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Advantages and disadvantages of Prostitution
Women of the 18th century
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During the late eighteenth century, particularly 1770s through 1790s, the common woman of London, England had a primacy through life because of the growing center of prostitution. Women, specifically single women, were considered to be destined for prostitution because of the absence of a male role model. However, some women found great success in this lifestyle because of the beneficial assets garnered within their interactions with their clients. As to the courts, benefiting some of these assets were due to involuntary judgments which lead to women imprisonment. Women who worked as prostitutes were compared to materialistic property used for pleasurable encounters. Often in London, these women were categorized in three different demeanors according to some of the case trials brought against them. The major characteristic was focused on the means of survival. Women struggled to survive in London because of the male dominancy overruling their judgment of their own behaviors and beliefs. Another demeanor of prostitutes was identify with theft and abuse of taking what should have been rightfully owed to them for their services. Lastly, the behavior of organized crime was in favor of prostitutes; for what they did against their clients was only to gain recognition and praise from their brothel-keeper. There was a concerned discourse about the city on whether the act of prostitution was right or wrong. London usually showed a humane attitude towards prostitutes and maintained justice for the women who choose this profession.
Life for a prostitute meant engaging in the midnight festivities that often resulted in daylight miseries. The various aspects of communication between the prostitute and their clients were drawn togeth...
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...for Moral Reform, 1688–1800,” Journal of British Studies 46, No. 2 (April 2007): pp. 290-319, Accessed March 3, 2014, JSTOR.
Karras, Ruth Mazo, Common women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Mackay, Lynn, “Why They Stole: Women in the Old Bailey, 1779-1789,” The Journal of Social History 32, no. 3 (1999): 633, accessed October 23, 2012, JSTOR.
Nash, Stanley D., Prostitution in Great Britain 1485-1901: An Annotated Bibliography Metuchen, New Jersey & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1994.
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 04 March 2014), May 1693, trial of Elizabeth Elye (t16930531-45).
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 6.0, 17 April 2011), Tabulating decade against defendant gender, between 1770 and 1799. Counting by defendant.
Judith R. Walkowitz is a Professor Emeritus at John Hopkins University, specializing in modern British history and women’s history. In her book City of Dreadful Delight, she explores nineteenth century England’s development of sexual politics and danger by examining the hype of Jack the Ripper and other tales of sensational nature. By investigating social and cultural history she reveals the complexity of sexuality, and its influence on the public sphere and vice versa. Victorian London had upheld traditional notions of class and gender, that is until they were challenged by forces of different institutions.
"David D. Hall; The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newton" (1637) in Jacobson, Fran, Tim Konhaus and Scott Wade, eds. The Nortion Mix: American Voices. 1st Edition. Nortion, 2008. Print 55-64
... increased, men became more involved in the sex industry. From the case of Helen Jewett and Robert P. Robinson, a new image of prostitution was created, as well as the new sporting man culture. Prostitution was not unique to women, for subcultures of male prostitutes and homosexuals existed. In the sex community, women formed support networks with one another, creating sisterhoods. As the years progressed, sex became more integrated into popular culture and public space, accessible to all classes of New Yorkers. Police and politics were often ineffective with handling prostitution, and often time’s police officers were handsomely paid off by well-known establishments; vigilantism was a result of this inadequate policing. Finally, in the late 1900s, Charles Henry Parkhurst led the most popular anti-prostitution campaign, resulting in the decline in the sex industry.
principles, from religious dedication to personal liberty. Some fought against prostitution as a moral or social injustice while others charged prostitution as an injustice against women. Beginning in the colonies and continuing even up to present day America, this research will present the philosophies and management behind
During the late 19th- and early 20th century, the nature of society forced the working class women of America to take advantage of any means to support themselves, including prostitution. Each woman had to decide herself which work option best supported her financially.
Stansell, Christine. “Women on the Town: Sexual Exchange and Prostitution,” in City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Illinois, 1987), 171-192. [ACLS Humanities E-Book, via Coast]
During this time in society the industry of prostitution was an economic gold mine. The women operate the brothel while very distinguished men in the community own and take care of the up keep. The brothel keepers are seen as nothing more than common home wrecking whores. However, the owners of the brothels are viewed as successful business men.
Lea, John. "Sexual Violence in Nineteenth Century England." Sexual Violence in the Georgian Era. John Lea, 2004. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
The City of Dreadful Delight starts with some cultural analysis of the historical background that helped to produce the social landscape of Victorian London. In discussing the transformation of London, Walkowitz argues for seeing more than merely a shift from one type of city to another but rather a conflicted layering of elite male spectatorship, the “scientific” social reform, and W. T. Stead's New Journalism. Here Walkowitz investigates the “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.” The “Maiden Tribute” consisted of a series of articles, authored by Stead and presented in the penny press, which exposed the sale of girls into prostitution. According to Walkowitz, these stories relied on the new scientific methods of social investigation, but the...
Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 37-9 Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/journals/parergon/v019/19.1.crawford.pdf
Sanders, Teela, Maggie O’Neil, and Jane Pitcher. Prostitution: Sex Work, Policy, and Politics. London: SAGE, 2009. eBook Collection. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
It was a dark, menacing night as she stood there in the shadows. Waiting for the finale of the show that was playing, she glanced toward the exit through which people would soon be leaving. The rich, as patrons of the theatre house, promised her a salary at least for today. Her tattered clothes revealed the effects of personal destitution; the emaciated frame, that presently existed, harked back upon a body she must have once possessed. Driven by poverty to the realms of "painted cohorts," she makes up her face daily, distinguishing her life from the respected (264). She is an outcast, a leper, a member of the marginalized in society; she envelops the most degraded of positions and sins against her body in order to survive. As she looks up, her eyes reflect a different kind of light, a glimmer of beauty that has not yet faded despite her present conditions. She was, at one time, a "virtuous" woman, most likely scorned by a dishonest love. Finding no comfort or pity for her prior mistakes, she must turn to the streets and embrace the inevitable - the dishonor and shame from her previous engagement will follow her unto death. Shunned from society she becomes the woman who sells herself for money and sadly finds no love. She is the abandoned, the betrayed, and the lost, embarrassed girl; she is "of the painted cohorts," the female prostitute of the streets (264).
The article "Quae Corpore Quaestum Facit: The Sexual Economy of Female Prostitution in the Roman Empire" by Rebecca Flemming is an interesting article because Ms. Flemming starts out in the introduction making the case for feminist analysis of history especially in regards to a topic such as female prostitutes in Ancient Rome. Ms. Flemming does have a point where most history is developed through a historiography of privileged men's viewpoints so it is important to gain other viewpoints for a comprehensive look at a certain society at a certain time. On the other hand, in areas and times such as Ancient Rome, the prominent voices were privileged, free men's voices so most of historical documents we...
Millet, K. (1971). Prostitution: A Quartet for Female Voices. In V. Gornick & B.K. Moran (Eds.), Woman in Sexist Society. Basic Books, New York.
This essay will explore the question of whether prostitution should be seen as a job like any other through several key issues relating to the sex trade industry. The argument against prostitution as a job for women will be supported by various feminist theories. By following the discourse of prostitution as a chosen profession by women and the implication of the choice in the society, this essay will provide academic findings in answering the key issues in the sex workers profession. This essay will discuss the politics of women’s choice through prostitution and how feminist views have influenced it. The moral aspects of prostitution will be highlighted as well. The relationship of violence and abuse with prostitution is another key findings