Images of Sex Work in Early Twentieth-Century America - Gender, Sexuality and Race in the Storyville Portraits

Storyville was the infamous red-light district of New Orleans. It was a world where normative social values didn't apply and was shrouded in mystery and myth until the photographs of E.J. Bellocq were rediscovered. Bellocq's depictions of Storyville's sex workers have typically been treated as tragic, ominous and emblematic of New Orleans' singularity. Yet, such interpretations have projected gendered stereotypes of frailty and victimhood onto the women they portrayed. In Images of Sex Work, Mollie LeVeque interrogates these glib readings and argues that sex work was a routine aspect of life in a modern city. She supports this theory by examining a range of cultural forms such as crime fiction, illustrations and paintings from contemporary urban centres like Paris, London and New York. In doing so, she advances the new argument that Bellocq humanised his subjects, de-sensationalised sex work and gave these women the dignity they were all too often denied.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: (Self-)Representing Storyville Women
Chapter 2: The 'White Slave' and the Question of Ambiguity
Chapter 3: A Fog of Violence, Voyeurism, and Crime
Chapter 4: The 'Paris-ification' of New Orleanian Vice

Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Mollie LeVeque

Summary

Storyville was the infamous red-light district of New Orleans. It was a world where normative social values didn’t apply and was shrouded in mystery and myth until the photographs of E.J. Bellocq were rediscovered. Bellocq’s depictions of Storyville’s sex workers have typically been treated as tragic, ominous and emblematic of New Orleans’ singularity. Yet, such interpretations have projected gendered stereotypes of frailty and victimhood onto the women they portrayed. In Images of Sex Work, Mollie LeVeque interrogates these glib readings and argues that sex work was a routine aspect of life in a modern city. She supports this theory by examining a range of cultural forms such as crime fiction, illustrations and paintings from contemporary urban centres like Paris, London and New York. In doing so, she advances the new argument that Bellocq humanised his subjects, de-sensationalised sex work and gave these women the dignity they were all too often denied.

Product details

• Authors: Mollie Le Veque, Le Veque Mollie, Mollie LeVeque
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2018
• EAN: 9781788311786
• ISBN: 978-1-78831-178-6
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 218 mm x 18 mm
• Series: International Library of Cultural Studies; International Library of Cultu; International Library of Cultu; International Library of Cultural Studies; Criminal Practice Series
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; ART / Subjects & Themes / Human Figure, PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Portraits & Selfies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Prostitution & Sex Trade, Exhibition catalogues & specific collections, Erotic & nude photography, Social and cultural history, History of the Americas, Sex and sexuality, social aspects, Photographs: Portraits, Ethical Issues: Prostitution & Sex Industry, Photography and photographs, Ethical issues and debates