Anora: a refreshing depiction of lewd workers as part of the working class

NEW YORK - Nov. 13, 2024 - PRLog -- By: Rachel Stuart, Brunel University of London, So Seductive Kiss Fans Company

Anora, or Ani as she prefers, is a a young New York stripper who meets and marries the son of a Russian oligarch. But this film is not a fairytale and there is no happy ending. But neither is it a tragedy.

I have studied female webcam performers and how they engage in webcamming as a form of lewd commerce. I saw a lot of similarities between the women I interviewed and Ani. Smart and tough, choosing to engage in lewd commerce as an economic option when few other choices were available.

Ani (Mikey Madison) uses her ability to negotiate a good deal to maximise a once in a lifetime opportunity when she is asked to strip for Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled son of Russian billionaires. Ani is able to turn that first meeting into a lot more money and eventually a marriage.

Lewd workers have long been separated from the main body of the working class by generations of feminist campaigning that situates them as exceptionally exploited and in need of rescue. However, Anora challenges this segregation of lewd workers from the rest of the working classes and this is what makes the film special.

The lewd work aspect of the film is the vehicle that brings Vanya and Ani into each other's orbits and while central to the film, refreshingly it is not situated as inherently exploitative. Rather it is presented as a job like a lot of other service industry jobs, better paid than most but with coworkers that can be both supportive and problematic.

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