From the History of Sexuality <H-HISTSEX at H-NET.MSU.EDU> list, with permission of the author. This post brings up important perspectives concerning sex work. "Whore College" was a one day event during Sex Workers Week here in SF. Of course I was busy whoring my professional nursing services out to the medical-big pharma-hospital industrial complex and couldn't attend.
Check out http://www.urbanjustice.org/
Grace
Re: Sex School Conference Report
Actually it was quite interesting. I attended most of this, and the workshop on the business aspects was particularly good for reminding me that sex work, as an aspect of sexual history, is not historicized enough. This became quite apparent yesterday when I chaired a panel on African American women as sexual entrepreneurs at the SSSS-WR conference (also in SF). I was struck by three connecting issues:
1) "Niche marketing" - a topic at the Whore College - was as important in New Orleans Red Light District, or Washington DC's U Street district as it is today. Selling "sex across the color line" was commericially viable in the period when interracial sex/marriage was outlawed. Sexual tastes change over time, and sex workers respond to (or perhaps create a market for?) those changes.
2) Advertising: the attendees at Whore College rely primarily on the internet for advertising, but in early periods, those who worked outside of designated commercial sex zones, boarding houses and hotels were a primary public place for sexual encounters particularly for the respectable part of the business. (Washington's U Street area in the 1930s-1950s was the city main black entertainment district, an interzone, where sex workers could be found in the clubs and elsewhere. Odessa Madre on of the best known of the underworld ran a string of girls throughout that period.)
3) Personal sexual lives, versus professional sex: just as the concept of heterosexual performance has been critical in understanding the lesbian sex worker, questions remain unanswered about the personal sexual desires of these African American women. They may have had sex with white men for money, but preferred men (or women in Madre's case) of their own color. This is what I termed "interracial sexual performance." Most of the women at the Whore College seemed to identify as queer - althought that may be a reflecttion SF hip-ness. My only regret is I wasn't able to stay late enough to receive my diploma from Carol Leigh.
Mindy Chateauvert African American Studies University of Maryland Melinda Chateauvert, PhD Undergraduate Studies Director African American Studies Program University of Maryland