is paid intimacy villainized? | #apothecarydiaries #anime #cartoon — Transcript

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1. 0:00Is paid intimacy villainized? Let's talk
2. 0:01about that line of work. Now, the
3. 0:02villainization of paid intimacy is
4. 0:04heavily anchored in patriarchal
5. 0:05concepts, in particular female purity.
6. 0:07Historically, a woman's value was
7. 0:08exclusively tied to her chastity or her
8. 0:10exclusive dynamic with a husband. So,
9. 0:11when a female monetizes her own
10. 0:13sexuality, she's disrupting the system
11. 0:14and taking control over a society that
12. 0:16previously said that her value is
13. 0:17intrinsically tied into another,
14. 0:18specifically by legal means, in
15. 0:20particular, marriage. Characters like
16. 0:21Princess Akemi are widely praised for
17. 0:23their depiction of paid intimacy because
18. 0:24the narrative doesn't frame it as
19. 0:25something that's inherently negative,
20. 0:27but instead out of survival. That
21. 0:28couples with the nuance of bodily
22. 0:29autonomy and institutional power instead
23. 0:31of specific villainization of a specific
24. 0:32individual. Instead of using the medium
25. 0:34to shock or dehumanize, the narrative
26. 0:35gives these workers complex emotions,
27. 0:37motivations, as well as nuance,
28. 0:38subverting the trope of depicting them
29. 0:40as disposable villains or villainizing
30. 0:42temptresses. Similarly, in Apothecary
31. 0:43Diaries, despite the majority of the
32. 0:44women in the show being in positions of
33. 0:46paid intimacy, most of, if not the
34. 0:47majority of the women in the show, are
35. 0:49not depicted as incompetent or victims,
36. 0:50nor particularly oversexualized for the
37. 0:52sake of audience enjoyment. And I feel
38. 0:54like it's very respectful writing
39. 0:55because it separates the character's
40. 0:56moral worth from their occupation. It
41. 0:57places blame on a rigid unfair society
42. 0:59rather than a specific individual. These
43. 1:01nuanced depictions are vital because it
44. 1:02challenges the historical and ongoing
45. 1:04stigma in regards to paid intimacy,
46. 1:05which is fundamentally rooted in
47. 1:06misogynistic power struggles. So, by
48. 1:08reframing them as multi-dimensional
49. 1:09characters instead of some kind of moral
50. 1:10failing, these kinds of media are
51. 1:12essentially acting as an empathetic
52. 1:13mirror. And it forces the audience to
53. 1:14confront why society villainizes people
54. 1:16who provide [music] paid intimacy while
55. 1:17simultaneously enabling and protecting
56. 1:19the consumers of it.