Lakitha Tolbert
1 min readMar 14, 2024

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Actually, some of that is addressed in the film by Bella. She proposes ideas about how certain aspects of sex work could be improved, what it means on a societal level, and there are comparisons to Socialist theory.

Yes, the movie sounds pretty male-gazy, when you hear people talk about it because Bella seems a character who is perpetually being taken advantage of by others, but one: this is a reflection of what happens to people like Bella in the real world and she questions that, and two: Bella unknowingly overturns every single societal convention in her pursuit of knowledge, (and her own pleasure), and then later on in the movie, knowledge of the rest of the world.

The movie is told entirely from her point of view (she is in almost every single scene) and doesn't center the feelings of the male characters (although they certainly let her know what they think) or even the male audience. I responded to one commenter by stating that although there is a lot of nudity and sexual activity in the film its some of the least sexy sex ever filmed and that's a deliberate choice by the director. The sex is treated as just another activity people are doing on the screen, not something to tease the audience.

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Lakitha Tolbert
Lakitha Tolbert

Written by Lakitha Tolbert

(She/Her) Busybody librarian from Ohio.

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