Imagining the Prostitute: A Genealogy of Cinematic Representations of Power

Abstract

This research will attempt to find Taiwanese cinematic uses of the ‘sex worker,’ and the implications contained within those uses in order to offer a nuanced alternative to common dichotomies which render discussions of the sex worker reductive. I will offer this alternative by tracing back cultural symbols which are rooted in history and society. Contemporary (mainly post-2000) Taiwanese cinema will be used as a frame for a genealogical analysis of these images of the sex worker. This genealogy will find threads connecting a complex network of ever-changing power relationships surrounding sex work through the metaphors of sex worker roles within films, which tell of a latticework of power that takes place along the axes of history, culture, and political economics.

This research will attempt to find Taiwanese cinematic uses of the ‘sex worker,’ and the implications contained within those uses in order to offer a nuanced alternative to common dichotomies which render discussions of the sex worker reductive. I will offer this alternative by tracing back cultural symbols which are rooted in history and society. Contemporary (mainly post-2000) Taiwanese cinema will be used as a frame for a genealogical analysis of these images of the sex worker. This genealogy will find threads connecting a complex network of ever-changing power relationships surrounding sex work through the metaphors of sex worker roles within films, which tell of a latticework of power that takes place along the axes of history, culture, and political economics.