Warning:
Spoilers
Concussion
is a film about a bored lesbian housewife who becomes a sex worker. For me the
last part almost made it something I didn’t want to watch, I’m not really here for
films that go all Pretty Woman and pretend that being a ‘sex worker’ is totally
awesome and has no problems that getting rid of stigma can’t fix. But luckily
Concussion isn’t that. Now it doesn’t explicitly talk about the violence
inherent in prostitution but it is hinted at here and there throughout.
Concussion shows a very specific type of sex worker and oddly enough it’s the
one that people are so quick to defend: a white, well off woman who purely does
sex work because she chooses to. Whilst the film doesn’t exactly preach that
this is the epitome of sex work it doesn’t really mention all the women whose
experience of prostitution is nothing like hers. For information on the myths
surrounding prostitution, decriminalisation and the Nordic Model go here, here
and here.
It was
refreshing to watch a film about lesbian women, found in the LGBT section of
Netflix, that, whilst yes was about sex, was about them as people. No one died,
no one seduced their student or went jealous and killed someone. It could have
easily been about a straight woman doing the same thing except it wasn’t. It
showed that no one really likes housework, no one is really fulfilled cleaning
up the house and taking care of the kids – despite how much they love &
care about those kids. At its core it’s about women needing a hobby, needing an
outlet for the boredom that is the necessary and boring day to day stuff.
Nothing would get done if we were all walking around in un-ironed un-washed
clothes, hungry and in a house covered in filth after all but that doesn’t mean
its inspiring and fascinating – for anyone who wants to read more about this
you should buy this book.
So Abby
decides to go back to work as an interior decorator, who renovates homes and
apartments to sell them. As she works with her contractor they talk and one
thing apparently leads to another and she’s paying for sex in the apartment
they are renovating. Afterwards she’s complimented on her skills and so she
decides to become one herself. As she never really explains it to her wife it’s
not really clear what she does with the money she gets but it’s clear the money
isn’t needed; her wife works as a lawyer and despite their house and two kids
they seemed to be fine financially when she was unemployed, her going to work
was to get out of the house more than anything. She works out of this white,
clean apartment, she completely chooses her own clients and the closest she
gets to having a pimp is her contractor getting her clients who is later
replaced by his girlfriend – named The Girl – who is a fresh faced young woman getting
her degree who needs the money for student loans.
The only
real showing of a woman in this industry who perhaps is struggling and does
need the money is when Abby visits a prostitute who appears to be addicted to
drugs. The second she walks in a less fancy motel room she sees the woman
taking drugs, she offers them to Abby who declines. Then the woman bends her
over the bed and the scene changes. It’s not really talked about but it is the
catalyst for her choosing a more expensive sex worker next, and for her to give
herself more options in future. It’s made clear that Abby doesn’t want to be
like this woman, nor does she want to sleep with this woman or women like her
and because of her money and status she happily does neither.
The choice
and freedom that Abby has is a luxury and it is plentiful. She doesn’t choose
her clients but she does choose that they only be women – not an option for
most lesbian sex workers, especially considering the money is with men who are
the vast (so vast) majority of people who buy sex. She chooses where to conduct
her business, again not something seen in sex work – especially considering the
dangers of inviting a stranger back to a place where you know you’re alone;
contrast this to brothels in decriminalised places like Germany where women have
options like mega brothels, or colour coded places that look like stables. Then
there’s one client who is particularly violent, she throws her around and
strangles her but she just never invites them back; she says no and that’s
that, she says she ‘has to protect herself’ but again due to not needing the
money it is a luxury she can literally afford.
Abby also
does something unusual that is specific to her own brand of sex work, something
that prostitutes who need money quickly and efficiently can’t do, she meets her
clients for coffee first. She sits in a nice looking coffee shop and she asks
them questions about herself, she wants to know them as people before she
sleeps with them; some clients don’t seem happy about that, they just want to
have sex and be done with it. But others, such as one woman who is in her
twenties who has never had sex or kissed anyone, come to enjoy it and it helps
them break the ice. This is a key thing Concussion does as well, it really
wants to reinforce that this film is about women as people not women as sex
objects, something that it so easily could have fallen into; I would attribute
that to the female writer and director, Stacie Passon, as it shows how easily
the female gaze can change film.
Ultimately
Concussion is about desire, about the exploration of female sexuality, how
family can change you as a person and how a desire to be a person, to be a
woman doesn’t have to conflict and rip it apart. It shows it has feminist roots
in a character who recommends The Second Sex – ‘it was crazy’ – to a woman who
feels uncomfortable in her own body, and with Louise Bourgeois’ art hanging on
the walls in the room where she sees clients. It shows women being shy, women
being erotic, and women being human; it made me want to keep watching and
existing in that world where women get to be all the things other films deny
them. It’s not, I don’t think, asking for much to acknowledge that in a
patriarchy the female gaze can mean a lot – it can mean a break in the drudgery
of films that don’t like or respect women. When it comes to sex and sexuality,
to films about lesbians having a lot of sex, I’d say the female gaze is pretty
damn vital.
P.S.
After the film I briefly watched an interview with the actress who plays Abby, and the woman who plays a friend Abby knows, cough, called Sam. It starts with the male interviewer saying to the women 'it's not about the sex, it's about the story'; he repeats this because he maybe thinks that it's important to them that this man thinks that he didn't think about them having sex whilst watching a film where at least half of it is women having sex. I just wanted to mention it as it was a weird thing to clarify but also that maybe it was because he didn't feel like it was about sex because the sex wasn't for him, it wasn't aimed at him and it didn't include him. It was all about women. But I have to say as a bisexual woman watching the film it would be pretty hard to pretend that it wasn't at least a little (okay a lot) about the sex.
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