Risky Business
In the 1983 smash hit Risky Business, director Paul Brickman takes his audience on a wild ride through Chicago. The film spans across the Chicago land area, and beyond. From a small high school, to a world famous hotel, it really shows what Chicago is made of. But it also holds a dark side to itself, when the dangerous and socially perverse world of prostitution comes into play.
Joel Goodman, played by Tom Cruise, is an average high school senior. He has regrets and doubts when it comes to his life and is constantly wondering how will his parents take the next disappointment that he bring to them. But following his parents little getaway, and following some of his friends advise Joel gets himself involved with a small time prostitute named Lana, played by Rebecca DeMornay. In class we touched upon the topic; does this movie glorify prostitution? There is no clean-cut answer to this question, because on one side Joel profited over eight thousand dollars from his little endeavor into essentially being a pimp for a night. And on the other hand you have the actual pimp of Lana being a mean and greedy man, the type of person that would sell your sole for quarter. So to state whether the message of the film was glorifying or to denounce prostitution is up the audience, it is their own opinion.
Risky Business has some more to offer its audience than a heated debate. It also has a great setting for such a fantastic plot. We see many of Chicago’s finest and most revered landmarks. It takes us not only to Chicago but is neighboring suburbs. Niles East high school is where Joel Goodman had his hard times finding an open door. The airport where Joel drops his parents off and you hear that very familiar yet shallow: “Yea, I got it…don’t worry…okay…alright.” Is at O’Hare international airport located in the western suburbs of Chicago. More people pass through O’Hare airport in one day than in any other airport in the world. The two places most famous on the list, is the Drake hotel and the John Hancock building. At the Drake hotel, Joel and one of his good friends are having an eight-dollar cup of hot chocolate while they wait for Lana; Joel’s soon to be business partner. On the 95th floor of the Hancock building is a place where usually the elite can only find a table.
I think the author does not put up a good argument in this essay. One of the opposing points was the moral issue of prostitution. The author wrote, “If a person were to say that prostitution is the root of all evil, that will not make it go away. It exists. Society must begin to realize that fear or denial will not make the “ugliness” disappear. It still exists.” Simply because something is immoral, and it exists doesn’t mean it should be legalized. Murder is immoral, and it exists. But it’s not going to be legalized, because it’s dangerous.
In this era we live in, we are brought up to think divorce is bound to happen. According to The American Psychological Association, “about 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce” and “the divorce rate for subsequent marriages is even higher.” Many adults decide that it is less messy to just live with one another rather than actually get married. This is beginning to drive the rates of marriage down. Many have speculated that relationships will continue to evolve, especially if the human lifespan continues expand. Fiction writers such as Drew Magary and real world scientists such as Aubrey de Grey have explored this very topic of relationships.
She tries to investigate the reasons why these women are in the profession, their interactions with their ‘pimps’ and customers, their attitudes towards safe sex in light of the AIDS endemic, and above all, prostitution’s link to drug use. Her basic thesis revolves around these women’s thoughts and feelings regarding prostitution and the effect it has on their lives. Through her research, Sterk uncovers a demographic that ranges from 18-59 years in age, is largely African-American, and that most have completed high school. As these women reveal more about themselves, it becomes apparent that there is a spectrum of opinion regarding controversial topics such as drug use and safe sex. Many women admitted to not having used a condom with a partner who they were aware had HIV/AIDS.
The sex industry contains negative labels which target the lives of each individual involved in these perceived sinful acts. In the article, “The Stigma of Sex Work”, Maria Ma illustrates that “part of the stigmatization of sex work includes the notion that sex workers are trafficking victims, or maybe just victims in general, as women who are able to make their own decisions would and could not possibly choose to be a sex worker.” The negative perception that all sex workers are victims is proven wrong in the film, Pretty Woman in several scenes. This is portrayed when Vivian discusses how she willingly became a sex worker to reach financial autonomy and support herself. She does so without working under control of a pimp which clearly emphasizes Vivian’s independence and freedom over her own life decisions as a sex worker.
The classic gangster film focusing on a host of norms defined by some of the first gangster films. This genre originated as an escapism from the negative depression era. People would flock to see the gangsters go from rags to riches with their glitzy lifestyle and beautiful women. As Shadoian puts it, “The gangster’s fizzy spirits, classy lifestyle, and amoral daring were something like Alka-Seltzer for the headaches of the depression” (Shadoin 29). Not all this came easily for the gangsters though, bloodshed is defined as a part of business with guns a constant motif. Despite these negative outcomes, it’s easy to see how this genre was such a great elusion from the everyday where the American Dream seemed like it might not even exist anymore.
Chinatown builds upon the film noir tradition of exploiting expanding social taboos. Polanski added an entirely new dimension to classic film noir by linking up its darkness with the paranoid and depressed mood of post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, thereby extending the noir sense of corruption beyond the mean urban streets and to high governmental and privileged economic places. Chinatown may be set in 1930’s L.A., but it embodies the 1970’s. The film stands as an indictment of both capitalism and patriarchy going out of control. It implies that we are powerless in the face of this evil corruption and abusive power that is capable of anything, including incest: one of the most horrible breaches of human decency and social morality imaginable.
The publisher, The Economist, implies that keeping prostitution illegal is merely a hindrance to business, and that corralling it into licensed brothels or entirely outlawing it does nothing for the “workers”. Despite the fact that the paper does acknowledge that some prostitutes are victims, they feel as though it overall is a voluntary action, simply because they can be found walking the streets alone. “That fiction” of forced labor, they claim, is being uprooted by media in recent years. In Source F, Newsweek writer Leah Goodman points out the omission of the other paper’s information on why women or men choose prostitution in the first place-- if it’s even a choice for them to begin with. The paper also discusses that it would limit brothels and pimping, “making it easier for third parties”. There were no statistics provided to support this claim. Goodman also ensures that she challenges The Economist’s claims, asking who truly would benefit from this sort of legalization. The answer? The 87 percent male readers of The Economist, of course, with an average household net worth of 1.688 million, and an average age of 47. While those statistics on the readers don’t specifically translate to anything more than that they would be capable of affording this type of “luxury item”
Tom Paine’s “Scar Vegas” takes place in a cheap Las Vegas hotel in the late twentieth century and shows the depressing life of a lonely ex-con. Traveling from Texas to Las Vegas for his sister’s wedding, Johnny Loop emerges as a simple, unlucky, depressed cowboy. Time after time it seems that Loop gets the short end of the stick. His dysfunctional background shapes his attitudes and interactions with others. Ironic, but a depressing ending leaves him helpless, alone, and frustrated. Sadly, it becomes obvious that he is not going to be able to turn his life around.
Before being cultivated with cocaine and hookers as the key to success on Wall Street, Jordan Belfort demonstrated the incontrovertible advantages of positive business communications. One of which pertains to the effectiveness of corresponding with customers over the telephone. Especially for stockbrokers, having a conversation over the phone is pivotal when trying to sell a stock to a potential investor. Jordan Belfort began his process with a potential client by stating his name, where he was from, and what he had to offer. This was a method of gaining the trust of a customer that he did not know.
With prostitution still arising and thriving in present day America the Argument and war waged on it by media has changed from an advocated perspective, to being seen as present day slavery among women. Especially with modern practices of forced trafficking and drugged prostitution. the views have changed from one of a women's private and personal freedom of choice, to one of "the ones who weren't lucky enough to get away from being drugged, kidnapped and forced into slaved prostitution."
Buena Vista Pictures. 1990. Smith, Claude J., Jr. "Bodies and Minds for Sale:Prostitution in Pretty Woman and Indecent Proposal. " Studies in Popular Culture (1998): 91-99.
This movie starts off as Jordan Belfort, the main character in the movie, losing his job as a stockbroker in Wall Street. After losing his job, he goes and gets a job in a Long Island brokerage room. In the brokerage room, he sells penny stocks. Thanks to him being aggressive in his selling skills, he was able to make a profit. With the new income, he gives his wife a bracelet and she asked him why doesn’t he go after the people that can afford to lose money, not the middle-class people or lower income people. That is when he gets the idea to get a lot of young people and train them to become the best stock brokers.
The Wolf of Wall Street produced and directed by Martin Scorsese tells a story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker living a luxurious life on Wall Street. Due to greed and corruption, Jordan falls into a life of crime and abusive activities. Belfort made millions of dollars by selling customers “penny stocks” and manipulating the market through his company, Stratton Oakmont, before being convicted of any criminal activity (Solomon, 2013). Jordan reveals behaviours and impulses all humans have, however, on an extreme level. This movie illustrates “why ethics is another tool whose importance cannot be overstated” (Delaney, 2014). Without ethics and morality, individuals can never truly live an honest and happy life.
Sex. The word that makes peoples’ heads turn when said in public, the word kids laugh about in health class, the word that makes people feel shameful when they say aloud. In America, and most places around the world, sex is a topic that many people will try to avoid at all cost. But what happens when sex becomes a business opportunity, in hopes of making money? The topic and public discussion of prostitution is on the same taboo playing field as politics, religion, and racism. Prostitution, the act of an individual, usually a woman, selling sexual deeds for money is a very taboo topic that most people try to avoid talking about. Not only is it taboo, but is currently illegal across the United States, minus 11 Nevada counties (“US Federal and State Prostitution Laws and Related Punishments”, 2016). All current laws regulating prostitution are put in place by the States themselves, with no federal regulation. Illegal acts involved in
According to ProCon.org, prostitution was a profession that dated back to 2400 B.C. Though many things since then have changed, the practice of selling sex has been more or less the same. What has changed is the way that people now view the practice. Throughout the years the debate has been whether prostitution should become legal or illegal. Organizations like Amnesty International want to push forward the idea of legalizing consensual “sex work” between two adults who are willingly participating because it would help keep those in that line of work safer than they are now. While on the other side of the issue there are