She's also the woman he can't impress. Joan Chen is a call girl whose Ninja assassin ex-boyfriend shows up one day to chop her head off. She ends up headless, but not before she calmly and rather sorrowfully tells him what an idiot he is. Sooner or later, most actresses get around to playing the prostitute. Demi Moore and Holly Hunter have never walked the celluloid streets, but they qualify under a technicality.
Moviegoers know the reality of prostitution.
If they live in a city and have driven by a red-light district, they've seen some of it. Yet, with a kind of willing schizophrenia, they cling to the prostitute as a metaphor. Though this is the kind of observation that gets you thrown out of parties, the inescapable conclusion is that the prostitute is a symbol for women in general. That might explain why women are drawn to the role, both as performers and as viewers. The movie prostitute is a symbol of strength and decency.