Prostitution: Climbing the Social Ladder
In Stephen Crane’s novel, “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”, he paints a picture for his audience that is very vibrant. Maggie is a young woman living in The Bowery of New York’s Lower Manhattan, where poverty and violence resides. Maggie is soon swooned by Pete, a friend of her brother Jimmie. She sees a sort of worldliness and excitement in him. Maggie’s love is soon betrayed by Pete and she turns to prostitution, where she then becomes a scandal in her neighborhood. Crane’s work of literature draws attention to how poverty, bad home lives, and double standards are just some of the causes of prostitution.
Poverty and violence play a big role on prostitution. Living in a home, in a very poor neighborhood,
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The women are always held to a higher standard than the men. “For there is no reality in the sentimental assertion that the sexual sins of the lad are as degrading as those of the girl. The instinct of the female is more toward the preservation of purity, and therefore her fall is deeper—an instinct grounded on the desire of preserving a stock, or even the necessity of perpetuating our race.” (qtd. in Brace 66). Brace provides the audience with a perfect example of a double standard. If a female acts on these sexual sins, they are more likely to be judged for the acts rather than the male. It seems as if it is almost okay for men to act upon these sexual sins while women cannot because society as a whole holds females to a higher standard than they should be. Society expects too much from the women while they already contribute so much to the society, such as bearing life. “Jimmie had an idea it wasn’t common courtesy for a friend to come to one’s home and ruin one’s sister. But he was not sure how much Pete knew about the rules of politeness…He was trying to formulate a theory that he had always unconsciously held, that all sisters, excepting his own, could advisedly be ruined.” (Crane 31 & 33). Maggie’s brother, Jimmie, knew it was not okay for his sister to be “ruined” due to Pete’s seduction. Jimmie had an idea that any other females could be ruined, but one of those females should not have been his
The book, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex 1790-1920, written by Timothy J. Gilfoyle, explains the sexual transformation New York and its inhabitants experienced. Gilfoyle emphasizes the idea that sex had not been commercialized prior to this time. This new sex industry expanded all throughout New York City. Gilfoyle states that the public saw prostitution in a numerous ways; there were citizens who viewed it as a necessary urban evil and others as a moral disease. Many people thought that prostitution consisted of wretched women, who chose to sell themselves for the thrill of it, a common misconception. A handful of prostitutes became successful madams, acquiring mass amounts of wealth and power. With the increase in commercialized sex, there also was a dramatic increase in violence against women, leading to the creation of the pimp. Gilfoyle also writes about the transition that the male sexual psyche underwent in the 1900s, referred to as the “sporting man” culture. Prostitution’s prevalence in New York City extended from the brothels to other public spaces, such as museums. For some individuals, this sexual freedom resulted in the creation of guidebooks and pornographic literature. During the 1900s, prostitution also became heavily intertwined with law enforcement and its politics. With the visibility of sex exponentially increasing, some citizens resorted to vigilantism to combat it. The ideology of taking matters into one’s own hands led the social Reverend Charles Henry Parkhurst’s successful reform of prostitution.
Murphy, L. S. (2010). Understanding the Social and Economic Contexts Surrounding Women Engaged In Street-Level Prostitution. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31(12), 775-784.
Sterk enters the field with the objective of studying and attempting to understand the lives of prostitutes on the streets of Atlanta and New York City. She tries to investigate the reasons why these women are in the profession, their interactions with their ‘pimps’ and customers, their attitudes towards safe sex in light of the AIDS endemic, and above all, prostitution’s link to drug use. Her basic thesis revolves around these women’s thoughts and feelings regarding prostitution and the effect it has on their lives. Through her research, Sterk uncovers a demographic that ranges...
The 1990 romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, is a popular film that represents several aspects of feminism through the character of Vivian Ward, a prostitute who experiences a change in social class when she meets corporate businessman, Edward Lewis. The film demonstrates society's placement of sex workers and the inequalities they face in everyday life due to the stigma and generalizations of the whole sex industry. I argue that the film Pretty Woman addresses the issues in society of the marginalization of sex workers and the high stigmatization that is associated with acts of sex work. In addition, through the character of Vivian, it is emphasized that sex workers have agency and empowerment of their own desires. I believe Vivian’s strong sense
guidance and are often byproducts of a larger issue in that part of the country, prostitution. The
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, is a realist outlook on the gritty underside of Industrialized America. It is a story that doesn't withhold the dirt and grime that came with living in highly populated impoverished areas. The young Stephen Crane does a very good job portraying the destruction of a young, beautiful, and optimistic Maggie by forces outside of her own control. The rather dreary realism of the novel was a little unheard of at the time. Crane had to publish his book himself, as no publishers wanted to take the chance on a novel so negative about human nature. However, over time his story quickly cemented its roots as a fundamental column of American Realism Literature.
Crane, Stephen. Maggie a Girl of the Streets (A Story of New York). Ed. Kevin J. Hayes. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. Print.
According to Satz, there are three types of prostitutes: a streetwalker, a high-end escort, and male prostitutes. The focus of this paper will be on the first two types. A streetwalker can be viewed as a girl who takes up prostitution because she has no other options. She desperately needs the money, yet has no education or skills, so all she can do is sell her body. As she is young and vulnerable, she relies on a pimp for protection. However, the pimp has total control over and decides when and with who she has sex with. She has no autonomy or independence over her body. On the other hand, escorts tend to be high end and cater to wealthy men. They make pretty decent money and have a lot of independence. They have the power to decide when they want to work and who they will accept as their clients. The amount of autonomy is what separates the two,
Prostitution is looked down on as an immoral activity. Some people do not even consider it to be a profession. It is indeed morally wrong but maybe it is considered so because of social norms. Women who participate in this profession are seen as harlots and tramps and a disgraceful member of society. Some of these women are addicted to drugs, they have no other choice but to be involved in the profession while others have been coerced into it. Most of their backgrounds involve terrible role models while others have parents that forced them into doing these acts.
Elizabeth Anderson makes a claim that “The attempt to sell gift value on the market makes a mockery of those values.”(Anderson 188) Anderson uses this claim to object commoditized sex (prostitution). There are two premises that Anderson uses to support her claim. The first premise being the gift value of sex cannot be realized in commercial terms and the second premise being that the gift value of sex is more significant that the use value of sex itself.
In sociology, the term deviance refers to all violations of social rules, regardless of their seriousness (Essentials of Sociology 136). Deviance is an individual or organizational behavior that violates societal norms and is usually accompanied by negative reactions from others. According to a sociologist S. Becker, he stated that it is not the act itself that makes an action deviant, but rather how society reacts to it.
Throughout America and the entire world, prostitution flourishes. Prostitution is another never ending war like abortion, which society feels is immoral. This immorality leads functionalists, who apply functionalism to this social problem, on a chase to figure out why prostitution is what it is today. Functionalism is the best theory for looking at prostitution. It allows us to see how prostitution changes along with other aspects of society.
Women were unfairly judged in the past. Throughout American history, females have been regarded as the inferior gender, always doing something wrong. For example, In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Hester, is exiled to the outskirts of her town with her daughter, Pearl. The people in Hester’s town mistakenly believed that Hester had an affair during her husband’s absence; she was actually raped. This mid-seventeenth century Boston society was automatically disgusted by the fact that Hester gave birth during her husband's absence. They wrongly accused her for not being loyal when she was actually forcefully raped. The novel describes this situation by saying, “She would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion” (Hawthorne 5.1). Men were unfairly perceived as the superior individuals and less pressure was on them. Women were seen as innately sinful and, therefore, have a tarnished image because of that. They are str...
Since prostitution has been around there have been labels and stigmas behind the workers, their morals and the job itself. Leaving these men and women to be rejected rights, health care, insurance, etc. Weitzer observes, “[i]nstead of viewing themselves as ‘prostituted,’ they may embrace more neutral work identities, such as ‘working women’ or ‘sex workers’ […] These workers are invisible in the discourse of the anti-prostitution crusade precisely because their accounts clash with abolitionist goals.” Weitzer is hinting at the fact that these women and men see themselves as workers too, deserving of workers rights and protection, just as you and I would expect. But they are declined help and benefits because of the stigma following their line of work, based on societal values.
Prostitution is the act of selling ones body for any type of sexual intercourse in exchange for money. Today, both men and women are willingly and forcefully engaged into the industry of sex and prostitution. It is most common for young teenage girls to be involved into this industry rather than a male or older woman. There are several different ways to how individuals are first brought into prostitution. One way is to be kidnapped and forcefully put on to the streets by a "Guerilla Pimp". "Guerilla Pimps" are the men who use their ability and force to kidnap young girls and throw them on to the streets to work as prostitutes (Youth Radio). Another way to be introduced to prostitution is by being persuaded by "Romeo Pimps". "Romeo Pimps" are the men who sweet talk you into situations and act like nothing is wrong with it (Youth Radio).