FHC Comp 3

In "Dance Dance Dance," the author Morikami portrays three prostitute women who play important roles in the narrator's journey. The novel raises questions about prostitution, women in society, and Morikami's depiction of them. The characters Kiki, Mei, and June face tragic outcomes, highlighting the unsafe and exploitative nature of the sex industry. The industry disproportionately affects low-income workers, women of color, transgender individuals, and immigrants. Prostitution reinforces negative narratives of objectifying women and can be harmful. Morikami's intention behind portraying women through prostitution is unclear, but it is evident that he writes about them in an objectifying way. The industry involves human rights, worker rights, criminal justice issues, and oppression related to race, class, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Hi everybody, my name is Katie and I recently read Dance Dance Dance, and it interests me how Morikami, the well-known author, portrays three prostitute women who are involved in the narrator's strange journey in discovering connections. Not only are they important plot characters, but they raise questions about prostitution, women in society, and Morikami's depiction of such. In this segment, we focus on how Morikami uses themes of prostitution surrounding his portrayal of women. Firstly, let's get a little familiar with the characters important to the topic. Kiki is the first prostitute we meet. She's mysterious and described as a high-class call girl. The narrator has a strange fixation with finding her through their connection to the Dolphin Hotel, where they stay the night together. Towards the end of the novel, she is murdered by a character who calls her to his room, but the motivation to commit the murder is unclear. Mei is another prostitute and is referenced as the goat girl. The narrator understands there is a network of high-class call girls, but struggles to put the pieces together. Mei dies a few chapters after being introduced. This suggests the idea of not only being a disposable woman, but especially a disposable sex worker. June is a prostitute sent to the narrator from an acquaintance. She goes missing a few weeks after the narrator meets her, but there is definitely something strange going on, because when the narrator inquires about her whereabouts, records reveal she has been missing for months. The matter seems to be kept hush-hush and pretty ignored. First of all, the sex work industry is really unsafe. According to the University of Minnesota Gender Policy Report, globally, sex workers have a 45 to 75 percent chance of experiencing sexual violence on the job. Experiencing physical and sexual abuse in the sex work industry is not uncommon for many workers. The unfortunate outcomes of Kiki, Mei, and June in Dance Dance Dance displays such. Yet, legal systems and criminalization of prostitution highlights vast disparities in social class in relation to prostitution. The Georgetown Journal of Gender and Law explains that often, police do not consistently enforce prostitution laws, except against most visible cases. These are typically street sex workers, who are disproportionately low-income workers, women of color, transgender people, and immigrants. Notably, the sex work industry is intersectional and involves human rights, worker rights, criminal justice issues, public health priorities, and oppression related to race, class, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Prostitution does reinforce the negative narrative of sexualizing and objectifying women. Overall, it can be agreed that the sex industry exploits the option of viewing women in a more objective way, which could also cause harm when women are measured on a criteria of sexual appeal. It begs the question then, what is the intention Morikami has for portraying women through prostitution the way he does? While these questions need further exploration to be answered, it can be concluded that Morikami does write about women in an objectifying way, especially when applied to sex workers, and we can acknowledge the exploitative and unsafe nature of the industry.