life crime drama about Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute in Daytona Beach who begins killing off johns. An Oscar for star Charlize Theron.
10. Pretty Woman (1990, dramedy)- Hollywood hooker Julia Roberts is picked up off the street by rich executive Richard Gere, who falls in love and decides to keep her for himself (the ultimate fantasy for each sex -- a woman wants a rich man who will forgive all her transgressions and love her for herself, while a man wants to find a woman who will perform whatever selfless sexual fantasies he wants in bed but who cleans up enough to stomp divets at the tony polo match). Roberts was Oscar nominated but took home a Golden Globe.
There are dozens of other films with these themes that didn't earn the same accolades. Suffice to say: The fascination with heavenly hookers continues apace. Now get set for the new HBO drama The Deuce, which examines the underworld of Times Square in the 1970s, and follows a disparate group of prostitutes, pimps, business owners and filmmakers as they launch the modern-day porn film industry.
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