Cinematic depictions of the lives of sex-workers are common, be it in Bollywood films like ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, or Hollywood films like Oscar-winner ‘Anora’ by Sean Baker. But despite the existence of so many films on the subject, rarely can we actually gauge the authenticity of these movie narratives, because they are often made by outsiders looking in.
As a result, we as audiences rarely get exposed to films or works of art that have actually been created by someone with lived experience in this arena. Beniko, a former sex-worker from Tokyo, is changing that.
A closer look at “soaplands”
After spending a decade working in one of the Tokyo sex-parlours masquerading as a “soapland,” she quit to raise her son. Now, she is known for photographing what was once Tokyo’s red-light district, Yoshiwara, where she used to live. Attempting to change the negative perception of the area, Beniko has committed to telling the story of sex-workers through her own lens-- literally.
Beniko told AFP, “These places are often referred to as having a 'negative history', but the truth is that through the years people lived there, people made their lives there, sometimes struggling to survive. I want to share that reality, through my photos.”
Her photos include buildings and rooms in red-light districts that are usually hidden from view, and she runs guided tours in red light areas as well. Beniko told AFP the reason she decided to create her book of photographs was, "I can't make up for lost time, but I want to document the sex industry as part of history."
How cinema depicts sex work
Unlike films, which either paint a glamourised picture of sex work, or exploit the suffering of sex-workers for commercial gains, Beniko’s gaze gives us a humanised, realistic picture of the day-to-day lives of sex-workers—the rooms they worked in, the spaces they inhabited. Instead of depicting sex-workers' lived experiences as sum totals of their profession, this takes us through their lives as human beings.
Beniko’s initiative is also unique in that it is an instance of a creative representing themselves and their own lives through their art, to fight the erasure that the sex-worker community often faces.
The representation problem
This is also important because, when it comes to most other portrayals of sex-workers, inauthenticity and misrepresentation are common. But that is changing now.
For example, Oscar-winners Sean Baker and Mikey Madison spoke about how they consulted sex-workers for their film ‘Anora’, thanking them in their Academy Award acceptance speeches as well.
While that’s not the same as sex-workers telling their own story, it’s still a step closer to representation. Beniko, despite bullying and trolling, is among the people bringing about that change on her own.
With inputs from AFP
