The "Pimp": Connotations of Male Dominance
A Gendered and Racialized Term
Modern social perceptions of third party intermediaries are also highly influenced and informed by gender, as the pimp today is widely perceived as a masculine role. This is in large part due to the shift in predominance from women to men in the activity of pimping, but it also goes beyond that. Indeed, the word "pimp" itself has become ubiquitous in popular and youth culture and has gained various connotations in modern language that are both gendered and racialized.
An ethnographic study conducted by Annegret Staiger of Clarkson University looked at the perceptions of adolescents at a multiracial high school in California about the pimp figure. She observed that all of them saw the pimp as representing sexual prowess and male domination. "Although adolescents differed in their interpretations of the pimp, they all vaguely associated him with player, Mack, or Mack Daddy - terms which belong to the more general category of hustler and gangster [...] Yet they never associated him with someone who controls women's sexual labor." [1] This highlights the fact that the term "pimp" itslef has become detached from the formal activity of pimping and the prositution world in common public perceptions.
The word itself has become a generalized term in modern American English, and has infiltrated common media representations and artistic endeavours - we can think here of the movie "American Pimp" or Kendrick Lamar's music album "To Pimp a Butterfly". In her article, Staiger remarks in a relevant manner: "At my home campus in upstate New York, dedicated engineering students wear T-shirts stating 'pimpin' ain't easy,' decorate their windows with posters stating 'Pimpin' - Ho' sale since 1869,' and approvingly greet each other with 'hi pimp, what's up?'" [2]
In people's minds, the pimp is not only a male figure, but, moreover, it is generally associated to men of color—often black men. In Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, Alexandra Lutnick states: "when the gendered and racial term pimp is evoked, many people picture an adult, African american, cisgender man." [3] Concerning the question of race, it is also quite interesting to note that perceptions of the pimp might depend on the racial group. Staiger found that, in general, the students' perceptions polarised around different ideas according to their racial identity. For example, African Americans considered the pimp as more of a manipulating figure, and to white students, he was more of a mysogynist figure. [4] Overall, we have seen that the term "pimp" is highly charged with signification, associated with male dominance and achievement.
“Revanchist Masculinity”
With this new predominance of men acting as pimps, a new gender dynamic between sex worker and intermediary has emerged. The sociologist Max Besbris introduces the concept of “revanchist masculinity” to contextualize masculinity in this gendered work. Here, economic dependence on female sex workers is a source of both pride and anxiety for pimps since their income is dependent on their employees’ performance. In order to reclaim this loss of personal agency, pimps perform masculinity by disparaging women’s abilities, acting suspicious of their motives, and claiming the work-related tasks of pimping as inherently masculine. In sum, pimping is truly masculine because it denies women decision-making power while profiting from that same denial. [5]
Gender Dynamics and Oppression
There are multiple competing narratives that arise when trying to describe the relationship between prostitute and intermediary. Between a present-day madam and her sex worker, the relationship is more contractual and administrative. Male pimps and sex workers have a more coercive relationship, as described above. This feeds into the narrative of exploitation that characterizes the sex trafficking industry. In this case, female sex workers are victims of hypermasculinized pimps whose methods of exploitation take form in different kinds of abuse, including physical and emotional. This violence, however, does not come only from the pimp, but from the customers as well. And so a victim of sex trafficking is victim to a masculine scheme of exploitation. [6]
The role of the madam has been maintained but the circumstances surrounding her appointment to the position have altered. Many sex workers still become madams as a means for economic independence and running one’s own business. As well, madams can be legally identified from cooperative models between sex workers when they are facing charges from the state. In this case, the madam can be whoever is perceived to be the ringleader, even if she does not self-identify as the central intermediary.
[1] Staiger, Annegret. 2005. "'Hoes Can Be Hoed Out, Players Can Be Played Out, but Pimp Is for Life'—The Pimp Phenomenon as Strategy of Identity Formation." Symbolic Interaction 28 (5): 407-28. doi: 10.1525/si.2005.28.3.407.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Lutnick, Alexandra. 2016. Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Beyond Victims and Villains. New York: Columbia UP. p. 28.
[4] Staiger, Annegret. 2005. "'Hoes Can Be Hoed Out.'"
[5] Besbris, Max. 2016. "Revanchist Masculinity: Gender Attitudes in Sex Work Management." The Sociological Quarterly 57: 711-32. doi: 10.1111/tsq.12149.
[6] Williamson, Celia and Terry Cluse-Tolar. 2002. "Pimp-Controlled Prostitution."