Sex Work

by Frédérique Delacoste

  Outside of marriage, women are stigmatized as whores for any sexual encounter. Phyllis Schlafly, the most vocal of American anti-feminist campaigners said, “Virtuous women are seldom accosted.”24 In other words, being accosted is evidence of a lack of virtue, or unchastity.25 Furthermore, a woman victim is classically accused of having provoked, invited, or not resisted sexual violation.26 Prostitutes serve as models of female unchastity. As sexual solicitors, they are assumed to invite male violence. Supposedly, a whore cannot be violated because she already is in violation of chastity norms. In one case of a prostitute being raped, a Dutch officer of justice said in court that “given her profession, the sexual abuse could not have made a deep impression upon her.”27 A Dutch research study revealed that policemen ranked the rape of street prostitutes as the least serious of all possible rapes. Rape by many strange men was ranked as the most serious. Rape by a boyfriend or male acquaintance and rape of a drunk woman were ranked only slightly more seriously than the rape of a prostitute. The researcher asserts that rape is judged according to the risk taken by the woman in her behavior and whereabouts. Significantly, police judgment of the seriousness of a rape is the primary determinant of whether the case is brought to court.28 Prostitutes know only too well how difficult it is for a whore to prove that she has been raped. Even the presence of a known prostitute in court is thought to jeopardize the credibility of a rape victim.29 Identification or association with unchastity (be it sexually, racially, or professionally defined) is considered a sign of defilement and availability. That view of the “female as either pure or common to all”30 works to condone male violence against so-called unchaste women and to blame those women for any abuse they suffer. Of course, those women could be any woman whose virtue is called into question.

  Male unchastity is defined more by color, ethnicity, class, or homosexuality than is heterosexual behavior. Fortunately, those indicators are recognized as prejudices rather than proofs, at least in countries with strong traditions of tolerance, such as the Netherlands. For example, the association of rape with black men is a deeply engrained prejudice, but racial identity would not be acceptable as explicit legal evidence of guilt. A woman’s sexual history, however, is frequently brought to bear upon the reliabilty of her testimony.31 During the last few years, such information is changing status, thanks to feminist struggle, from proof to prejudice. Nonetheless, many courts in North America and West Europe are still likely to hold the rape victim responsible for the rapist’s crime.32

  The ultimate defilement is death by murder or disease. Then, too, unchastity is blamed for fatal corruption or pollution. In particular, the sexual unchastity assumed of prostitute women and homosexual men is perceived as a choice wraught with shame and vulnerability. Violence, illness, and most extremely, death are considered the punitive consequences of self-imposed danger. Revealingly, the murder of a whore or a gay man is considered a “prostitute murder” or a “homosexual murder.” Both the whore and the gay man are seen as accomplices to their own demise. One such case was the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini in Italy. The trial focused as much on the victim as on the murderer. Public scandal centered around Pasolini: Why did he involve himself in a gay scene? Why did he risk murder?33 Similarly, the murder of a prostitute is as much an incrimination of her reputation as of the murderer’s crime. Murder victims of the infamous Jack the Ripper were described in the press as prostitutes; in fact, some were and some were not. The sexual histories of the victims filled newspapers, as if to warn other women of the perils of sexual unchastity.34 Significantly, concern was expressed only about the danger to non-prostitutes. Also more recently, whore murderers in Leeds, Los Angeles, and Seattle have not been considered a serious social menace until non-prostitutes have been killed. The murder of whores does not worry, grieve, or outrage dominant society. In fact, violence against prostitutes is likely to increase public dissociation from whores.

  Disease, like violence, is often blamed on the unchaste. The whore stigma has been defined as a mark of shame or disease on an unchaste woman. Historically, even before sexual transmission of disease was understood, prostitution (the symbol of unchastity for women and men) was erroneously associated with epidemics such as the Plague.35 Also today, the attribution of disease to prostitution is often more based upon assumption than fact.36 Unchastity is assumed to begin with the whores and spread from them to chaste society via men. The triangle between “dishonorable whore” and “unworthy husband” and “chaste wife” is most clearly drawn by assumptions of sexual disease transmission. “An ‘innocent’ woman could only get venereal disease from a sinful’ man. But the man could only get venereal disease from a ‘fallen woman.’” That description is offered in an excellent social historical study of venereal disease which goes on to say that such a “uni-directional mode of transmission reflected prevailing attitudes (at the turn of the century) rather than any bacteriologic reality.”37 The same prejudicial attitudes which prevailed at the beginning of the century still justify the blaming of prostitutes for disease.38

  Like prostitutes, homosexual men have historically been stigmatized as sexually diseased.39 However, unlike prostitutes, homosexual men are assumed to be insulated from chaste heterosexual society. They are therefore blamed not for contaminating “sinful men” and “innocent women” but rather for causing their own demise through supposed perverse promiscuity. In reality, homosexual men are not insulated (nor truly distinguishable) from chaste society, as evidenced by the fact that male prostitutes cater primarily to publically heterosexual, married men. That fact illustrates the distortion and hypocrisy of privileging supposedly chaste society. On a practical level, it also illustrates the necessity of sexual education and examination for all sexually active persons rather than for only those publicly identified as unchaste.

  Sexuality, abuse, and disease are often perceived as both causes and symptoms of unchastity. Whether those socially significant factors lead to pleasure, pain, or death, they are often interpreted as defilement and as justification for permanent stigmatization. Any woman is vulnerable to the whore stigma as a result of life experience, sexist abuse, or ill fortune. Homosexual men occupy a socially parallel position to prostitute women when it comes to violence and disease. Heterosexual men are likely to feel immune to stigmatization only when they publicly distance themselves from “the unchaste ones.”

  Conclusion

  Unchastity is used to justify oppression and abuse. Women in general and deviant or subordinate men are especially subject to stigmatization as impure or defiled persons; dominant men may be subject to stigmatization on the basis of the unchastity of their associates (be they, for instance, prostitutes or homosexuals). The task of recognizing unchastity as a normal human reality and not as a peculiar condition of inferior humans calls for a profound transformation of values and attitudes.

  Notes

  1. See: Collins Double Book Encyclopedia and Dictionary. London: Collins, 1976. See also: Fowler and Fowler, (eds.) The Concise Oxford Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press, 1964, fifth edition in 1974, for this definition of “unchaste: indulging in unlawful or immoral sexual intercourse; lacking in purity, virginity, decency (of speech), restraint, and simplicity; defiled (i.e.polluted, corrupted).” The present article focuses upon two of the above definitions: “lacking in purity” and “defiled.” All following definitions in the text are drawn from The Concise Oxford Dictionary.

  2. This definition was derived by combining the definition of “whore” with the following definition of “stigma”: “a brand marked on a slave or criminal; a stain on one’s character; a mark of shame or discredit; a definite characteristic of some disease.”

  3. Much of the material for this analysis was drawn from the author’s research on attitutes toward prostitutes, published in Dutch and English: Gail Pheterson, The Whore Stigma: Female Dishonor and Male Unworthiness. The Hague: Dutch Ministry for Social Affairs and Employment, 1986. All unreferenced citations throughout
the present text were direct communications to the author in personal interviews.

  4. Erving Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963), p.167.

  5. Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race and Class. New York: Random House, 1981.

  6. Freda Adler and Rita James Simon, The Criminology of Deviant Women. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979, pp. 88-89.

  7. This analysis was heavily influenced by Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream. London: W.W. Norton and Co., 1949.

  8. Jean-Paul Sartre (translated by George J. Becker), Anti- Semite and Jew. New York: Schocken, 1948, pp.48-49.

  9. Ibid, p. 39.

  10. See: Sietske Altink, Huizen van Illusies, Bordelen en Prostitutie van Middeleeuwen tot Heden. Utrecht: Veen, 1983, p.62-63, for a description of legal dress codes for prostitutes throughout history. See Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History. New York: The New American Library, 1962, p. 230, for a description of legal dress codes for Jews between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Among a host of prescriptions, both were required to wear peaked hats and forbidden to wear fine clothes.

  11. An Huitzing, Betaalde Liefde: Prostituees in Nederland, 1850-1900. Bergen: OCTAVO, 1983, p.75.

  12. Catharine MacKinnon, Sexual Harrassment of Working Women. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1979. Also: Elizabeth Stanko, Intimate Intrusions, Women’s Experience of Male Violence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985.

  13. Both novels are American classics of the nineteenth century. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was first published in 1850; The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephen Crane, was first published in 1895.

  14. Judith Lewis Herman, Father-Daughter Incest. London: Harvard University Press, 1981, p. 117.

  15. Elizabeth A. Stanko, Intimate Intrusions. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985, p. 95.

  16. Ellen Bass and Louise Thornton, I Never Told Anyone. New York: Harper and Row, 1983, p. 181.

  17. Judith Lewis Herman, Father-Daughter Incest. London: Harvard University Press, 1981, p. 185.

  18. Ibid; Also: Florence Rush, The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., especially the chapter “A Freudian Cover-up.” Also: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Assault of Truth. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984.

  19. Stanko, p.30.

  20. Judith Herman, Father-Daughter Incest. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981; Jennifer James, “Prostitutes and Prostitution.” In: E. Sagarin and F. Montanino (eds.), Deviants: Voluntary Actors in a Hostile World. General Learning Press, 1977, pp. 368-428; Diana Russell, “The Incidence and Prevalence of Intrafamilial and Extrafamilial sexual abuse of female children.” Child Abuse and Neglect (1983) 7, 2, 133-146; Mimi Silbert and Ayala Pines, “Victimization of Street Prostitutes,” Victimology: An International Journal, vol. 7, no. 1-4, 1982, pp.122-133.

  21. Stanko, p. 130.

  22. Stanko, p. 53. Also see: Eileen Evason, Hidden Violence: A Study of Battered Women in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Farset Co-operative Press, 1982, for further elaboration on the theme of husband justifications for violence against wives.

  23. Stanko, p. 48.

  24. Ibid, p. 139.

  25. It is irresistible to mention that the loss of honor incurred through sexual abuse has governed women’s lives for hundreds of years. A study of prostitution in 15th century France gives the following description: “In the end, the consequences of rape were exactly the same as those of questionable or shameful conduct. The victim was almost always disgraced. . .even those who testified in her favor always considered her defiled by what had happened to her. She herself felt ashamed, guilty, and disgraced. In this respect her youthful assailants had attained their objective, for the raped woman realized that in the eyes of those around her, and indeed in her own mind, the distance separating her from the public prostitute had greatly diminished. Reduced to a state of psychological and physical weakness, she had little hope of regaining her honor as long as she stayed in town.” Specific examples of such loss of honor through rape are plentiful. In one case, when a servant girl complained to her mistress about having been attacked and insulted by three bachelors, she was given notice, for “if she was accused of such bad things, (the mistress) was not about to keep her, unless she was given convincing proof indicating whether the girl was a respectable person or a nasty hussy.” See: Jacques Rossiaud, “Prostitution, Youth, and Society in the Towns of Southeastern France in the 15th Century,” Selections from the Annates: Economies, Societes, Civilizations, Volume IV (edited by Robert Forster and Orest Ranum). Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1978, pp. 17,41.

  26. Nel Drayer, Seksueel Geweld en Heteroseksualiteit. The Hague: Minis-terie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, 1984; Diana E.H. Russell, Rape in Marriage. New York: Macmillan, 1982; Stanko, 1985.

  27. See: Leidsch Dagblad, “Buitenlust,” “Officier: Verkrachting Doet Prostituee Minder.” Diemen: October 9, 1985. (Dutch words of Mr. Franken van Bloemendaal, officier van justitie , Amsterdamse rechtbank: “Door het beroep dat zij uitoefent, zal het seksueel misbruikt worden wel geen diepe indruk op haar hebben gemaakt”).

  28. See: E. Ter Mors, “Zedenpolitie. Wie de Goede Zede Wil Verdedigen is Met de Wet Gebrekkig Gewapend.” Eindscriptie Politie- Academie, 1978 (discussion of research in Nel Drayer, above). For a discouraging vivid description of nearly identical attitudes in the Middle Ages, see: Leah Lydia Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society, The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc. London: The University of Chicago Press, 1985, p. 68-69.

  29. Specifically, the prosecuting attorney of a rape case in California asked a known prostitute not to be present throughout a rape trial because she thought it would reduce her client’s credability. The prostitute was a close friend of the client, a non- prostitute, and had initially been asked by her traumatized friend to be present for emotional support.

  30. See above: Jacques Rossiaud, p. 12.

  31. See above footnote 26 (Nel Drayer; Diana Russell). Also Diana Russell, The Politics of Rape. New York: Macmillan, 1982.

  32. For an analysis of court attitudes and judgments in 48 rape cases in the Netherlands from 1980-1984, see: Ed. Leuw, “Verkrachtingszaken voor de rechtbank: een kwalitatieve analyse van observatiegegevens.” Tijdschrift Voor Criminologie. Boom Meppel: 27e jaargang, juli/oktober, 1985, pp.212-234. According to this study, the victim is assumed to be “purely innocent” (author’s quotation marks) in a majority of cases when the rapist is considered “sick” (psychologically irresponsible) or “bad” (immoral). Gang rapes fall under the category “bad.” In 25% of the cases, however, the rapist is considered “normal” (such as a “failed seductor”) and co-responsibility is then often sought in the victim. Some Dutch lawyers also claim victim co-responsibility for rapes which are considered “normative” within the subculture in question (2 of the 48 cases). The characteristics of the rapist and the circumstances/cultural context of the rape are shown to affect court decisions. The Dutch author claims that courts in the Netherlands are far less likely than courts in other countries to claim victim co-responsibility for rape, p.226.

  33. See: Guy Hocquenghem, “Niet iedereen kan in zijn bed sterven.” Tegenlicht of Pasolini. Translated from the French article in Liberation, Paris, November, 1975.

  34. Wendy Hollway, “I just wanted to kill a woman. Why? The Ripper and Male Sexuality,” Feminist Review, no.9, October, 1981, p. 33-40.

  35. See: Leah Lydia Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society, The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc. London: The University of Chicago Press, 1985, p. 41.

  36. Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

  37. Ibid, pp.31-32.

  38. Ibid.

  39. Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800. London: Longman, 1981.

&
nbsp; Lesbians and Prostitutes: A Historical Sisterhood

  Joan Nestle

  The prevalence of lesbianism in brothels throughout the world has convinced me that prostitution, as a behavior deviation, attracts to a large extent women who have a very strong latent homosexual component. Through prostitution these women eventually overcome their homosexual repression, (from Female Homosexuality: A Psychodynamic Study of Lesbianism, by Frank Caprio, 1954.)

  We’re having the meeting during Lesbian/Gay Freedom Week because many prostitute women are lesbians — yet we have to fight to be visible in the women’s and the gay movements. This is partly due to our illegality but also because being out about our profession, we face attitudes that suggest were either ‘traitors to the women’s cause’ or not ‘real lesbians.’ (A speaker at “Prostitutes: Our Life: Lesbian and Straight,” San Francisco, June, 1982.)