'Turning a Corner: Women in the Sex Trade' review

Salome Chasnoff's documentary investigates the lives of thirteen sex trade survivors

By Ceda Xiong
Published: February 15th, 2006 | 11:14pm

Julia Roberts made it OK for everyone to want to be a hooker. After Pretty Woman, who wouldn't want the dreamboat john, Richard Gere, to save you from poverty, loneliness, or any kind of unhappiness? The glamour of Hollywood prostitutes is so far from the reality of hooking that a comparison is almost insulting, which is why Beyondmedia education's recent documentary bitch slaps its audience to the realities of the negligence and the criminality of prostitution. Their film, Turning a Corner: Women in the Sex Trade, is based in Chicago, and follows the narrative of thirteen women survivors of the sex trade.

There are no "happy hookers" in Salome Chasnoff's (the director) world. She provokes the anger, confusion, and isolation of these women and what we get in return is a raw and unsettling look at a growing urban problem. In the opening scene, the women sit in stark contrast to their cultural icons [Julia Roberts, Mira Sorvino, Debbie Mazar]. Unlike their svelte Caucasian counterparts, they are predominately black, hefty in age and body, and more likely to be the studio audience at an Oprah Winfrey show than hookers who had seen years of brutal violence.

For these women, hooking looked as shiny and alluring as Julia Roberts strutting down the street in small denim shorts. The word "glamorous" was used by three different women when they tried to explain why they had started prostituting. These women were looking for a livehood, but they were also looking for a rescue from men who promised the world. Cinderella takes on a new definition when Prince Charming is your pimp.

In the beginning, pimps fulfill their part of the myth; they buy the girls cars, furs, and apartments. In a few month or years, these formerly "kept girls" become street walkers, the most dangerous form of hooking. "I started as one of the girls who never had to step outdoors. I was very beautiful and my body was very tight." Brenda B. said, with a knot of regret and appall at her younger self. She got out of hooking only after a john dragged her in his car for a block - the accident almost disfigured her. Even more gruesome scenarios were described, but the worst case scenario for a prostitute is always death.

In the state of Illinois, 75% of prostitution charges are made against prostitutes, around 30% against johns, and only a mere 1% of pimps are ever prosecuted. There is no protection for the women from their pimps by the police. In most cases, women are released a few days after their arrest, only to work on the streets again, returning to the same johns, the same abusive pimps.

Why are these women prostitutes? Wasn't there a moral choice made at some point? The demands of poverty and homelessness are not just "social issues," but hungry maws that threaten to overwhelm these women constantly. Prostitution is a living - sometimes the only way to avoid the even more dangerous situation of being homeless. The fear of being without a bed on a cold night drives these women to the streets, again and again. One survivor recalled that she felt lucky when a john let her sleep instead of throwing her back on the street to work.

The number of prostitution arrests made in Illinois (6,000+) means that there are thousands of at-risk women who have little to no chance of survival with a legal system that condemns their problems without offering solutions. Chasnoff's documentary is only the first step.