Men, Money, Violence and Identity

Abstract

The previous chapter explored the social and material context in which the interviewees lived. However they explained their involvement in prostitution in such a manner that there appeared to be no justification for remaining in prostitution. For example the women claimed that they were involved in prostitution to get money, and yet they also claimed that involvement in prostitution had led to poverty. They asserted that becoming a prostitute had helped them to gain independ­ence from their families, boyfriends, partners and/or local authority care and to escape from violent and abusive partners or families, and yet they also asserted that becoming a prostitute had made them dependent on violent and abusive men for money and housing. The women declared that they could remedy their housing difficulties via prostitution, and yet they also declared that involvement in prostitution had created housing difficulties. In short, the interviewees said that involvement in prostitution was a means by which they could live the lives they wanted and survive the social and economic difficulties they encountered, and yet they also said that involvement in prostitution had jeopardised their social and economic survival, and at times their very lives. Deployment of such conflicting representations of life as a prostitute meant that the interviewees’ tales were highly paradoxical.