Images of Sex Work in Early Twentieth-Century America
Gender, Sexuality and Race in the Storyville Portraits
Images of Sex Work in Early Twentieth-Century America
Gender, Sexuality and Race in the Storyville Portraits
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Description
Storyville was the infamous red-light district of New Orleans. It was a world where normative social values didn't apply and was shrouded in mystery and myth until the photographs of E.J. Bellocq were rediscovered. Bellocq's depictions of Storyville's sex workers have typically been treated as tragic, ominous and emblematic of New Orleans' singularity. Yet, such interpretations have projected gendered stereotypes of frailty and victimhood onto the women they portrayed. In Images of Sex Work, Mollie LeVeque interrogates these glib readings and argues that sex work was a routine aspect of life in a modern city. She supports this theory by examining a range of cultural forms such as crime fiction, illustrations and paintings from contemporary urban centres like Paris, London and New York. In doing so, she advances the new argument that Bellocq humanised his subjects, de-sensationalised sex work and gave these women the dignity they were all too often denied.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: (Self-)Representing Storyville Women
Chapter 2: The 'White Slave' and the Question of Ambiguity
Chapter 3: A Fog of Violence, Voyeurism, and Crime
Chapter 4: The 'Paris-ification' of New Orleanian Vice
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | Oct 19 2023 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 224 |
| ISBN | 9781350430624 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Visual Arts |
| Dimensions | 216 x 140 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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