What do our favorite tropes mean?

[gunhilltrain]

Right, and for a site like Lit, the "Oh my God, I love fucking, and getting paid for it!" is the way to go.
If you were writing an escort in a mainstream work, the darker side of the industry and motivations, in other words, realism, would play a bit better.

Like the saying goes, read the room, and the majority of rooms here have sticky walls.

The women who work in the various sex trades probably have different views based on their circumstances and how much money they are making. Being a streetwalker is not like being a call girl which is not like working in porn films.

I read an account by one woman who seemed to like stripping (maybe she was exaggerating), but she claimed to have no physical contact with the customers. She seemed to like the money and the attention above all else. One male porn star said he was surprised at how unerotic it all was. Like all movies, the editing creates the final product more than actual filming. He did find it strange to have a dozen or so production people (lighting, sound, etc.) going about their jobs while he was acting in various unconnected (to him) scenes.

I guess Cam Girls are a form of online peep shows. If you've seen Lit's samples of them, they seem rather bored as various mooks text ridiculous messages to them.

My overall impression, as I've tried to show in my stories, is that it is about having a job in a business, not about sexual desire. Nora says about herself:

I usually thought of myself as a “hooker.” The word “whore” seemed too much like an insult. “Prostitute” sounded like a police report label, and it reminded me that what I was doing was illegal although I never got caught.

“Sex worker” just seemed wrong, like I was on the line at the Tarrytown Assembly Plant. Yet “working girl” was okay with me, for some reason. I supposed that was because it omitted the word sex from the job portion of the phrase. “Professional” was acceptable too. It emphasized the self-employment aspect – or delusion – of my new career.

 

[Audiflex]

I lived through that, and it wasn't so great. I wasn't comfortable being on the street or subway in many places.

It isn't so great now, despite all of the tourists flocking to a redone Times Square. In the boroughs, it's still pretty rough, although the politicians don't want to admit it.

The French Connection, while based on a real story, had a lot added to punch it up. That car chase never happened, and Doyle never shot another officer as at the end. (That's about the worst mistake a cop can make.) Also, cops can't commandeer civilian vehicles (and then wreck them!).

Serpico is more realistic about police work. In this scene, the uniformed cop is upset merely because he shot through the windows of parked car.

Yeah, the '70s NYC vibe in movies definitely romanticizes some of the grit and danger. Real life back then (and even now in some areas) wasn’t as glamorous as the films make it seem. The French Connection definitely took liberties for drama, but Serpico feels way more grounded in the messy reality of police work. It’s wild how much the city’s changed, but some struggles stay the same. Always interesting to compare the cinematic version to real life!

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah, the '70s NYC vibe in movies definitely romanticizes some of the grit and danger. Real life back then (and even now in some areas) wasn’t as glamorous as the films make it seem. The French Connection definitely took liberties for drama, but Serpico feels way more grounded in the messy reality of police work. It’s wild how much the city’s changed, but some struggles stay the same. Always interesting to compare the cinematic version to real life!

I don't think those movies necessarily romanticized the city as say, Woody Allen's Manhattan did. Since many of them were crime movies, they may have overemphasized mobsters, cops, and criminals over what the rest of the population was experiencing. Some of the most interesting things in those films are the locations, the background to what is happening in the plots. But some of those movies were much better than what is being released today.

Yeah, the city is always changing. 1905, when my grandparents were little kids:

https://hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/06/oldnycstreetscene.jpeg

Everything has a beginning. Some of those streets still exist with different names:

https://www.battlemaps.us/cdn/shop/...__82235.1465353250.1280.1280.jpg?v=1480559410

 

[Audiflex]

I don't think those movies necessarily romanticized the city as say, Woody Allen's Manhattan did. Since many of them were crime movies, they may have overemphasized mobsters, cops, and criminals over what the rest of the population was experiencing. Some of the most interesting things in those films are the locations, the background to what is happening in the plots. But some of those movies were much better than what is being released today.

Yeah, the city is always changing. 1905, when my grandparents were little kids:

https://hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/06/oldnycstreetscene.jpeg

Everything has a beginning. Some of those streets still exist with different names:

https://www.battlemaps.us/cdn/shop/...__82235.1465353250.1280.1280.jpg?v=1480559410

It’s wild to see how much cities like New York have transformed over time. You’re right, those crime movies might’ve focused on mobsters and cops, but they also captured a unique vibe of the city that’s hard to replicate today. The streets and locations in the background almost feel like characters themselves. It’s cool to think about how much history is embedded in those places, even if the names have changed. Thanks for sharing those links, such a neat glimpse into the past!

 

[gunhilltrain]

It’s wild to see how much cities like New York have transformed over time. You’re right, those crime movies might’ve focused on mobsters and cops, but they also captured a unique vibe of the city that’s hard to replicate today. The streets and locations in the background almost feel like characters themselves. It’s cool to think about how much history is embedded in those places, even if the names have changed. Thanks for sharing those links, such a neat glimpse into the past!

You're welcome. There are innumerable photos on-line of almost every place, not just New York, taken since the invention of photography. Videos too, going back to the first film-making around the end of the nineteen century. Some of those have been remastered to remove the "flicker" of old cameras that had fewer frames per second than today. Some of them have been colorized too. It's amazing how many people have been documenting all this stuff.

A lot of work has gone into organizing this. These are two such sites.

https://www.oldnyc.org/

https://1940s.nyc/map#13.69/40.7093/-73.99397

 

[Duleigh]

I like the "Broken People Find Each Other" trope. Two people, beaten down by unfaithful spouses, ruthless bosses, or just plain hard life find each other and prop each other up, fall in love with each other.

 

[TheLobster]

It's amazing how many people have been documenting all this stuff.

There's plenty of Youtube channels with such old footage, including decades-old TV shows. You can sometimes reach surprising far in the past this way and yet still remain within living memory.

I once saw a recording of British TV from (I believe) 1960s. They were interviewing Bertrand Russell, who at the time was about eighty, and he recalled what his grandfather (who was a member of the British parliament) once said to him about a "young French upstart" that was the subject of many concerns and discussions in the House of Lords.

The guy in question was Napoleon Bonaparte.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I love to write about serial killers, which I can't do on this site, or maybe I could but it'd have to be toned down. What does that say about? I don't know, probably nothing good.