Scarlet Road: A Sex Worker’s Journey – Age Melbourne

Posted on December 1, 2011

BY TURNS confronting, funny and moving, this film documents the work of an extraordinary woman. Rachel Wotton is a sex worker who specialises in disabled clients. She calmly destroys every preconception you might have had both about sex workers and people with disabilities. Wotton performs a vital service with disarming honesty. “I like the fact that my job is always about pleasure,” she says. One of the other stars of the show is Mark Manitta, a wheelchair-bound man with cerebral palsy.

Having sex helps with the spasms of his disease, he explains via his keyboard. “And I like sex,” he says, mischievously. With the blessing of his mother, Mark has been saving to pay Wotton to spend the night with him on his birthday. “It has been my dream to have a woman stay in my bed overnight,” he says. One can’t help contrast the compassion Wotton brings to her work with the mean-spirited moralising that will doubtless be aimed at her.