It was not common for women to have office jobs, learn the stock market, but they did have the ability to earn an income by domestic slavery in private homes. Many worked as poorly paid seamstresses and school teachers. And the others, turned to the wonderful world of “prostitution.” In the Memoir of a Women of…
In the contrary, the textbook does not give information on prostitution in the West during the late eighteenth hundreds. Therefore, these sources informed me with new material and data, which I did not apprehend about, and was not on chapter eighteen from the…
In her article “What’s Wrong with Legalizing Prostitution?” Janice Shaw Crouse depicts the difficult lifestyle and criticizes the legalization of prostitution. She focuses on the harsh environment and issues that plague the prostitutes throughout their services. Crouse also sheds light on the johns, pimps, and madams and their power over the prostitutes. Not only does she present evidence of the legalization of prostitution as harmful but also unhelpful.…
Historically, the “spinsters” employed at the factories were young girls; many still of marrying age, and most of whom would eventually marry and leave the factory. However, that changed in the late 1800s due to the continued decline in working conditions and the emergences of a new immigrant population (DuBois 170-171). As a result, “spinsters” were no longer young fair-maiden looking to earn some extra cash before being swiped away by their prince charming. Many older, unattached immigrant women were being employed as “spinsters”. This change reinforced the stereotype of “spinsters” being older unmarried woman.…
Walkowitz and Walkowitz are attempting to address several problems surrounding the lower- class women in Plymouth and Southampton. The question being: what the “prostitutes” lives were like at home, in the streets, or in society during the Contagious Diseases Acts. They’re only taking into account the lives of women in Plymouth and Southampton due to the protests held by the inhabitants there. Firstly, they go through what the Contagious Diseases Acts are and how/why they were put into circulation, at first only in military bases, mainly due to the large number of venereal diseases in unmarried sailors and soldiers who were stationed in areas in Ireland and England, and then to larger cities where diseases were rampant. The authors show the way that these acts blamed and only affected the lower class women in the areas and try to show that not all of these women were common degenerate prostitutes but, instead, poor working women trying to survive when there are limited job opportunities that provide unsustainable wages.…
Radical feminists argue that prostitution is not a conscious and calculated choice most of the time. They believe that most individuals who become prostitutes are forced or persuaded by a pimp or by human trafficking. If it is an independent decision, then it is due to personal issues, like poverty, lack of opportunity, or underlying problems, like drug addiction, child sexual abuse and other factors.…
When people study history they rarely learn about the sexual history of the United States; and, how it evolved from courting and brothels to dating and prostitution. Love for Sale takes place in New York City, NY, from 1900 to 1945, it journeys through the major events that occurred in the U.S., World War I, Great Depression, and World War II. The author, Elizabeth Alice Clement, is an assistant professor of history at the University of Utah. The central argument of Love for Sale is, “Profoundly shaped by women’s economic inequality and insecurities, all three practices-courtship, treating, and prostitution-reflected the negotiations in which women and men engaged over the economic and social value of sex.” Clement’s purpose is to help the readers understand the transformations courting, treating, and prostitution had in 1900-1945 in New York City.…
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in New York, Chicago, and other major urban cities, well-to-do whites found entertainment in the lower class districts’ nightclubs, cabarets, brothels, and opium dens. Although women who participated in “slumming” seemed freer, they were not completely liberated. The women’s suffrage movement introduced more freedom to women, such as voting, but many women suffered ridicule from society for straying from tradition. Public and private reform organization spent most of their efforts dissuading white females from mingling with lower class immigrants. Scare tactics and slander were the main strategies employed by reformers as a means to prevent female perversions associated with urban prostitutes.…
Being involved in the industry of human traffic is dramatically changing and impacting America today. History will always be repeated. It has affected many families, losing their daughter by being captured or being persuaded to the business. Every victim has to go through the six phases of transatlantic slave trade. It is transferring and harboring from person to person.…
The anti-prostitution pledge was supposed to be a thing of the past when President Obama issued an executive order, in one of his first acts as President, to reverse that rule. However, it was only a facade because his administration actually defended the anti-prostitution pledge in federal courts, including the Supreme Court! With all that said, there is a bright side to this story and the anti-prostitution pledge was eventually overturned because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that it was unconstitutional. In an indirect manner, the D.C. Madam brought this somewhat obscure issue into the light of day.…
Despite prostitution having been around for many, many years, often being hailed as the earliest profession, there are disputes to this day about women selling their bodies for sex. Women’s ownership of their bodies has decreased so much over time,…
The rise of new forms of sexual control stemmed from a cultural shift that was occurring throughout the nineteenth century in America. This shift was the rise of the middle class— a small part of the population defined by the privacy of the home and principles such as the importance of childrearing and sobriety. The middle class held significantly different values from the ones afforded to the working class and the sharp contrast between the classes led to new sexual authorities creating definitions of sexuality based on status. The advent of public versus private spheres also characterized this time and the ideal of sexual privacy led to the creation of the “natural woman,” a view that to be womanly is to be chaste. Between 1860 and 1930,…
Prostitution is one of the oldest profession, not just to the United States, but worldwide, and the persecution of sex workers is just as old. With the popularity of prostitution, religious groups fought to guarantee that the United Sates outlawed the soliciting and offering of sex for money by the early 1900’s. This still remains the case to today in all states of the United States, with the exception of the state of Nevada. Nevada has legalized prostitution in counties with a population of fewer than 400,000 persons and the laws permit prostitution mostly by accepting the brothels and sex workers not necessarily condoning it. (Brents and Hausbeck)…
Supposedly based loosely on an erotic dream of Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ (1897) embodies one of the most fascinating and symbolically sexualised characters in English literature. Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ addresses Victorian anxieties regarding its women’s feminist awakening and breaking of patriarchal chains during the time and highlighted this fear in his novel. By focusing on these topics in his novel, Stoker, who was a staunch conservative Anglican and advocate of patriarchy, emphasises how women’s interests were leading to a dangerous change in the Victorian morality, and with the advent of the New Woman could hyperbolically eventuate in the complete destruction of English civilization. Throughout the Victorian period, men were becoming worried about women’s interests and what role they should play in society.…
She affirms to how prostitution has become a situation where men have reduced women to an image of being mere sexual objects. This allows men to unconscionably oppress and coerce women in order to satisfy their own fantasies through prostitution. Nonetheless , Political and economic power seem unfairly divided in the world to these feminists. According to sheila, prostitution is now a significant market sector within national economies. Many men are in the position of dominance, demanding and getting what they want.…