22-04-2014, 02:49 PM
Cinema and prostitution: how prostitution is interpreted in cinematographic fiction
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Abstract
Prostitutes and prostitution have been widely represented in
cinematographic narrative since the early days of cinema.
Speaking about prostitution is a way of reflecting on human
sexuality and how this dimension of human life has evolved
from the beginning of the 20th century until now. This article
is a summary of research currently underway into prostitution
in the cinema, analysing the figure of the prostitute in more
than 200 films, with a chapter that also tackles male prosti-
tution and their similarities and differences.
Introduction
If there is a fundamental female role in the history of cinema
it's that of the prostitute. It must be admitted that, as an ele-
ment of fiction, the life of a woman who, to coin a phrase from
the past, is "decent" is much less interesting than the play pro-
vided by a whore. If the most controversial and stimulating
aspect of human life is sexuality, what interest is there in
women for whom this aspect of life has simply been annihilat-
ed, albeit leaving out the effects of repression? That's why, if a
film director had to include a female character, even in an
exclusively "male" film, for the most part he would turn to a
prostitute as she could also incorporate all the other roles
women have played or can play: mother, wife, friend, nurse,
confidante, enemy and object of desire among others.
Men's fascination with prostitutes
Prostitutes have inspired a huge range of artistic creations,
starting with literature. They appear as the main character in
many works but also as a secondary or fleeting character, even
if only suggested or insinuated. We can see this in La Celestina
[Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea] (1499), Moll Flanders
(1722), Manon Lescaut (1753), created, no less, by Abbé
Prévost, indicating that the clergy was already interested in the
subject many years ago; Margarita Gautier, la Dama de las
Camelias [the Lady of the Camellias] (1848), Nana (1879)
and, closer to our own time, in Pantaleón y las Visitadoras
[Captain Pantoja and the Special Service] (1973) or the inhab-
itants of La Casa Verde [The Green House] (1965) or even La
Cándida Eréndira [Innocent Erendira] (1972), exploited by her
own, wicked grandmother, or the Putas Tristes [Memories of
My Melancholy Whores] (2004) that García Márquez chooses
for his memoirs.
From La Golfa to Pretty Woman
60 years passed between La Golfa [La Chienne] (1931) by
Jean Renoir and Pretty Woman (1990), and both were women
of ill repute, although the first took her man to hell and the sec-
ond to heaven, to use two fossilised metaphors. The first was
born in the first third of the 20th century and Pretty Woman
almost at the end and between one model and the other the
most important change occurred for women in society. In the
century since cinema was invented, women are no longer what
they once were, not even prostitutes. The greatest silent revo-
lution has occurred in the history of humanity, relations have
changed between the sexes, the family, our perception of sex-
uality and especially the concepts of decency and honesty,
which I mentioned at the beginning.
A job like any other?
Many of the characters realise their job is indecent; all assume
and accept that they are despicable, that they're not decent
and therefore deserve contempt. This is most evident up to
1960, more or less. Female prostitutes have accepted that
they're not like other women (“Si a las chicas decentes no les
proponen en matrimonio, imagínate a nosotras [If decent girls
don't get marriage proposals, then imagine us]”, shouts Gracita
Morales in Maribel y La Extraña Familia [Maribel and the
Strange Family] (1960), but, at heart, they long to be "retired"
by someone that loves them. Maribel says to her astonished
companions “No sabéis lo maravilloso que es sentirse nueva,
diferente, con un novio que te besa la mano con respeto [You
don't know how wonderful it is to feel new, different, with a
boyfriend who kisses your hand with respect]”. They know that
their occupation isn't a job like any other, that they can never
aspire to be respected as women; it's part of the price they
must pay for not being like the others.
About gigolos, transvestites and escorts
Cinema's treatment of male prostitutes has no point of compar-
ison with how it has treated female prostitution. Not only is the
number of films very small in quantitative terms (20 out of
200, 10% of the sample we have analysed) but how male or
female directors have tackled this aspect is also qualitatively
incomparable. To start with, male prostitution has never been
a widespread phenomenon in all eras and all places. The his-
tory of male sexuality cannot be compared with the history of
female sexuality. I refer back to what I said at the beginning of
this article concerning the different consideration of sex for men
and women.
Naturally, cinema could not help but cover some of these sto-
ries of women who resort to buying sex or, more accurately,
love and companionship. From the start the word gigolo was
used to refer to those men who lived off wealthy, lonely women
and lately the term prostituto or puto [male forms of 'prostitute'
and 'whore'] has started to be used, but they don't have, and
don't even come near to the disdainful meaning of the term
when used for women.