Special Treatment

In 1986, independent feminist filmmaker Lizzie Borden released her film Working Girls, which focused on one hectic day in the life of a prostitute working at an upscale brothel in Manhattan. One of the things that made the film so striking was that rather than viewing sex workers either as fallen innocents to be pitied or as brazen temptresses, Borden portrayed prostitution as just another job -- one with certain advantages (high pay for a relatively short work week) and disadvantages (dealing with the customers), where the employees were often at the mercy of the boss (a madam who is willfully ignorant of the realities her employees face). Jeanne Labrune’s fi...