Tell Me in the Sunlight1965

What begins as a fairly typical boy-meets-girl scenario actually deals with the culture of sex work in the 1960’s era on the busy island of Nassau. As a tourist destination and port of mercantile exchange most of the dialogue and cinematography focuses on the sexual objectification of women’s bodies through the gaze of the male voyeur. The main character is a self-identified stripper, but don’t expect to see even a single breast: the movie reflects the time and age where cinema censored any nudity. This is a very interesting historical film that can be employed for further analysis with any gender and women’s studies or feminist critique that begins and ends with racist undertones. The main character Julie is a girl-next-door beauty Julie who later recounts she accidentally lost her way on her path to be become a dancer to the nightlife lifestyle. A cautionary note: this movie may be difficult for some to watch as there is a rape scene. It is particularly disturbing that a woman of color’s body was the focus during this scene where as the victim of the sexual assault was a white woman. This racist palimpsest serves as important historical media for further critical analysis. Where modern day feminists watching may have wanted to see Julie kick this jerk out or even kill him, contrarily she hushes him with kisses and takes him back anyway. While severely simplistic, one could say this is the precursor to Pretty Woman (1990). The typical storyline where her john, Dave, is the "knight in shining armor" that convinces her to leave her job out of love for him. Tell Me In the Sunlight barely lights a candle to a sex-positive, feminist, or sex-worker rights perspective, but makes for a rousing film.