A Safer Sex Trade explored through film

Raven's Eye Page 17

Three women involved at different levels of the sex trade give insight into their life living and surviving as prostitutes in the one-hour TV documentary, A Safer Sex Trade. The film explores the lives of Scarlett Lake, who has been a madam for 30 years, Jennifer Allan, a former drug addicted survival sex trade worker who is now dedicated to helping prostitutes on the streets and Simone, an independent escort who offers "girlfriend experiences" to clients. The film was created by Carolyn Allain and co-written with David Ray and produced by their independent film company, Cheap and Dirty Productions. In the decision to make this film, Allain said she was definitely motivated by the women in the sex trade who have been murdered. "It just got me thinking, why is it that these women aren't as valuable as 50 women in nicer neighbourhoods," Allain questions. "I was motivated as a film-maker to let these women speak for themselves and go on a journey with them?" Allain admits that finding women in the sex trade willing to talk on camera was one of the challenges in the early stages of filming. "But the women who did come forward were really gung-ho to just help out and share their stories, which was fascinating," said Allain.

Allain's focus for the film was to educate and help society understand the struggles prostitutes are faced with, which was easy to convey, since Allain met with many women and spent a lot of time on the downtown eastside of Vancouver, which is pegged the poorest urban neighbourhood in Canada and familiar to street prostitutes. "What I found most interesting in the film-making process was getting to know women who were doing it by choice and on their own terms," said Allain. "They are doing quite well at it and enjoying their work, which was quite surprising to me. I met many women who felt the same way but couldn't come forward." The biggest thing Allain has learned through the making of the film was there are different tiers in the sex trade. Women who are on the downtown eastside are either doing it to survive or forced into it and even doing it to support a drug habit, she explained.

"I think when you're thinking survival sex trade work that it's more to me a poverty and a drug issue then a sex issue," she said. "When you get into Simone's level or Scarlett's level, these women make a lot of money.
We're talking $300 an hour, minimum. They really do set the terms for the meeting, they really are in control. But a lot of people have a hard time believing that women can do it by choice and that women enjoy it," she said. "I hope the film will get people thinking about men who use the services of prostitutes, get them thinking about the differences," said Allain. "If you're going to a prostitute and you're not paying her directly, there's probably something fishy going on. You're probably dealing maybe with a forced prostitution issue or something dodgy. If a girl is on a street corner and she looks like 87 pounds, she's probably a drug addict."

During a lot of her visits to the downtown eastside, Allain found out from women that a lot of the Johns that use their services are return customers who don't have a lot of money. "I've been told by some girls that they have very nice Johns and a lot of them used to date certain Johns," said Allain. By showing the different levels of prostitution, Allain hopes the public will gain a better understanding and more respect for women in the sex trade. "I was hoping to reveal a certain level of hierarchy because women working out of a massage parlor or wherever else aren't bothered so much by the police, whereas if a women is on the corner on the downtown eastside, she's being arrested," said Allain. "Some people say that street walking prostitution is 10 to 15 per cent of all prostitution, but these women experience 95 per cent of the criminal charges. There's an imbalance there. It's a complicated issue." Allan agrees that that imalance comes from poverty. "It's the cause or the reason that women end up in the survival sex trade and if they want to get out of the sex trade they have to go back into poverty," she said. She said a lot of women end up in the sex trade because they need money for rent, food and just daily products that everyone takes for granted. "So, they think that if I go turn a trick, I'm just going to do it once or twice and after that, they have money and everything will go back to normal, but they find themselves slowly pulled into it because it's quick easy money and a fair amount of it," said Allan. "You become addicted to the quick easy money." That's where Jen's Kitchen comes in. From her own pocket for the past two years Allan has been providing women on the downtown eastside with much needed food. She said she started Jen's Kitchen because she has seen the lack of direct outreach for women in the sex trade. Allan's hope for the film is that it will educate people about the realities of the sex trade that it's not a glamorous or fun job, but for some it's a form of prison or a trap. "Society has to really move away from this attitude of the woman put herself in that position, she knew what was going to happen so she deserved what she got," said Allan. "Society has to move away from that because it's that attitude that has been causing our survival sex workers to end up dead."

Allan believes society has played a role in the murders of these women because "they turned a blind eye when these women needed help." "The community can start helping these women...stop judging them and understand who they are," said Allan. "Look past the body standing on the corner and as a person standing there. Find out their story, find out why they're there. Maybe they're hungry. Maybe they need a job."

A Safer Sex Trade was recently aired on CBC Newsworld and will air again this fall on APTN. For more information about Safer Sex Trade go to www.cheapanddirty.ca.