Mainstream media doesn’t exactly have a strong track record when it comes to responsibly handling the lives and careers of sex workers. That’s one reason why, when Sarah Jones, a Tony Award–winning creator of the 2016 off-Broadway one-woman show Sell/Buy/Date announced that she would be directing a documentary version of the show, the sex industry went on high alert.
According to Rolling Stone’s EJ Dickson, “Sell/Buy/Date is reportedly based on Jones spending three years interviewing sex workers and their clients to develop her characters.” And, while the show at least took the real-life experiences of industry insiders into consideration, Dickson concluded, “The show is generally skeptical of the idea that sex work can serve as a vehicle for empowerment.”
Around the time that the show debuted off Broadway in 2016, critic Cate Young wrote for Ampersand LA, “Jones makes the critical mistake of conflating sex work with sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors—incendiary topics that flatten the discussion by elevating the extreme to sensationalize the mundane the show,” and that in so doing, “sells sex workers down the river.”
But it’s not just Sarah Jones and her plans for a documentary that are worrying people, it’s the star power signing on to produce it. When the press release first went out, Laverne Cox, Meryl Streep, and Rashida Jones were all listed as producers—and the sex industry went ballistic.
Meryl Streep, one of the most revered actors in Hollywood, has long held outdated views on sex work that have seen her team up with anti-decriminalization efforts. And, back in 2017, she was a vocal advocate for the passing of FOSTA/SESTA—legislation that has, in no uncertain terms, made life more difficult for sex workers online by reducing their options for safely advertising their work and vetting their clients.
Rashida Jones is the woman behind Hot Girls Wanted, the documentary that was turned into two limited Netflix series—all of which were slammed by sex industry insiders for portraying their industry in a deeply negative light and conflating consensual sex work with trafficking. Sex industry insiders have also alleged that the Netflix series coerced sex workers into appear in the series under false pretenses, using images and video of theirs without their permission, and doxxing several performers.
“I cannot believe Rashida is doing another documentary about sex work after all the criticism she’s received from her other two,” Autumn Kay, who has claimed that Hot Girls Wanted used footage of her webcam show without her consent, told Rolling Stone. “She puts on a front as if she cares for us but all we are to her is a way to get a ton of views.”
Laverne Cox, who has been an outspoken voice of support for sex workers in the past, was initially signed as a producer on Sell/Buy/Date, as well. But she left the project when her fans expressed their concerns about her involvement in a project that seemed likely to undermine and even damage sex workers’ livelihoods. In a statement released on social media, Cox wrote, “I am not in an emotional place to deal with the outrage by some around my participation in this project. So I have decided to pull out. To be clear I am no longer involved in any capacity in “Sell. Buy, Date.”
— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) January 7, 2021
In response to the “outrage” Cox referenced, Sarah Jones made also a public statement signaling her good intentions to work with sex workers and not further marginalize their voices: “As a Black feminist artist, I have always centered the stories of traditionally marginalized people, especially women and femmes struggling for liberation and self-determination. My sisters in the sex industry are no exception. I am committed to deep listening to folks with lived experience.”
Still, sex workers and their allies are skeptical. Kate D’Amo, a sex workers rights activist, told Rolling Stone, “This is another moment of erasure by people who aren’t impacted by this conversation who get to exploit a hot topic in hopes of a Golden Globe nomination…It’s infuriating that people can be so thoughtlessly taking up space in a conversation while doing nothing to support people who are struggling to simply exist.”
It will be interesting to see what happens. Sex workers’ voices are getting louder every day as their presence on social media and the content they create generates more interest. But for many who aren’t yet tuned in to the validity of their voices, mainstream documentaries like this can be the only contact with the voices of those who actually do sex work.
Let’s hope that, with Cox exiting the documentary and loudly speaking out about why, red flags will be raised for viewers and director alike, and that Sell/Buy/Date will do its best to represent those who work in the industry truthfully and without bias.
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