Whoreview: Shortbus

Editor’s note: mentions of suicide, stalking.

Shortbus is a movie about connection and disconnection with your sexuality, with queerness, with people, with life. It shows the beauty in the ugliness of humanity, of being depressed, obsessed, repressed, in love, alone, etc. The name “Shortbus” alludes to the social salon in Brooklyn where all the main characters meet up, wherein you can find anything from movies being projected to orgies. But it also makes an allusion to “minorities”, deviants, even, or that's what I think, because if the cisheterosexuals are riding all together in a big bus, all the queers and weirdos are on a shortbus. As the host says, “it's a place for the gifted and the challenged”.

This movie follows four main stories that interconnect with each other in some particular way There's Jamie and James (the latter who is severely depressed), a gay couple who go to a sex therapist called Sofia (she's never had an orgasm and it's frustrating to her). In some scenes you can see someone in the background, this is Caleb (James’s stalker). Then we have Severin, a Dominatrix who can't form long fulfilling human connections (relatable). 

My favourite character is obviously the dominatrix, Severin. When they show her sessioning, I like that she's well-equipped with a flogger, disinfectant spray, and all kinds of toys – it's not just the usual whip and latex that we see in most movies. They also show her poverty – she's not a rich dominatrix, she lives in a storage unit and walks the city with all her heavy luggage on her shoulders, as many sex workers can relate. 

Her main conflict is that it's hard for her to form real connections. Many of us go through this, because of discrimination or because sometimes being a sex worker is a very lonely experience, especially if you're not surrounded with other whores who get you. We see an example of this feeling of not being able to connect very early on in the movie. Severin is asked what was her best orgasm and she says, “it was like time had stopped and I was completely alone.” She mentions how she was sad afterwards because time hadn't stopped and she wasn't alone, which when you can't form deep connections and life is racing at you, seems pretty understandable.

Sometimes being a sex worker is a very
lonely experience, especially if you're not
surrounded with other whores who get you.

Later we discover from a conversation between James and Severin that he was an escort, if you can call it that because though he did it “willingly”, he started as a minor. James tells Severin that he liked it because he knew exactly what he was worth and what he had to offer, which I think is very tied with the fact that he's depressed and can't see his intrinsic worth anymore. There's a point when he attempts suicide, after which, he meets his stalker Caleb. He says that he knows that he's loved but he can't feel it because it stops in his skin. It is is a good example of how it feels to have people that love you but still being depressed – and frustrated for not being able to get out of it for anyone.

On the other hand we have Sofia, the sex therapist who can't orgasm. She has a conversation with Severin about this in an attempt to get over it. From what I picked up about this all through the movie, I think this block she has to orgasm is because from a very early age she had to behave and perform in a certain way. She keeps performing constantly every time she has sex with someone, faking orgasms for her partner. She also has some sort of connection with electricity which is obviously tied to this. When she gets frustrated, lights behave oddly and start flickering, to the point that she causes a blackout all over the city. When she finally orgasms, all the lights come back again. I feel this represents the fact that without the spotlight on her, she can finally let go of this farce and connect with herself and her pleasure.

I emphasise early on this movie is about connection, and it's because we can see honest beautiful little moments throughout it. There's a moment when Jamie and James have a threesome with a man called Ceth. They are fucking and laughing and there's this cute, and for me, important moment in which James hands a condom to Jamie so he can fuck Ceth, looking him lovingly. As a non monogamous person, this radiates compersion to me, which I find beautiful. The movie is full of pain but also of these little wholesome and melancholic moments. This is why I love this movie so much, because it's honest about suffering and love, which is just marvellous.

Are you a sex worker with a story, opinion, news, or tips to share? We'd love to hear from you!

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