Netflix’s ‘Jezebel’ Is the Film We Need to Combat Sex Work Stereotypes
The indie drama, backed by Ava DuVernay, is based on director Numa Perrier’s real-life experiences
If there’s anything to understand about Numa Perrier, it’s that she’s fearless.
Fearless in her acting (peep her sex scenes in the now-defunct Showtime comedy SMILF) and as the writer-director in her debut feature film Jezebel. Her indie drama, set in the 1990s, centers on Tiffany (played by Tiffany Tenille), a naive 19-year-old, who in order to pull her weight alongside her sister Sabrina, must enter the seedy yet exhilarating world of sex work on the internet.
The topic alone is a tricky one, especially given the complicated and contradictory manner in which Black women and Black girls’ sexuality is viewed in real life and cinematically. We’re either erased, ignored, or hypersexualized. On one hand, we’re told we’re undesirable. On the other hand, we’re deeply fetishized. For our young Black girls, it is worse. Our babies are rarely allowed to be just that, often regarded as “being fast” or acting “too grown.”
So how can we reconcile all that, while living in a #MeToo and #MuteRKelly world?
