Hollywood claims to support women. But its films really hurt them

But the film Anora, about a Russian-speaking stripper in New York, won the night, taking home five awards, including the coveted categories of best director, best screenplay, best picture, and, of course, best actress, which went to Mikey Madison for her role of Ani.

Many thought Anora was a film worth seeing, including my friend Giancarlo Sopo, a fellow conservative and film aficionado who raved about the film. He joins many critics in doing so. Sopo said Madison’s performance on screen was “phenomenal” and the movie has a “cool” factor. 

But, aside from the out-of-touch parade of speeches at this year’s Oscars about the importance of film on the big screen, Anora has a greater issue. It glorifies prostitution in a world rampant with the destruction from such views.

Hollywood will praise prostitutes and strippers and then lecture conservatives for voting for the likes of President Donald Trump, a thrice-married father of five. Like father of 14 Elon Musk, alt-right influencer Andrew Tate, and the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, denizens of Hollywood treat women like objects, sexual beings for their pleasure, maybe their offspring, their plot lines, and their Academy Awards.

Madison perpetuated this mindset by removing any accountability standards for the other members of the acting team and crew. She minimized the intimacy and vulnerability of sex and nudity by refusing an intimacy coordinator on set.

“I was ready for it,” she said in an interview late last year. “It requires a lot of [Ani’s] body and her skin. I’ve said it before, but I think that she wears her nudity more like a costume, in a way. She presents herself in this sort of hyper-sexualized way because it’s how she makes a living. It’s just what she has to do. So I think that I also, as an actress, approached it in a way of like it being a job. So, I was very comfortable.”

So, women everywhere now see the star saying it is OK to sexualize yourself if that’s how you make a living. Madison’s acceptance speeches emphasized this approach. She stated when she won a BAFTA and the Oscar that she wanted to be an ally to the sex workers she got to know while filming the role.

“I just want to recognize and honor the sex worker community,” she said during her Oscars speech. “Yes. I will continue to support and be an ally. All of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community, has been one of the highlights of this incredible experience.”

I have no doubt that many of the women she encountered are pretty incredible. They’re likely also resilient, hurt, abused, and emotionally struggling. But alas, like pro-abortion activists often ignore the internal struggles of post-abortive women, Hollywood will ignore the ramifications of glorifying prostitution.

Sex workers tend to be disproportionately women; estimates are that anywhere from two-thirds to 80% of sex workers are women. Many of them are coerced, manipulated, or doing the work in desperation. Prostitution is not glamorous, and unlike what movies such as Pretty Woman portray, it isn’t an opportunity to meet a half-decent or rich man and get out of the life.

Data show that prostitutes are more prone to contracting STIs and HIV. There is a large proportion of criminality in sex work, linking it to illegal trafficking of humans and drugs. Sex work causes an increased risk of sexual and physical violence toward these women. Additionally, female prostitutes are 18 times more likely to be murdered than women in other fields.

HOLLYWOOD’S DECLINE IS AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

This is not something to take lightly, so why keep telling women that this is a socially acceptable and good field to pursue? Why be an ally to an industry that produces more harm than good? Why glorify and glamorize the commoditization of women’s bodies?

If you wanted to be an ally to these women, you would do everything in your power to remove them from the strip club owners, pimps, and drug lords who treat them like chattels. And you certainly wouldn’t use the international stage of the Oscars to praise the work they do or claim to be their ally. 

Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator and speaker who resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their four children. She is an advocate for women’s rights, school choice, and smaller government.