The Red Light Rules: The White Lotus, Season 2
"Just finished Season 2 of White Lotus and I had high hopes seeing a sex worker, Lucia, in the main storyline, but ended up mostly annoyed 😩
Her bestie was whorephobic af. That bathroom scene where Lucia does her makeup and then she says, “I look like a whore”? was the first clue. And it wasn’t said affectionately, it was said ✨derogatorily ✨
And Lucia kept hanging w/ the whorephobic bff even though she attempted to reap the benefits of SW without actually doing the work. In one instance, the bff even had the nerve to ask for a cut of the money Lucia made after she fucked Dominic FOR FREE?? Lmao GIRL. And she did the typical civvie thing where she tried to use SW skills to finesse but flailed (ex: she was trying to socially climb by sleeping with the hotel piano player and it’s like??? Aim higher, bb)
Also, Lucia, the actual SW character had no couth. She sat in that hotel lobby, waving at clients like it was a fan meet & greet. No discretion. And then fucked the client’s son without charging him and allowed him to do the “wait, I have to pay, you don’t actually like me?” thing 😬
I would have loved, actually, if she had actively chosen to fuck Albie for free, like considered it a night off to fuck a hot guy, because SW deserve to engage in their sexuality and pleasure separate from work, but that wasn’t the context.
The large lump sum from Dominic at the end of the season was supposed to tie it all up, but it just felt flat to me. Happy for her bag, but the depiction IMO was mostly a mess."
– Raquel
The White Lotus: Season Two scored 2/4 on The Red Light Rules™ that assesses portrayals of sex work in media. We created 4 questions to determine this:
1. Does the film show an understanding of choice, circumstance, and/or coercion? yes
2. Does the SWer interact with another person in a positive manner unrelated to SW?
3. Does the SWer have a storyline, hobby, or interest outside of SW?
4. Does the film have a happy and/or non-traumatic ending for the SWer? yes
