Brothels, Bordellos, & Bad Girls Book Review

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In addition, she discusses some of the positive, socially constructive things that prostitutes brought to their locales, particularly in the developing West. In much of Colorado, the atmosphere was absolutely dominated by males, so that prostitutes might be the only female companionship a man could find.

MacKell ends her official coverage of prostitutes in 1930, although, throughout the book one finds references to brothels that continued to exist into the 1930s and 1940s. However, as prostitution became illegal throughout much of the state, the nature of prostitution changed. Women could no longer openly ply their trade in brothels. In 1909, Boulder's red-light district closed down for good, and after 1910, one saw the same thing occur in a number of Colorado towns (MacKell, 2004, p.233). In 1930, a prostitute named Anna Ryan killed a former police officer Maurice Lyons, which was another death knell for the trade. Therefore, while brothels continued to exist past 1930, the open practice of legal or semi-legal prostitution had virtually ceased by that time. As women were forced to go underground, the nature of their business changed. Whether those changes were positive or negative is a subject of debate, but the change meant that 1930 was a good, practical stopping point for MacKell's coverage.

MacKell's historical study fits the contemporary landscape of prostitution and the status of women in Colorado in the early twenty-first century by highlighting the role that women played during that time and providing a contrast between it and the role that women play in modern Colorado. Perhaps the first significant contribution to the status of women is the fact that there are so many prostitutes in the family trees of seemingly legitimate families. Over and over again, MacKell's book discusses historical prostitutes with family members who evidence no shame or embarrassment about the prostitutes in their histories. This reveals an important fact about the nature of prostitution during that historical time period; while prostitutes were not in any way accepted as part of mainstream society, they may not have suffered the same stigma that current prostitutes face. Instead of having no place in society, they had an established place in society.

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That place good vary on the establishment in which a girl worked and other factors, but a prostitute had a defined role in society. This could both constrain the girl, but it could also provide a certain level of protection for a prostitute, because she could seek legal and societal protection from the status of an insider, even if she was a much marginalized insider.

One of the hallmarks of the modern sex trade throughout most of the United States, except for specific locations in Nevada, is that it is illegal. Prostitution, though widely practiced in the modern United States, is a crime. However, the same motivators that led the prostitutes MacKell discusses in her book to choose their profession continue to propel women to sell their bodies in exchange for money. Moreover, the same complications that made life difficult for those historic prostitutes continue to impact the lives of modern prostitutes, including domestic violence, abuse by pimps, alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual violence, and general criminal involvement. The problem is that modern prostitutes, who are considered criminals, are frequently seen as wholly illegitimate by much of mainstream society. Forcing prostitution to be a streetwalking affair has led to an overall downgrade in safety and security for the women in the profession. Moreover, even though the prospects for a prostitute in the late 1800s and early 1900s was grim, brothels could provide them with the type of support network that is impossible to form in an underground street environment. MacKell's book certainly does not romanticize prostitution or brothels, but it does make one realize that prostitution will never be legislated into non-existence. Therefore, it makes one consider if society's current treatment of prostitutes is the best approach......

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