The Wendy/Jesse relationship is actually interesting. They know each other pretty well, Jesse trusts her with his life, basically, on two separate occasions. Jesse has sex with her, when we know that Jesse has a knack for getting sex from nice looking women (who don’t have Meth damaged teeth).

I think you shouldn’t underestimate the audience for Breaking Bad, in many ways it’s a “crime procedural” show. It gets into the small details of crimes that other shows don’t deal with, like money laundering, avoiding the cops through elaborate fronts and such. (Compare it to The Sopranos, for example, which I always considered to be more of a comedy of manners that focused on violent criminals.)

One of the things that comes up on this show is class. Jesse is in a lower class, socially, than Walt. Up until he started to get big in the meth trade, with Walt’s help, he was basically on Wendy’s level. They’ve shown this a lot. Also, they’ve shown Walt’s contempt for the other people in Jesse’s life who are closer to his level like Wendy. When Jesse talks about including Wendy in his vigilante plot, Walt is contemptuous of her as a “meth whore” and then Jesse points out that that “meth whore” stood up to hours of tough questioning by the DEA without cracking.

Ditto that!

It was definitely sensationalistic, and maybe I was a little too optimistic about how the audience at large might read it. Probably a lot of the bits that are ironic or funny or true to sex workers were just part of the popcorn-munching for everyone else. But then, I still have to give credit to the show for getting it so right that it can work both ways.

I was planning on re-reading them anyway. I’ll take a tally of the number of times whores are mentioned casually and extraneously. And then another tally for the number of times Cersei Lannister gets called a whore. But I will die of surprise if there’s a female PoV chapter from a non-virgin/non-mother. I seem to remember a lot of White Knight Tyrion Lannister crap.

I’m an idiot, Breaking Bad deserves more credit than I gave it. Yes, I am aware of the parallel between this realization and my ever-evolving understanding for the real world of sex work.

I should be up front and say that I’m not a sex worker, just an ally.

I posted that choice quote on my tumblr and was glad to see it has legs there too. It seems like such a simple concept, that people given a choice will make the choice that seems best to them.

Wendy is such a great character, I hope we see more of her!

I would love for us to do one post on prostitutes in the book, and another on prostitutes in the show (where they figure far more prominently…. Hmm, I wonder why that is? Could it be their luscious whore boobs???)

Still can’t get over Wendy only being in three episodes. If you asked me to name characters on the show, she would be right after Jesse and Walt. Or certainly way before Skylar and Hank and Pollos Hermanos guy. I do love me some Skinny, he might beat her out.