Does "Working Girls" Still Work?

By Ariel Dougherty , On The Issues Magazine. Posted September 5, 2008.

Working Girls is a classic film on sex work, which many professors report using in college courses for discussion purposes. The narrative of the 1986 award-winning feature by Lizzie Borden holds up well twenty-some years after its release, but perhaps it's also time to rethink its feminist applications.

In the movie, the central character, Molly (played by Louise Smith), is established in a series of quick opening shots as she awakens in the lesbian household where she lives with her partner and her partner's daughter. She is shown in her darkroom, portraying her aspirations as a photographer. But the bulk of the movie is formed around her income-producing work as a brothel prostitute. (See 1986 trailer here)

In a tight script written by Borden and Sandra Kay, Working Girls intertwines the interaction among a half-dozen prostitutes, their madam and a stream of clients into a challenging and provocative "day-at-the-bordello." Borden said that she wanted to explore "the idea of women choosing prostitution as a economic choice," according to an interview in Canada after completion of the film.

Money and Strings

On one level, the film is about financial autonomy acquired through the "good" income earned in such high paying work. But as viewers see as the day's activities and intricacies unfold, clearly there is no autonomy. Many strings are attached.

The madam sets a controlling overtone. When she is absent for a period, Molly and another prostitute allocate client fees to their own liking. They log into the house black-book a lower amount, for less costly sex acts, keeping the difference for themselves. A sisterly rapport between the working women takes the form of advice they give to one another -- how to handle certain clients, systems within the house, and, most prominently, safety.

Conversations among the women address the huge challenges they encounter with openness to loved ones on the outside about sharing the nature of their work. Molly, for one, has not informed her lesbian lover about how she earns her income. She worries because, as a college-educated woman who can interact about literary and cultural issues, some clients are enticed to want a "relationship" with her outside the brothel.

When the women discuss terminology for their work, Molly bristles at the word "whore," displaying her own ambivalence for this work. Borden confronts viewers with the high emotional stakes of this day-in and day-out sex work. Are the monetary rewards really a benefit?

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