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Prostitution In The 1800's

1699 Words7 Pages

For women of the nineteenth century, the soiled dove of the frontier represented one of the few ‘whole’ women of the time. She was seen as inherently bad by definition, but at the same time was imagined as kind, warm and independent. The ideal of the successful western prostitute was appealing to many women.1 Here was a woman who achieved what seemed like true financial independence in an age where few women could support themselves. Most of the criteria used to assess class in America had no bearing on the west or the prostitute; Family, education, and religion simply did not matter. Prostitution was the only profession in America where women could choose their own destiny, regardless of where they were from. If women wanted to involve themselves …show more content…

Whether it was by rail or by ship, individuals slowly migrated west. Advertisements from railroad companies as well as individual saloons depicted the ideal west, tempting easterners to start a life on the new frontier. Mining towns bloomed and saloons popped up, the miners had money to spend on alcohol and women. Through their effort to control and end prostitution, reformers of the 1800’s presented a memorable image of the prostitute to Eastern society. She was a victim, somehow not at fault. This, along with the myths of the gold rush, red-light districts and the elegant woman of the saloon, led to a unique image of prostitution, which forms an integral part of the western legend. Attitudes soon changed in the East and West as the sin of sexuality became more pronounced, but the image remained. The forces that came together to create the image of the soiled dove were unique: never again would such freedom and restriction exist in America at the same time. The sectional divide in morals between the East and West could have resulted in conflict over the image of the prostitute, but instead the East chose to accept what it understood or admired about the fallen women and exemplify her in order to understand the entire West. The creation of the soiled dove served as a tool for the Old East to understand and eventually reclaim the New West. It was not the factors of the West alone, but a combination of all the forces of society and nature working together that crafted the soiled dove into a permanent fixture in western American

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