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herself as ‘a bad girl with a bad background’, and light
heartedly alludes to a personal history of homelessness
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I think of this house as like my home – this is where things
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gest that sex work can be congruent with a caring domes
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Epstein’s film suggests that wide shots give us some major clues about the complica
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the line between exploitation herself on the street to bring in customers. Business isn’t
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finer than what much of the
newer discourse around sex Sex work on screen
work acknowledges.
A sleek, irreverent sequence of archival news clips illumi
nates the sex trade’s history in the town: headlines declar
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tal into the strange vertex of the mining and sex industries WKH JOREDO ĺQDQFLDO FULVLV o:LWK JROG DOZD\V FRPHV
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stores were almost exhausted by the end of the 1890s dur city narrative that departs radically from the usual positive
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deeper reserves, with the Fimiston Open Pit established by Footage is arranged in such a way as to point to the hy
PDJQDWH $ODQ %RQG LQ 6KDGHG LQ VRIW EULJKW SLQNV pocrisy of politicians who are supportive of mining, but are
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last original brothel, outliving this period of tumultuous go with it. A second hypocrisy is found in the widespread
industrial change. disgust that is generally directed at sex workers rather
Having received production and development support than the men who buy access to those women’s bodies.
IURP 6FUHHQ $XVWUDOLD 3GD /HMJ 'NTRD (2017) adheres to Western Australian politicians are shown debating the
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ming by presenting the history of sex work’s ties to mining commercial sexual services and rescinded in 2000, as well
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sex worker who, despite their differences, share an unu the long legal evolution of sex work isn’t always made clear
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of sex and capital. ZRUNHUV SRVVLEO\ WUDIĺFNHG IURP $VLD SRSSLQJ XS t PXFK
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when it comes to sex. ‘Well, we offer massage and oral ties are shown to have profound effects on those within the
sex,’ she says to a caller in her clipped British accent. industry: what happens to sex workers’ safety when their
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sex was just “natural” sex. I mean, there’s the missionary Cinema has expounded on the thematic link between
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like a rooting dog, or wanting to put all sorts of things up ,QR ,HKKDQ (1971) is known for both its atmosphere of ter
into women’ – she shakes her head with familiar resignation rible sadness and the strength of its narrative’s implantation
– ‘I can’t see why that would excite people.’ Accompanied LQ WKH VQRZ ODGHQ JUH\ VNLHG ORFDWLRQ RI :HVW 9DQFRXYHU
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simply ‘waiting for the right bloke to come along’. :DUUHQ %HDWW\ DQG VH[ ZRUNHU &RQVWDQFH -XOLH &KULVWLH
100 • Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM