What Actual Sex Workers Think About the New Movie ‘Hustlers’

Welcome to Brain-Throbs & Blow Jobs, a column highlighting the great minds and perspectives of Bay Area sex workers through interviews and photo portraits by Maxine Holloway.

In 2007 I was making a nightly commute from where I lived in the San Francisco Mission District to North Beach. I would take BART to Market Street and walk through the Financial District as the downtown suits left to go home. This was before Uber or Lyft, so I was not alone in this journey. We were the North Beach servers, bartenders, and strippers marching up those hills, past Vesuvio’s Bar, past City Lights Bookstore, to Columbus Street’s ‘seedier’ yet still historical offshoots. With our Pleasers and aprons in our backpacks, we were all commuting north to participate in the transfer of wealth.

I was a waitress. Liquor, wine, and tips flowed all over North Beach. I worked busy and long hours, leaving the bar at 3 a.m., but made that return trip with heavier pockets and a crisp new pack of Parliament Lights. I was the most financially secure I had ever been, which meant I paid my rent mostly on time, I wasn’t currently shoplifting cat food, and I could spring for takeout occasionally. But I was tired, and there never seemed to be time for my more creative aspirations, which is why I had moved to San Francisco in the first place. 

I grew up in a trailer in Tucson, Arizona, and I always knew I needed to leave. The Bay Area called me like a song, promising a sanctuary for dreamers and artists. When I arrived in San Francisco, I saw a city of steep hills and endless possibilities. I sought to immerse myself in the pulsating rhythm of people, culture, and technological marvels, hoping to find my place. I wanted to make art; I wanted to bring people together with art; I wanted to FEEL like art – I wanted to be art. For a while, and at times, was art. But I felt upside down and lost in the latest wave of gentrification and the cost of living in San Francisco. 

In 2008 the market crashed. The North Beach bar I worked at was less busy, tips got smaller, my bills were larger, and my dreams felt farther away than ever. I was stressed, stagnant, anxious, and depressed. But I hadn’t come this far from the trailer to let capitalism win now –  I had to change my hustle. 

Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez star in HUSTLERS (Courtesy of STXFilms)

I nervously and bravely turned to Craigslist’s ‘Adult’ section and an escorting website, hoping to make more money. People often ask how you get into sex work and expect a salacious tale. But, it’s usually about the numbers. I got into sex work to pay my rent, buy my cat better food, and make more space for my dreams. While it may not be sexual, it was genuinely euphoric to breathe easier –  to exhale –  as I make my way through our capitalistic hellscape we call “the cost of living.”

The economic realities of the sex trade are not glamorous and rarely get told. Yet, sex work and many other service jobs can accurately measure our economy and describe our capitalist downfalls in ways that the GPD, unemployment, and interest rates cannot.  

As I said, these stories rarely get told, so in 2019 when a movie about sex work and money hit major theaters, I was curious.

I traveled to San Francisco from Oakland, where I live. I got off Bart at Powell Street with my friends Gia Isabella and Rowan Ruin. The BART stop was plastered with Twitter ads, reminding us that this tech headquarters was just above the ground. I noted that my former incall was just across the street and wondered if it still existed – if anyone was up in that high rise right now, turning tricks as I walked down below. We were meeting a group of fellow sex workers to see the new movie, Hustlers. The film is a story of women that develop deep friendships while working in a strip club. After being severely affected by the 2008 recession, the women turn to a different type of hustle to survive. 

I had a chance to interview several sex workers about Hustlers to share their, often polarizing, impressions.

“I loved it and actually lived it. Stopped due to the 2008 crash. I thought the club scenes were spot on. I work solo now and what I miss about being in the clubs is the comrades in the dressing room.”

– Diane Rey, Bay Area sex worker

“I went to see it and was very disappointed.….as a former entertainer myself I’m like, no, just STOP.”

– Xotic Kelly, sex worker

“I don’t want Hustlers, I want a TV show about a strip club shot like The Office, where you only ever see the dressing room, managers office, and bathroom.”

– Selena Darling, FL sex worker

“I don’t trust Hollywood to be respectful of our stories. One of the women this story is based on did not give the rights to her story and was not compensated.”

– D, Bay Area sex worker

“I went to the NYC private screening of Hustler and J LO and Keke were there. I honestly enjoyed it. I think they did right by us. It was mostly a story about friendship and survival. Super relatable. Respectability politics are trash. We’ve seen this happen with black storytelling for ages. Black writers trying really hard to show black people as perfect to “improve our image” so white people don’t catch us slipping. Let’s not be afraid to have our authentic stories told on both ends of the spectrum! Happy or sad, survival, struggle, or triumph. We all deserve to see ourselves.” 

– Cat Santana, NYC sex worker

The film quickly started painting pictures that felt dramatized but surprisingly relatable. The first 40 minutes is a fast and sexy roller coaster of the ups and a few downs of sex work, set to a soundtrack of pre-recession, booty-shaking music. When cash, compliments, and cake were raining, it was impossible not to squeal in sheer delight and appreciation of their tight clothes and tighter hustles. However, when the main character failed to make money, was down to her last few dollars, or was taken advantage of by men, we all held our breath and sank into that familiar difficult feeling. 

“As a sex worker and former stripper, a movie like Hustlers encompasses so many loaded topics for me. I think there are important conversations to be had about how actual sex workers are treated and who profits off of our stories. Despite the movie not being absolutely accurate, I was surprised how many details felt authentic to my own experiences working in strip clubs around the same time. The way the DJ announces the lineup and some of the dressing room conversations really took me back in a visceral way.”

– Domina Crane, Bay Area sex worker

“I thought it was an interesting perspective on friendship in the context of hustling and survival. I liked that it addressed the game and who plays it and the power dynamics of who gets played and that getting flipped from the standard narrative. I thought there were some plot holes and the way they portrayed the club was far more glamorous than reality but I liked it and found it refreshing that there wasn’t a ton of content obviously denigrating to sex workers.”

– Dylan Ryan, Bay Area sex worker

“I was dancing in Western Mass, Philly & NYC in 2008. The music was very accurate for what strip clubs were playing at the time.”

– Devorah Reine, Bay Area sex worker

What shined on the screen was the relationships between the women. Sex worker friendships can be beautiful, complicated, and messy but crucial to survival. When Destiny (played by Constance Wu) curled up inside Ramona’s (played by Jennifer Lopez) fur coat on that cold NYC rooftop, she was literally taking her under her furry wing. I recognize and crave that type of connection and mentorship. Destiny and Ramona support each other’s dreams and success, love their children like their own, and turn their community into a family. 

I lovingly squeezed Gia’s hand extra hard in the theater and rested my head on her shoulder. Gia reached over to Rowan and hooked her arms with her. I thought of ways Gia, Rowan, and many others from my sex worker community have shown up for me in the past year. I had recently given birth to my first child. Transitioning to working while pregnant and then with a lactating postpartum body had been challenging. I met Gia shortly after discovering I was pregnant, and she was there as my belly grew, ensuring I always had an abundance of vanilla ice cream and beautifully strange art projects to be a part of. She drew me a comic of the first time she slept over that I still have on my fridge. Gia has an almost magical ability to make people feel safe and seen. She held much space and supported and inspired me in figuring out my personal and professional identity as a new parent. I would not be the MILF I am today without Gia and other dear sex workers in my life. 

“I really loved it. The sisterhood between these women was so strong, I relate to that.”

– Jasmine Corvina, Bay Area sex worker

“Hustlers did really did a good job of showing the comradery and love between workers.”

– Minxy, Bay Area sex worker

Friendship is undoubtedly magic, but some moments made us cringe. For example, Lopez’s gorgeous and shapely (50-year-old) body was a constant gift to the screen, but no one could figure out how that same body moved awkwardly and stiffly during her pole and floor routines. 

In a scene, Ramona was dancing on the lap of a man named Chuck and whispered into Destiny’s ear, “Chuck has been paying for my Manhattan apartment, and I’ve never even sniffed his dick.” Well, Romana, that’s the whore-archy talking. Some of us sniff dicks, or more, and that’s a valid way to make a living. Knowing your own boundaries is great, but all sex workers are in this together, so don’t be such a snob about it. 

“There was some whore-shaming of full-service escorts that I didn’t appreciate. The whore-archy sucks.”

– Minxy, Bay Area sex worker

“I was surprised and impressed to see a big Hollywood movie about sex workers that centered the characters’ humanity without moralizing about what they do. There’s one beat where the strippers look down on the Russian girls who escort out of the club, but even that felt like an authentic judgment that all too often pop up in the community, rather than the filmmakers judging those girls.”

– Jacqueline Moore, TV writer & former escort

Hustler’s is a heist movie. The new hustle that Ramona and Destiny pivot to during the recession is drugging the men with home-brewed ketamine and ecstasy and racking up their credit cards in the club. Every time one of the Hustlers took money from one of the wealthy wall-street types, I felt a tingle in my whole body as our entire theater row threw our hands up and screamed with joy at this just redistribution of wealth. Spoiler alert – thier hustle was lucrative – but it did not last.

“I liked the part when men were getting ripped off.”

– Angel Severin, Bay Area sex worker

“There’s usually a take away for every story and for this I think it would be, ‘always trust your instincts’. Destiny did not want to work with that one lady (the redhead), and she did, and it got her in trouble. Always trust your gut!”

– Ophelia Margaux, Bay Area sex worker 

“This movie inspired me to take more risks. And hustle more people.”

– Quinn, Bay Area sex worker

The movie weaves important stories of working-class struggles, immigrants, the economics of single motherhood, capitalism, criminalization, and the lengths people are willing to go to as options are stripped away. Sex worker issues are tied to every single one of these narratives. Ten years after the movie takes place, sex workers are living in the wake of FOSTA/SESTA legislation that has taken so much from so many workers. Online platforms that allow sex workers to work safer and more prosperous are disappearing. Social media, which once paid the bills, is shadowbanning and kicking us off. Credit card companies and banks are conspiring with right-wing evangelicals to change their TOS to no longer do business with us. Right now, our siblings working out on Capp Street are having their strolls barricaded by the city of San Francisco, being pushed out of work or further underground….. So we are all constantly starring in our real-life story about surviving when your hustle no longer works. 

Hustlers scored the biggest debut ever for a movie starring women of color, earning $33 million opening weekend. However, in all of the accolades and promotion surrounding this film, there has been no acknowledgment of the real struggles, criminalization, and oppression that sex workers are experiencing while Hollywood is profiting off our stories. The sex worker community has noticed Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Cardi-B (who is a former stripper), Lizzo, Lili Reinhart, and Keke Palmer are receiving a ton of praise and whispers of an Oscar nomination for Lopez but are yet to utilize their enormous platform to draw attention to the very issues that the movie parallels and profits from. We’ve been looking for some mention of the harms of FOSTA/SESTA, the criminalization of sex work; the employee/independent contractor battle strippers are currently involved in, intense racial discrimination dancers experience from management in clubs or the 19 trans women that have been murdered (many of them connected to sex working communities) this year. Even with the few “wins” this movie brings sex workers – we still somehow loose.  

To promote the Hustlers movie, during a live broadcast event, @womenoftwitter asked folks on Twitter to contribute to share their hustle with #TweetMyHustle. Actual hustles are not social media safe, and calling your office job a “hustle” is inappropriate. This tone-deaf social media effort did not go over well with sex workers on Twitter.

“Fuck your exploitative, capitalist co-option of sex workers, who regularly face violence due to your censorship and criminalization #TweetMyHustle”

– Amy Dentata, sex worker supporter

“Fuck off Twitter, if I #TweetMyHustle I risk getting banned.”

– Anna Ketamine, sex worker

“I’d love to #TweetMyHustle. However, sex workers like me or the one portrayed by @JLo in #Hustlers routinely have their social media and/or bank accounts banned and restricted for doing so. This occurred before FOSTA-SESTA passed and it’s been worse since”

– Danny ‘Fuck Fosta’ Cruz, LA sex worker

The credits rolled, and we exited the movie theater. The sun was setting, and in the shadow of the Salesforce Tower, a dozen of us started walking the same route from Market Street to North Beach, making the same pilgrimage so many workers had done before us. We held hands and loudly repeated lines from the movie as we walked up those hills, past Vesuvio, past City Lights Bookstore to the ‘seedier’ yet still historical offshoots of Columbus Street. We will endlessly speculate on ways this film will comfort or hurt our communities, but we have other aspirations for now. Finally, we entered the Hustlers Strip Club. We ordered whiskeys and took our dollars to the front of the stage. We showered our fellow workers with love in the form of cash and hope it helps a little before the next tide turns, and we have to change our hustle once again.