Prostitute Mothers Appear in Parent-Duchatelet
At times, a lack of information can be important and revealing information in itself. Current U.S. society erases any information linking mothers and prostitutes, perpetuating the thought that those two identities cannot coexist. While researching the materials to create this exhibit, we found that there are relatively few sources that discuss the dual identities of prostitute and mother and virtually no sources that examine the dual identities of prostitute and father. Sources that discuss prostitution and parenthood and are publically available include Susan Dewy’s book Neon Wasteland: On love, motherhood, and sex work in a rust belt town, [1] and Rochelle Dalla’s article, "I Fell Off [the Mothering] Track": Barriers to "Effective Mothering", [2] and Jane Dodsworth’s short piece, “Sex worker and mother: managing dual and threatened identities”. [3] In particular Dewy's book, an "ethnography of the particular" showcases the voices of five mothers who work as exotic dancers in Sparksburgh, NY. Dewey attempts to showcase the particular women that she talks to as whole people who have full, everyday experiences and who simultaneously feel capable of improving their own lives through sex work, a nod to agency. Although there exists several academic journal articles and a book or two on the subject, much of the literature on prostitution and motherhood have been written on blogs by sex worker mothers themselves. Some of these blogs include an anonymous blog called “Because I’m a Whore”, [4] and dozens of twitter and instagram feeds run by prostitutes.
With the current erasure and non-exposure of prostitute mothers in mind, it is interesting to consider that Alexandre Parent-Duchatelet mentions prostitutes who are also mothers in his 1836 work. He writes,
“One would have trouble believing that certain women had embraced the career of prostitution as a way to fulfill their duties that vie them their title as girl or mother, nothing however is truer. It is not rare to see married women, abandoned or deprived from their husbands, and consequently to support everything, become prostitutes in their own design to not their large family starve to death; it is more common still to find young girls, who, not able to find work to provide for the needs of their old and infirm parents working the night as prostitutes, to complete what is lacking.” [5]
Parent-Duchatelet was willing to explore the reasons that mothers might choose to do prostitution. Were the identities of prostitute and mother assumed more compatible in Paris in 1836? Or was Parent-Duchatelet just aiming to fulfill his research in the most inclusive manner possible? Either way, it is significant that the dual social roles of prostitution and mother were given acknowledgement in Paris in 1836 when the same social roles are now often swept under the rug.
Reminiscent of the way that information about prostitutes who are mothers gets left out of common rhetoric, prostitute mothers are rarely depicted visually, such as in artistic mediums. Read on for a discussion of prostitutes in art over time.
[1] Dewey, Susan. Neon Wasteland: On love, motherhood, and sex work in a rust belt town. Berkeley, US: University of California Press, 2011. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 3 March 2016.
[2] Dalla, R. (2004). "I Fell Off [the Mothering] Track": Barriers to "Effective Mothering" Among Prostituted Women. Family Relations, 53(2), 190-200
[3] Dodsworth, J. (2014). Sex worker and mother: managing dual and threatened identities. Child & Family Social Work, 19(1), 99-108.
[4] https://becauseimawhore.com/
[5] Translation by students of FREN 311, 2013.