Under the Las Vegas lights, all that glitters may not be gold. Kinky London Escort Maxine Lune, guides us through the cult classic Showgirls, its winners, losers and all who fall in between.

Time stamped with high waisted thongs on tall athletic bodies storming their way through a pre-smartphone belle epoch, we are distinctly set in the mid-nineties. Showgirls is a historic document, cult classic and modern fable. Timeless are the themes of competition and social climbing, of winning and losing, sex and power. We are in Las Vegas. A hotspot for gambling, sex, drugs, alcohol and most importantly, showbiz. It’s not a dream factory but a heightened reality. A place where opportunity and destruction make a fit pair. There are winners and losers. A clear-cut game. But what are you willing to do to make it in this town?

Nomi arrives in Las Vegas with nothing much but her hot self. She’s beautiful, she’s fierce and she’s a dancer. And what a dancer. It’s in her hips. Her thrusts are pure heat. No one knows where she’s got it from, but she sure has got it. That certain je ne sais quoi. Since her arrival opportunities have been chasing her. Opportunities and guys. Maybe they are one and the same.

Flash. Fire. Lights. Nomi sees Cristal rise on stage, elevated far above the common crowd. A topless goddess amongst stars. A moment of profound realisation. She knows where she wants to be without knowing it yet. Cristal is what Las Vegas is all about. “She is dazzling, she’s exciting and very very sexy.” The two are of the same kind. Cut from the same fibre. Girls from the gutter whose ends justify the means. Cristal sees a double in Nomi. A former self. A reminder of a past life, when she was a nobody. When she had to hustle, having to do God knows what, to get where she has gotten. Her position at the top is brittle. That’s the nature of the game. It’s fast paced. It’s unforgiving. Only one thing is certain, that the show must always go on.

A change of scene. We are at the Cheetah, where Nomi rules the floor. All eyes are on her and those eyes are in awe. Though, flashing your tits as a stripper is fundamentally different from flashing your tits as a showgirl. That’s at least what Cristal wants to prove. Set the whore in her place. Nomi is pressed against her will into performing a private dance for Cristal’s boyfriend Zach, while she watches. It is no coincidence he is the manager of the Stardust casino. They aren’t lovers but each other’s trophies. The lap dance request bears a double meaning. Cristal offers $500 so she can watch. A breach of the house rules for a much larger sum than usual. The request is an act of humiliation but also admits to a power dynamic where men are in a higher position. Cristal makes clear that whoever has the money can buy what they want, even against the wishes of the dancer, but it is Zach’s desire for Nomi that is the measure of her worth. Showbiz defines the value of a woman by her attractiveness. Thus, sex is not an act but a currency. It is the capital of a woman in a man’s world.

Numerous plot twists later, Cristal takes Nomi out for dinner. Nomi is dancing for the Las Vegas show Goddess by now. Cristal lavishly pours two glasses of champagne. Her manicured fingers dive into the full glass and she proclaims ‘This isn’t champagne. It’s holy water’, while drawing an imaginary cross in front of Nomi’s face, splashing her with some of the drops. Class aspiration, the breach of a moral code to achieve personal gain, and a microaggression reaffirming Cristal’s superior position in relation to Nomi are equally implied in this fleeting gesture. It’s not a dinner, it’s an arena. The fight is done in feminine fashion. Their weapons: manipulation and competitive friendship. They bond over Doggychoo. The best dog food not only for dogs. You gotta do, what you gotta do, when you ain’t got nothing. Cristal’s in awe with Nomi’s beautiful tits. She says she liked seeing them at the Cheetah. Nomi did not: ‘it made me feel like a hooker’. The worst thing she could be called. A hooker. Cristal makes clear, we (showgirls) are all whores. ‘We take the cash, we cash the check, we show them what they want to see.’

Two definitions of sex work oppose each other here. One is a hooker that sells sex for money. The other a whore that isn’t called a whore but is a whore because she trades part of her sexuality to rise upwards in social status. Both definitions of whoring reflect the negative connotations present in the general perception of sex work. To be a whore is not what you do, it’s who you are. Selling sex means selling yourself and cannot be anything but a last resort. An act that leads to an irreversible negative effect on the character. The trade means a loss of integrity in exchange for a sinister calculative persona. She tricks the trick. Thief and victim. Muse and threat.

That’s why Nomi adamantly denies her past, which is soon to come out. A history of drug abuse and unlawful soliciting. A dark story she has left behind. She has tried to erase by inventing herself anew. She does not want the label. A brand mark that would ruin her career. Cristal’s emphasis is on the malicious self-interested character the whore is deemed to have. She takes on a personal challenge, bordering on obsession, to prove the two are exactly alike. Nomi indeed takes over Cristal’s position after a series of backstabbing moves. Each step marks an increase of corruption for the sake of success.

Opulent visuals in combination with melodramatic overacting elevate the initial flop to a cult classic. Camp neon-lit baroque sets, washed in warm golden light refracting of sexed up bodies, compose an unforgettable kitsch experience. A feast for the eye. Tacky dialogues carry a predictable storyline and yet the film has more depth than critics were prepared to credit at the time of the release.

Nomi’s hip thrusts are an ode to female sexuality beyond submission. The cliché of a passive negative that is filled with an active positive is subverted. Her performance in general and the hip thrusts in particular carry a certain aggression usually assigned to male sexuality. In one of the most iconic scenes in film history, Nomi’s torso whirls like a pinwheel locked to Zack’s groin, as the two fuck in his pool. An acrobatic undertaking that underlines her exaggerated character. This is where the power in sex becomes ambivalent. Nomi is subjected to a system that objectifies her and yet moves with agency.

The end makes clear winning is just an empty phrase. Nomi demands justice for the brutal rape of her friend by one of the casino stars, with Zach threatening to out her as a whore if she steps forward. She will be made a star but is controlled. Men get to stand above the law while women, if they are lucky, won’t be called a whore but are treated like disposable items, in any case. A cynical American dream-gone-rogue fairytale that is a joy to watch. If you ask me, I’d hit the road with Nomi anytime again.