The Topography of Prostitution in Renaissance Ferrara
By Daine Yvonne Ghirado
“In this Paper, I propose to initiate an alternative understanding of the Renaissance city as comprised of gendered spaces and spatial practices, with one of the chief imperatives being the spatial control of women.”
In her article, Diane Ghirardo using Renaissance Ferrara as a case study presents the side effects of male controlled spaces, cities and civic structures on the social, spatial and economic activities of the female population. “Specifically of all professions, only prostitutes confronted legal constraints on their movements through and presence in city streets”
“…civic statues and laws specified spatial controls only for prostitutes”
Diane Ghirardo focuses on prostitutes because she identified that among the groups of women, prostitutes were the only group that had specified spatial controls and the most vulnerable to the existing system …“most readily available scapegoats for a variety of social, economic and chronological ills.”…. …show more content…
Prostitution was both an everyday activity that blended almost seamlessly…”
The thorough structure of spatial controls and prohibitions against the activities of prostitutes often came down to money, accessibility, invisibility, and control; these elements affected the architecture of these spaces, their locations, their sizes and their structures. The brothels were usually confined within some areas of the city and were not physically different from their surrounding buildings.
Diane also takes into account; the aftermath of the social structure of fifteenth century Ferrara, and how the design of spaces chiefly occupied by women expressed the patriarchal views on how women were to be restricted spatially and how it has affected the study of architectural
By Daine Yvonne Ghirado
“In this Paper, I propose to initiate an alternative understanding of the Renaissance city as comprised of gendered spaces and spatial practices, with one of the chief imperatives being the spatial control of women.”
In her article, Diane Ghirardo using Renaissance Ferrara as a case study presents the side effects of male controlled spaces, cities and civic structures on the social, spatial and economic activities of the female population. “Specifically of all professions, only prostitutes confronted legal constraints on their movements through and presence in city streets”
“…civic statues and laws specified spatial controls only for prostitutes”
Diane Ghirardo focuses on prostitutes because she identified that among the groups of women, prostitutes were the only group that had specified spatial controls and the most vulnerable to the existing system …“most readily available scapegoats for a variety of social, economic and chronological ills.”…. …show more content…
Prostitution was both an everyday activity that blended almost seamlessly…”
The thorough structure of spatial controls and prohibitions against the activities of prostitutes often came down to money, accessibility, invisibility, and control; these elements affected the architecture of these spaces, their locations, their sizes and their structures. The brothels were usually confined within some areas of the city and were not physically different from their surrounding buildings.
Diane also takes into account; the aftermath of the social structure of fifteenth century Ferrara, and how the design of spaces chiefly occupied by women expressed the patriarchal views on how women were to be restricted spatially and how it has affected the study of architectural