SR EP92: Commodifying Women: Sugar Daddy and An Easy Girl

In this episode, we discuss two recent films directed by women about how women commodify themselves and are commodified by society and the people around them: Wendy Morgan’s Sugar Daddy and Rebecca Zlotowski’s Easy Girl. We ask how these films comment on patriarchal norms without (or if they manage to do so) reproducing them.

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and staff writer Lena Wilson.

On this episode:

 

Sugar Daddy How Sugar Daddy explores performing femininity and masculinity, what that means, and how that can be used as a currency How Sugar Daddy works as a portrait of an artist The complicated psycho-sexual dynamics between Darren and Gordon and how it pertains to her performing identity An Easy Girl How the two homes in the film — Naïma’s apartment in Cannes and the men’s yacht — reflect the characters who live there How An Easy Girl make us aware of the lower class labour that greases the lives of the rich in Cannes How these two girls are performing (or not) for the world, and how the lifestyle of the rich is itself a performance How the two films depict how women can use their sexuality as a currency, not just necessarily for money but for respect, and power. How sex is shot in the two films What makes the men in these films terrible? Who isn’t terrible? How the two films depict the protagonist’s search for her identity through her work/how she makes money How the films address (or fail to) different kinds of privilege: whiteness, heterosexuality, wealth, class

Show Notes:

Sign up for our Lockdown Film School session with Agnieszka Holland Read Alex's interview with Sugar Daddy writer-actress Kelly McCormack Read Lena's feature on Promising Young Woman and the incompleteness of rape-revenge films. Read Lena's other New York Time reviews and features, including recent reviews of Spiral and Oxygen Read Milly Gribben's review of Shiva Baby An Easy Girl is streaming on Netflix Sugar Daddy is available on VOD and streaming on Hoopla in Canada and the US

 

 

Related Episodes:

Episode 66: Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country & Ammonite Episode 73: Explorations of Rape Culture in Promising Young Woman and The Assistant Episode 86: Depictions of childhood sexual assault: Una & Slalom Episode 89: Coming of Age at Forty:Spinster and The Forty-Year-Old Version

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