Bill Maher slams Hollywood’s WOKE use of term ‘prostitute’ after Anora’s Oscar sweep

Bill Maher expressed his bewilderment over Hollywood adopting the phrase ‘sex worker’ in lieu of ‘prostitute.’

The television host and comedian, 69, discussed the shift in terminology and the number of films depicting prostitution in a recent episode of Real Time With Bill Maher.

Maher stated that ‘wh**es are having a moment’ after Sean Baker’s film, Anora — which follows a young stripper (played by Mikey Madison) — won five Oscars, including for best picture and best actress. 

During their acceptance speeches both Madison and Baker thanked the ‘sex worker community.’ 

Maher argued that the change erases the often harsh realities faced by women involved in the sex industry. 

‘Wow, three weeks ago it was a bunch of h*es and now it’s a community?’ Maher questioned.

‘If it’s such an important liberal cause, why didn’t you do it 10 years ago or 20 or in 1975?’ he asked.

‘A few years ago, the New York Post ran a story about a paramedic who couldn’t make ends meet and so started an OnlyFans to pay her bills, and then got publicly shamed for it. And Congresswoman [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in her defense, “Sex work is work,”‘ Maher went on.

He then quipped, ‘First of all, sex shouldn’t be work at all. You wives know what I’m talking about.’

He went on: ‘Moreover, we’re saying sex work is work. It’s kind of like saying slavery is work, strictly speaking. But is that really the message we want to be sending?’ 

Later in the segment, Maher questioned ‘why so many hookers’ have been featured in films throughout the years. 

‘If half of all male stars in Hollywood had at one point played, oh, I don’t know, a porch pirate or a used car salesman or a Three Card money dealer or a lobbyist, you know, something really sketchy, would we not wonder about that?’ he asked. 

‘What does it mean? Does it mean that we’re still locked into the Madonna-wh**e complex? It would seem so since there’s 1,000 movies about who**s and Madonna has never made a good one.’

Maher then pointed out how Anora is Baker’s fifth film about sex workers.

‘Anora is a good one. It’s a great movie. So is Sean Baker’s other movie about a sex worker, Tangerine, and his other movie about a sex worker, Red Rocket, and his other movie about a sex worker, Starlet, and his other movie about a sex worker, The Florida Project. Look, I think Sean is a huge talent, but he does think about wh***s a lot.’

Toward the end of his segment he explained why he believes ‘wh**e’ is a better term than ‘sex worker.’

‘You can get so caught up in the virtue signaling that you actually do harm to the cause, and using “sex worker” makes it sound too benign, like it’s a temp job at a call center being done by a woman in a cubicle with a cactus on her desk.’

‘But it’s not that, and it’s not usually the woman’s choice to do it. The language may have changed, but the job hasn’t.’

After beating out Demi Moore for the coveted Best Actress award at the 2025 Oscars, Mikey recognized ‘sex workers’ in her speech, telling the crowd: ‘I want to again recognize and honor the sex worker community. Yes. I will continue to support and be an ally.’

‘All of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the highlights of this incredible experience.’ 

Mikey portrays an escort in Anora, an independent film with a $6 million budget. 

It was a particularly surprising upset because Demi had won the actress award at most of the major pre-Oscar events for her role in The Substance. 

Meanwhile Mikey’s director Sean said ‘I want to thank the sex worker community’ during his acceptance speech for best picture.

Baker also earned three awards including: Best Original Screenplay, Achievement in Film Editing, and the coveted Best Director.

The film is centered around a young escort named Ani (played by Mikey) from Brooklyn, who meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Anora is far from the first movie that Baker has released that focuses on the struggles of the sex worker community.

Before Anora, Baker had already released four films centered around either porn stars or prostitutes, beginning with 2012’s Starlet.

Starlet follows the story of 21-year-old porn star Jane who forms an unlikely friendship with an 85-year-old woman named Sadie.

After Starlet, Baker wrote and directed Tangerine, which follows the story of a transgender prostitute in Los Angeles who finds out her pimp has been cheating on her.

Once Tangerine became a critical darling, Baker was able to secure A-lister Willem Dafoe for his next film, 2017’s The Florida Project.

The gritty slice-of-life drama followed single mother Halley and her six-year-old daughter Moonee living in a budget motel in Florida as they struggle to fend off homelessness.

Baker followed with the black comedy Red Rocket, starring Simon Rex as a washed-up porn star named Saber who returns to his small Texas hometown after burning out in Los Angeles.