Examples are used from Italy, America, and Britain. I argue that the purpose of such control
was to promote contemporary ideals of gender and sex roles.
As with most topics of sexuality, associated as they are with personal identity and
social acceptance or rejection, language choice for academic discussion needs to be
sensitive. Where possible, I u se the terms ‘sex work’ or ‘sex worker’. They are the least value
laden, descriptive of the labour function of commercialised sex rather than on moral
judgments of it. 4 The terms ‘prostitute’ or ‘prostitution’ are also used as they were most
common in the historical contexts considered within this essay, however, their use will be
sporadic since these terms carry stigma. 5 Semantically, they have a sense of cheapening
oneself and can be used in non-sexual contexts to insinuate that a person has behaved in a
degrading manner. 6 Pejorative terms, such as ‘whore’ or ‘harlot’, are entirely avoided.
Though there have been attempts to reclaim some of this negative language, for example,
Nickie Roberts’ use of the word ‘whore’ in her history of sex work, this has yet to be fully
culturally embraced and the language remains contested. 7
Methodologically, the term ‘policing’ can also be problematic, since modern
meanings can be anachronistic. 8 Linguistically, ‘policing’ may also be used in different
contexts, such as social policing where behaviour is monitored by peers, or policing by
4 Magaly Rodriguez Garcia, Lex Heerma van Voss, and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, ‘Introduction’, in Selling Sex in the City: A Global History of Prostitution, 1600s-2000s , Ed. Magaly Rodriguez Garcia, Lex Heerma van Voss, Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (Leiden: BRILL, 2017), pp. 1-21 (p. 9) 5 Debbie Jones, Teela Sanders, Student Sex Work: International Perspectives and Implications for Policy and Practice (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 4-5 6 ‘Prostitute’, in The Oxford English Dictionary [online], <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/153083?rskey=RYHH5D&result=3#eid> [Accessed 11/03/2023] 7 Nickie Roberts, ‘Author’s Note’, in Whores in History: Prostitution in Western Society: Second Edition (London: Grafton, 1993) 8 Thomas McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), pp. 136-137
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