As I have started to read up a little bit about the population I chose I can tell that my assumptions are going to be challenged and perhaps changed. Though at the same time I feel like some of my previous assumptions might prove true. We'll have to see!
Some more questions I have about this population group tend to be more motivation driven. As in, "whats the main motivation that drives women into prostitution?" "Whats their motivation for staying in the business?" I guess I am more or less curious about what would drive someone to risk their lives and sell their bodies on the street.
I have found out some random things about the prostitution business that seemed to shock me at first, but then as I thought about it more, it seemed to make sense. It was from a documentary I watched called "Nefarious: Merchant of Souls" that focused on women and girls sold into the sex trafficking industry but touched on prostitution in the United States. Apparently there are safety tips for women who are in the business, don't wear scarves because you can get strangled easier that way, don't wear heals so that if you have to, you can run faster, drop your keys by the bed and kick them under, so you can look under the bed to see if there is a gun or handcuffs. Its pretty crazy stuff, like, how dangerous is it to be in that kind of lifestyle. So I am curious as to why someone would want to get into that sort of thing when the risks seem so huge. That was just a tidbit of some of the things I have been learning, and hopefully I will continue to learn more as I read through the books I checked out on my topic.
Hi Corey,
ReplyDeleteWhich assumptions about prostitutes do you think will be changed by what you are finding out? Which assumptions do you think will stay the same?
You have a good question there--what motivates people to go into prostitution?
The documentary that you found about prostitution sounds informative...I will have to take a look at that.
It is possible that you might find a book or journal article with interviews from prostitutes that might give you some of the answers that you are looking for, in regard to reasons for why people get into it. Keep me posted on your research!
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
The ones that might change being, that perhaps women who are in prostitution may not have come from poor backgrounds, they could come from any background at all. It doesn't have to be from a high risk family (abusive/drug addictions).
ReplyDeleteAs for what is staying the same, well, women choosing to go into prostitution as something that they do because of lack of options? It seems that, from what I have been reading, it is an undesirable job for a lot of women in the business. Most would like to get out if they had the means and resources to do so (perhaps most is too generalized).
Nefarious was definitely interesting, though it definitely had its biases and intended purposes. It was more on sex-trafficking with bits of prostitution mixed in, both in the U.S.A. and other countries. Here is a link to the website.
http://nefariousdocumentary.com/
Hi Corey,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response.
Have you done any reading about prostitutes who work where prostitution is legal and monitored by either a state, federal, or national government? Do the women who work as prostitutes in those places all do it due to lack of options?
Be careful with the documentary...here is the information about Exodus Cry:
http://exoduscry.com/
Based on the beliefs of this organization, do you think that they might have particular reasons to highlight only the negative aspects of prostitution? As so many people look down on prostitutes to begin with, and associate prostitution with sin, sexual deviance, etc., it may seem as if this organization may be playing to a certain set of beliefs, as opposed to doing authentic research and presenting accurate statistics.
Here is a documentary about the Red Light District in Amsterdam, for comparison:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/red-light-blues/
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
Professor Wexelbaum