Alice Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute Book Review

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Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast ProstituteThe book titled “Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute” is based on the memoirs of a sex worker Alice from 1913, the political and social implications of this business, and how it fits in that time and that of today. Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus edit the book. The book was initiated from the post found by these editors in San Francisco (SF) bulletin “A Voice from the Underworld,” from the oldest business arena that was despised by the society for centuries and still is. The book’s thesis is the negativity of the prostitution world accompanied by its rejection, corruption of the police, and verbal laws of brothels[footnoteRef:1]. The three accompanying arguments are the cruelty of the real world that directs abandoned girls like Alice to prostitution, wage discrimination by gender, and the helplessness of the women amidst the unavailability of reasonable opportunities for earning their livelihoods or inaccessibility to strong means like the police to look up to for support. [1: Goodreads, n.d., Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute, https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/30102481-alice. ]Who was Alice? Alice Smith was one of those sex workers who sent candid letters to the San Francisco bulletin about their lives and experiences that led to doing this work. The purpose of writing these letters was to let the world know what this segment of the population was going through a century ago, which is still contrasted with contemporary times, depicting unchanged. When the editors of this book first found these articles, there were surprisingly letters from even those working-class women who have shared their experiences of turning to sex work[footnoteRef:2]. It was considered a meaningful work that needed to be critically highlighted by the world, especially political authorities.   [2: Ivy Anderson, and Devon Angus, Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute (London: ORION, 2016).]Some of the reasons the book presents could lead a woman to sex work include social alienation of this very gender in the working class. Our society and political leaders have not supported the independence that this gender should enjoy[footnoteRef:3]. There could have been policies, laws, or Constitutional rights that should have talked about only women’s equality in pay, occupation, and social rights for earning. However, even working-class women thought turning to this ‘indecent’ profession was alarming. Under the shade of this disparity and its brutality that results in going to bed hungry each day, a rise of the less visible line between right and wrong is born, leading such deprived women to think of sex work. When their own family and close kin abandoned girls like Alice, they were left in poverty. They had to look for remuneration in one way or another regardless of the tarnishing of a woman’s reputation.  [3: C.E. Persons, 1915, "Women's work and wages in the United States", The Quaterly Journal of Economics 201-234.]The purpose of Fremont Older publishing letters in the SF bulletin was to expose unfairness, human suffering, criminality, and political corruption at that time. He decided to give voice to this segment as well. “A Voice from the Underworld” was unleashed to let the sex workers give opinions about the upcoming Red Light Abatement Bill. The bill was aimed at eliminating prostitution and shutting down the brothels all over California[footnoteRef:4].

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The bill was even extended to the termination of liquor selling shops to cease acts of instigation for prostitution. Older was that prostitutes should be allowed to present their beliefs about how the bill would impact them and what other options they would be left with for earning for themselves[footnoteRef:5].     [4: Justia, n.d., 2005, California penal code sections 11225-11235 article 2. Red Light Abatement law, https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2005/pen/11225-11235.html.] [5: Voices from the Underworld, 2016, Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute- Winner of the California Historical Society Book award, http://www.voicesfromtheunderworld.com/blog/tag/1913.]Older had to face…

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…causes of prostitution. The journalism emphasized eradicating the capitalist system if prostitution was demolished once and for all[footnoteRef:12]. The reformers thought that prostitution caused illegal actions that polluted society’s minds and facilitated the spread of unwanted diseases[footnoteRef:13]. Even in modern times, the profession is openly criticized, whereas there still have not been any prominent steps taken to protect sex workers if they are to be shunned from brothel work. The police take advantage of these workers, whereas the government still has not been able to grant equal rights[footnoteRef:14]. Sex workers are still seen fighting for their rights as they become homeless as soon as decriminalization of sex work orders is generated. Medical care, employment, education, and food for such women are still absent for this segment. In contrast, the leaders must have thought of providing them alternate means of earning if they wanted sex houses to be removed thoroughly from the country.    [12: Labor Press Project: Pacific Northwest Labor and Radical Newspapers, n.d., Truth and Socialist Worker (Tacoma 1913-1914), https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/Truth.htm.] [13: Lynn Kappelman, 1988, "Prostitution in the Progressive Era: Reform movements in three jurisdictions", MSS.049 - Gender and Legal History in America Papers.] [14: Anna North, 2019, The movement to decriminalize sex work, explained. August 2, https://www.vox.com/2019/8/2/20692327/sex-work-decriminalization-prostitution-new-york-dc.]Sex work, be it in old times or technologically advanced, shows a singular fact that humans, especially women, should be granted equal rights of employment and fair wages so that societal viciousness, when women are left alone, does not impose on them. The enforcement in the form of sex work for women who have no skills, proper education, or even investments to be engaged in appropriate business is dispossessed of the employment opportunities and even the just wages they deserve being a human. The book’s stories continue to resonate with the same treatment that sex workers are given by society, dominated by the sexual double standards by the same men involved….....

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