Chicken Ranch

http://www.hulu.com/watch/155136/chicken-ranch

Above is the link to a Hulu movie called "Chicken Ranch." This documentary film was produced in 1983 about a brothel in Las Vegas. The documentary contained no commentaries from outside sources but was filmed more like a reality t.v. show. The women went about their normal routines were filmed chatting, putting on make up, lining up for clientele and such. It was interesting to watch this because there is no commentaries involved. Viewers can make their own logic out of the film. The taping in unbiased in this way but still shows the honest environment.
This documentary, though filmed in the early 1980's, shows very consistent gender roles as seen in our current day media outlets and pornography films.The woman in the house are commanded around by the owner of the business Walter. He regularly comes onto the some of the woman in subtle ways that shows his dominance. In one scene he is talking to one of the girls about making money. He comments that he noticed she has been making considerably less than usual and asks her why or how he can help. She begins crying and doesn't know why. He rubs her cheek with his hand and sits uncomfortably close to her.
She comments later to a girl how she feels incredibly uncomfortable with his subtle advances.
One night the girls have some drinks, play music, and dance for a bit before heading to bed for the evenings. Walter has a fit about it and has the house mom give a mandatory meeting to ensure this doesn't happen again. 
To me the most striking part of the documentary was the ending. Mandy was "fired." She actually quit and he fired her out of anger. She quit because he forced her to do a jacuzzi special for less than the standard price for two customers. The Brothel still made their standard 20% but Mandy make less money. This is inevitably the end of the documentary because Walter tells the film directors to stop filming and demands the film tape that contains anything having to do with Mandy. He doesn't want that included in the movie.
As a viewer one wonders why women would feel so desperate at a degrading place? Many of the women eluded to abusive partners they ran from and had no other means to support themselves. One mentioned large amounts of debt and not having other solutions to pay for it.
In class some questions were raised about pornography. One that I wanted to discuss a bit in this blog is: What would it take to bring equality to these types of industries? While I do recognize there are differences in porn and prostitution, I do not think there are very many of them. Would changing the concepts or ideology in the industries themselves first bring out more equality or would changing societal values or ideology first be a more effective option? While the largest question remains still: how can we even begin to combat these negative types of ideologies about sex and gender?
I do believe that education is a great way to start this. It can not stop with education though. First people need to understand that there is a problem with sexual inequalities in our societies ideology.
I think more companies need to get involved like Dove has. They have a campaign to help bring positive advertisements to women and girls alike. Rejected negative images is also important.
I do not have television in my home, no facebook, myspace, or twitter and no subscriptions to magazines. I do engage in some media forms but I try to limit these. While I don't suggest abstinence from media forms but I do think as consumers we need to make more choices in what we decide to engage in. We so often just see things without giving them second thoughts. I think we need to consciously dissect what we are viewing on a regular basis. Those things that are degrading we need to avoid them as much as we can or at very least not use them in our daily lives.
This is the topic I would like to focus on for my final project: alternatives for sexual images and positive advertising images. I intend to research more options that promote social justice among both genders.