Celebrities seeking to provide “a voice for the voiceless” would do well to remember that sex workers aren’t voiceless, just consistently ignored. There may well be women out there who relate to Fantine, but in reducing the experiences of all sex workers to one tale of tragic misery, Hathaway’s comments silence and dehumanize the same women she seeks to ‘help.’

"So you have this situation where an entire industry is operating in a legal gray area. But a lot of folks are making a lot of money off of it -- and that, ultimately, might be why it is 'legal' while prostitution is not."