Ivory Silk Evening Dress with Loopy Ribbons

c. 1903

This past Sunday marked the 98th annual Academy Awards (@theacademy). Breaking the troubling pattern of the last two years, none of the women nominated for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress depicted prostituted women. The winners for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor have consistently depicted a variety of characters, such as nuclear physicists, architects, musicians and government leaders. In the history of the Academy Awards, no man has ever been nominated or won for portraying a prostituted individual. If Hollywood keeps pedaling stories of prostituted women and the sex trade, what message are they pushing out? What are they instilling in women and girls, what are they showing society values about women and girls?