Anyone see Ray Donovan on showtime?

[hikingguy2013]

Anyone see his piece on Sheris Ranch on Sunday? Thoughts?

[AliceLittle]

Shits about to get REAL y'all.

What the Ray Donovan show did was absolutely unacceptable, misleading, not factual, and downright shitty. My heart goes out to the girls involved in the scene who had no idea what was going to be portrayed- they were used as accessories to support the "story". How could the producers do this to them? How could management, who likely new the context of the episode, allow Nevada Brothels to be portrayed that way? Yes- I'm madder than hell. What a horrible, horrible thing to do.

Let me make this absolutely clear- The ladies involved have my absolute support- this was not their fault. The blame falls on hollywood, Ray Donovan, and the management of that location (if they knew the context of the show).

[Dr. Who]

Typical Hollywood!  I don't know how much control the owner of Sheri's Ranch had in how Showtime wrote that scene, but it definitely gave a misleading portrayal of Sheri's Ranch, the ladies, and LPIN as an industry.

[ChicagoBob]

Anybody have a link to this?

[jeremy lemur]

It’s virtually impossible to find accurate, well-rounded representations of sex workers in narrative film and television. More often than not a screenwriter will depict working girls as traumatized victims at best or, even worse, unethical criminals.

The show runners of Ray Donovan un-creatively grabbed the “larcenous hooker trope” off the self and added this one-dimensional character to the story, which consists of the prostitute and her cohorts drugging a client, stealing his mother’s wedding ring, and then later only giving the ring back after being gagged and tortured in the brothel.

What aggravates me is that these cringe-worthy scenarios revolve around a LICENSED sex worker in a LEGAL brothel. At legal brothels there is virtually no chance that a client would be doped and robbed by a courtesan and no chance that a working girl would be tortured on the premises of a regulated and safe legal bordello.

There is absolutely nothing in the scenes taking place at the brothel that convey, in any way, that the place is legal, safe, or even classy. The location could easily be swapped for any illegal dive brothel and the story would not need to be altered one bit.

For the management of the brothel to welcome the filmmakers into their place of business so that the filmmakers could portray this misrepresentative image of our industry, to a sizable audience nonetheless, is embarrassing, sad, amateurish -- and, worst of all, it's an insult to the establishment’s working girls, who work hard every day to cultivate a safe, healthy, fun, worry-free, and absolutely positive environment for their clients.

[Dr. Who]

Anybody have a link to this?

"Ray Donovan" is a TV series on Showtime.  It's a premium channel on cable and on several streaming services.

[ChicagoBob]

Anybody have a link to this?

"Ray Donovan" is a TV series on Showtime.  It's a premium channel on cable and on several streaming services.

Thanks Doc!  I don't watch much TV.  Hell, I don't even have cable.   

[hikingguy2013]

Chicago Bob you can get a free trial if you want at Showtime website if you want to see it on  a computer. Here is a link with more info on the episode:http://fikklefame.com/supporting-cast-of-las-vegas-ray-donovan/

I saw it today. What disgusts me is that a real brothel was used in the episode and it could be any real brothel for that matter and this stereotypes the ladies in LPIN as being crooks and abusing clients. Why Sheris would want an episode to show their brothel in this way is beyond me.Hollywood is Hollywood but I don't think any brothel would want to be portrayed as their ladies stealing. If someone watching did not know any better they would think the ladies at Sheris act this way which is completely untrue.  I was very appalled by it.

[Ruby Rae]

It's disgusting. The saying goes "All publicity is good publicity" but I don't think this is a good thing for Sheri's. I've heard management just agreed to the filming of location and didn't know the storyline, though. *shrug*

In my anger yesterday, I tweeted to the show, "Your writers should be disgraced for the brothel scene where they shamed an already vulnerable and stigmatized population. Painting sex workers in the negative light as you did is not an accurate representation of our work. Treat and display us as human beings!"

Inflicting violence and fear on sex workers is done enough already in the real world, mainly those who are working in survival sex work. We don't need to see this in Hollywood or on our televisions. Especially when the scenario was so far from what an actual experience at a brothel would be like. I'm so tired of Hollywood, the media, the government, and the law treating sex workers like they below humans. That we don't deserve empathy. support, or respect. It's beyond infuriating.

[sportsguy]

I'm still on season 2 so I have quite a bit of catching up to do. But perhaps it was Showtime's intent to tell about the history of the brothel. Anybody who knows their brothel history knows about some of the scams from back in the day in the Wild West. Obviously this kind of thing happens every day on the independent scene, but I haven't heard of anything like that happening in the modern day brothels. It is unfortunate that Sheri's was a part of this. Not to place the blame on Sheri's but I'd be a little wary to let somebody film something on my property without knowing the details or context of what was going on.

[jeremy lemur]

I've heard management just agreed to the filming of location and didn't know the storyline, though. *shrug*

I can see that. I hear that their "marketing director" is the same dude who can't get their Wi-Fi to work. 

[TeeJay]

I've never seen the inside of Sheri's that well lit. I almost didn't recognize it.

To be fair, this show is a fictional crime drama, so presumably, every hospital carelessly kills their patients, every other cop is crooked, and canned pinto beans have 5% insect parts.

[KittiMinx]

And unfortunately, anyone who works there cannot file a suit for their business being misrepresented in this fictional narrative. When your property is used to film major projects the studios literally have you sign your life away and bind it all in thick red tape.  So even if management was truly ignorant of the plot (or told a different type of story than the one fully filmed and edited together when the location was pitched) this poor representation of the business, industry, and the sex workers could not be fought in a court room.  I turned down doing a feature for MTV about my sex work job when I was able to read between the lines when talking to the producers and figured out the actual narrative they'd likely portray with the final edits, and it wasn't one I wanted my name and face attached to. The mainstream media industry is still decades behind with its portrayal of any kind of sex work - from dancers,  to porn performers, to erotic models, to fetishists, to escorts (legal and illegal). Part of it is still how puritanical our country wants to keep media in regards to how it handles sex. The rest is just the stigma the greater culture still carries towards sex work in any form. Positive media representation would help change that, however, similar to how Orange Is The New Black did help some communities push for reform of their minimum security prison systems and some people have a different perspective on what prison is like (and what people do who get to that point).

If anyone wants to fund my TV/Web series hit me up.

[AliceLittle]

There is absolutely nothing in the scenes taking place at the brothel that convey, in any way, that the place is legal, safe, or even classy. The location could easily be swapped for any illegal dive brothel and the story would not need to be altered one bit.

For the management of the brothel to welcome the filmmakers into their place of business so that the filmmakers could portray this misrepresentative image of our industry, to a sizable audience nonetheless, is embarrassing, sad, amateurish -- and, worst of all, it's an insult to the establishment’s working girls, who work hard every day to cultivate a safe, healthy, fun, worry-free, and absolutely positive environment for their clients.

Yeah it's all around shitty.  I really feel for the ranch and the ladies who didn't know what it was going to be.  Wish there was something they could do.  I guess all we can do is talk about how bad that representation is.

If anyone wants to fund my TV/Web series hit me up.

It seem more and more like this is the way we have to go to get good representation.

[AliceLittle]

In my anger yesterday, I tweeted to the show, "Your writers should be disgraced for the brothel scene where they shamed an already vulnerable and stigmatized population. Painting sex workers in the negative light as you did is not an accurate representation of our work. Treat and display us as human beings!"

Thank you, Ruby. More ladies need to stand up for accurate representation. Like any other minority group, we need to self-advocate for fair and accurate portrayal.