Oscar Tradition of Rewarding Women Who Play Strippers and Prostitutes

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to an article written by Lauren A.E. Schuker of the Wall Street Journal entitled “Stripping Your Way to Success“.

The article starts off talking about how Marisa Tomei has been nominated for an Acadamy Award for playing a stripper in “The Wrestler”, and is doing so joins a long list of recent actresses who’ve been nominated for playing similar roles. 

“Four years ago, Natalie Portman was nominated for playing a young stripper in Mike Nichols’s steamy drama “Closer,” and just a year earlier Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her role as a real-life prostitute-turned-serial killer (in “Monster”). In the decade before that, Elisabeth Shue, Mira Sorvino and Julia Roberts all became Oscar nominees (or winners) for playing women who sell their bodies but guard their hearts — one of Hollywood’s longtime fascinations.”

The article goes on to point out that:

“The very first actress to win an Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences played a woman reduced to prostitution. In 1929, the Academy awarded its highest acting accolade to Janet Gaynor for three different roles, including a sympathetic woman imprisoned on a one-time stealing charge while out soliciting in Frank Borzage’s ‘Street Angel.'”