Modern Day Third Party Intermediaries

Pimps and Exploitation

While madams’ behaviors are different from what one would suspect, pimps on the opposite remain faithful, to a certain extent, to the image society constructs around them. While they don’t necessarily always reflect the typical feather-hatted image one could have in mind, their manly figure of authority is most of time real and used for them to exploit the prostitutes working for them. Pimps completely embrace the figure of boss that they embody, and consider pimping a real business on which they want to make as much profit as possible. In their research on pimp-controlled prostitution, Williamson and Cluse-Tolar state that “pimps understand the meaning of business over personal ventures, that is, marketing a product and investing in your product first so your product can return profits.” [1] In fact this method of exploitation could be similar to that of madams pretending to represent a maternal figure for prostitutes: pimps would thus take good care of these women in order for them to feel comfortable and safe. It is only after a contract that comes physical dominance up to threats to prostitutes by the pimps.

From a sociological point of view, based on observation and data collection, pimps are obviously exploiting prostitutes. However, from the prostitute’s point of view it is an interdependent relation that is created. In her mind, the prostitute remains taken care of by the pimp and will discard the way she is exploited under the pretext that the pimp provides her a living wage. Her business depends on him as well as his business depending on her.

Methods of Recruitment

Pimps holda superior position relatively to prostitutes and obtain benefits from this position. As such, when we talk about exploitation, this entails dynamics of power and therefore brings in notions of coercion and forceful authority. In ancient as well as in modern settings, pimps have had to resort to different forms of force or violence, and it is interesting, in this respect, to examine the variations in methods according to gender. In an article about “The Role of Female Pimps”, it is indeed suggested that female pimps' relationships with their workers were contractual whereas male pimps' relationships were based on coercion. [2] Male pimps are in fact known to have more brutal ways to “recruit” prostitutes, as  Stephen Parker and Jonathan Skrmetti point out in their article about domestic sex trafficking. As will be discussed later, there is a fine line between domestic sex traffickers and pimps depending on the level of coercion and the consent from the prostitute. However, in their paper, the authors list the different techniques used by sex-traffickers to recruit women and divide them into three distinct categories: kidnapping and enslavement; incapacitation through drugs and alcohol; and the most common being “grooming”. This last technique refers to the recruitment of a prostitute through a relationship between the man and the woman he wants to recruit. The woman is engaged in a romantic relationship with a man she doesn’t know is a sex trafficker, and is later blackmailed into prostituting herself. [3]

Pimps’ methods of recruitment differ from those of madams even despite the era. Madame Claude, who was the owner of a brothel in Paris until very recently, had less coercive methods to recruit her prostitutes. As seen in the article about this madam published in Vanity Fair, “even in jail, she was always working, always recruiting stunning women,” giving them the number of the man in charge of her business while she was serving her time in prison. When out of jail, she would find jobs in areas that would enable her to find women she considered fitting her standards. [4]

These third party intermediaries have thus always enacted the notion exploitation their business relies on, with methods that have evolved differently depending on the socio-economic and historical context they find themselves in. While the 19th century dame de maison's status as a respected figure gives her the ability to engage in a business not necessarily involving coercive exploitation, the contemporary figure of the masculine pimp acts as a violent and and almost enslaving businessman. These differences between pimps and madams can be explained through an analysis based on gender dynamics and the social perception of these two figures.