2 Broke Girls

noisy. It is a very clever trick to open the episode with a discussion around the noise of the upstairs neighbour: it subtly reinforces stereotypes about the “nuisance of sex work” before sex work is even entered into the conversation of the episode (almost like a pre-emptive attack).

 

The noisiness of the new neighbour (Sophie) causes Max to slip a threatening note under her door. To Max and Caroline’s chagrin, Sophie subsequently comes downstairs to confront them about it. Caroline tries to ease the situation by apologizing, introducing herself and Max, and offering Sophie some of Max’s homemade cupcakes. All appears to be well. Sophie even lets Caroline borrow her Chanel Allure lip gloss that she had pulled from her purse (more on that later).

 

Things seem to be fine between the neighbours after their talk until that same night when Sophie again is being too loud for Max and Caroline’s liking. They storm up to her apartment with the intent to confront her. However, when Sophie opens the door, Max and Caroline are dumbfounded to find a gaggle of gorgeous women lounging around Sophie’s apartment wearing slinky negligées. At a loss for words, Max and Caroline let Sophie and her guests continue their slumber party without issue.

 

Once Sophie steps back into her apartment, Max and Caroline have some choice words for what they just witnessed:

 

Caroline: “Oh my god, she’s a hooker! I’ve been using a hooker’s lip gloss!”
Max: “No, she’s not a hooker,” (Caroline sighs in relief) “she’s too old to be a hooker. She’s a madam! You’ve been using an old hooker’s lip gloss!”
*audience laughs*

 

Their interaction brings up more of the usual stereotypes when (alleged) sex workers appear on movie or TV screens: that they are ‘dirty’ and ‘diseased’. If you don’t believe me, this exact same joke was made in an episode of How I Met Your Mother almost six years earlier. These stereotypes are persistent, and they are allowed to be because of representations like this that go unchallenged by viewers.

 

 

The climax of the episode hits when Sophie invites Max and Caroline out to a fancy dinner as a kind apologetic gesture in order to get past all of the confusion from before. Sophie takes an interest in their cupcake business and offers Max and Caroline jobs with her own business to help them earn some extra cash. Max and Caroline, thinking that Sophie is in the business of prostitution, take immediate offense and try to think of ways to politely decline her offer.

 

When Sophie is away from the table visiting the restaurant owner, Max and Caroline dish:

 

Max: “You’d make a terrible hooker”
Caroline: “Thank you, I would make a terrible hooker. I have a heart and soul and dreams and want to fall in love and have a family one day.”

 

Strike this down as one of the most problematic statements about sex workers that I have ever heard on network television. Caroline – an upper-class white woman with expensive taste and high morals –cannot even fathom the idea that a sex worker could also have a heart and soul and dreams and want to fall in love and have a family one day.

 

The truth is that the criminalization of sex work in Canada historically has made it difficult for sex workers to maintain relationships. Laws prohibiting living off the avails of prostitution make it difficult for sex workers to establish cohabitation with loved ones out of fear that they will be persecuted (van der Muelen, 2010). It is a sad reality that societal stigma and legal subordination have made it difficult for sex workers to maintain healthy relationships and start a family. This is not to say, however, that these things are not possible. Of course, many sex workers are married or have children or have accomplished their dreams despite Caroline’s insistence that these things are not possible for them.

 

When Sophie returns to the table, Max politely declines Sophie’s offer. Sophie insists that she does not understand why two smart girls like them wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to make their dreams come true.

 

Caroline: “We are smart girls, and smart girls don’t have to sell their bodies to accomplish their goals.”

 

I could write a thesis on everything wrong with Caroline’s above statement, but alas I do not have the time. I will say that the phrasing of “sell their bodies” is one that when spoken allowed in such a way assumes that the seller does not have control over their body or their lives. In truth, many sex workers have great control over how they sell, where they sell, who they sell to and what they choose to do.

 

Sophie is of course offended by Max and Caroline’s assumption that she is a prostitute. She storms off, leaving her business card (she owns a cleaning company), and leaving Max and Caroline thoroughly embarrassed.

They eventually got to Sophie’s door to apologize—with cupcakes—and insist that their mistaking her for a prostitute was not a negative thing:

 

Caroline: “Actually, it’s kind of a compliment that we thought you were stunning enough to have men pay to have sex with you.”
Sophie. “This is true. Come on in.”

 

Caroline may play the whole situation off as a positive, but her actions and language choice throughout the episode were far from complimentary. She is not forgiven.

 

- - - - - 

 

Safety

• There was no sexual activity [and Sophie isn't a sex worker]

Word Choice

• Throughout the episode, Sophie is referred to as a hooker, an old hooker, a madam, and a prostitute

• When Caroline asks Earl if he thinks Sophie "looks like a prostitute" Earl replies with "I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, but if she were a book, she'd be the type of book that other books pay for for sex"

Inclusiveness

• Sophie's introduction to the show is based on a misunderstanding of her as a "diseased hooker"

• Sophie ends up being a main character on the show [but she is not a sex worker]

Facts

• Caroline assumes that using Sophie's lipstick would immediately give her an STI

• There is an assumption by Caroline that if Sophie is running a brothel that the girls are being held there against their will [conflating trafficking with brothel ownership]

Type

• Sophie is assumed to be a "diseased prostitute"

• Sophie is also presented as an upper-class brothel owner/exploiter
   

Overall SWIFT Rating:      

• The episode earns one red umbrella for ending with a positive complimentary image of sex workers rather than concluding with another derogatory joke

• The overall maltreatment of Sophie as an alleged sex worker throughout the episode resulted in an extremely low rating