Seeing Sexuality Through Sex Work
There is nothing new about sex: Prostitution is considered one of the oldest professions, and procreation was around well before that. But sexuality, as we understand it in a modern context, did not begin to develop until the mid-to-late 19th century. It was here that we moved it away just from individual acts that people engaged in, and began to frame it--and for many, its odd and queer behaviors--as something that was biological, pathological, and sometimes even part of the self.
Here, we take a brief look at just a few examples of this development. We dip our toes into 19th century France and its varied and diverse brothels, and follow some of the tracks of the history that follows through to modern queer identity and liberation. How throughout, the lives and livilihoods of lesbians and prostitutes are intrinsically linked.1
The first usage of "homosexual" can be traced to 1868,2 and though it was not in French, its usage marked the growing trend of same-gender relationships that were growing in recognition beyond just that given to a specific sexual act or perversion. The legal status of queers--like those who sold sex--was often foggy and subject only to sporadict enforcement: if you were a lesbian prostitute, for example, or if you were too poor to pay off prying eyes. The medical status, and in turn the moral and social status, of these relations was less vague and more taboo.
Yet, as we have always done, queers and oddities learned from one another and perservered, and our current day and age marks yet another era in this continuous, though often erased, history.
1. Delacoste, F., & Alexander, P. (Eds.). (1987). Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry (First ed.). Pittsburgh: Cleis Press. p. 232. ↩
2. Endres, N. (2015). The Coinage and Dissemination of the Term. Retrieved from http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/kertbeny_km_S.pdf ↩