How does the government report define international women trafficked into prostitution?
The reports often characterized trafficked women as “innocente” or “naïve,” yet contradictory evidence suggested many were aware of the nature of the work
Do the women trafficked into it know about prostitution?
While some were truly deceived, most were not
Were they prostitutes in the old country?
yes
Were the women trafficked into prostitution naïve, innocent girls?
no
Were the women trafficked into prostitution “victims” or “agents”?
“agents” choosing migration as an escape from poverty in the “old country.”
Were recruiters men, women, or both?
They were both men and women. Women were often used as recruiters because they appeared more trustworthy to potential victims.
What were the various methods that recruiters used to attract and ship women?
Recruiters used “false promises” of marriage, high-paying domestic work, or theatrical opportunities to lure women across borders.
How did Wong Ah So end up as a Chinatown prostitute in San Francisco?
She was brought to San Francisco under the guise of a “paper marriage,” a common method to bypass the Chinese Exclusion Act, only to be sold into a Chinatown brothel for approximately $2,500.
Who were the missionaries that “rescued” her? How did Wong Ah So’s owner describe them?
She was “rescued” by the Presbyterian Mission Home (led by Donaldina Cameron).
Her owner described them as “thieves” or “kidnappers” who stole “property.”
What were “rescue stories”?
a specific genre of narrative used by missionaries and reformers to describe the transition of Chinese women and girls from traditional domestic situations into the care of Christian missions.
Compare these songs about how Chinese and Italian immigrant men viewed sexuality, courtship, and marriage in the US.
Chinese songs often reflected the “bachelor society” of the U.S., filled with longing for wives left behind and the transactional nature of sex in a gender-imbalanced West. Italian songs often focused on the tension between traditional courtship (“The Old World”) and the perceived “looseness” or freedom of American women.
What was “tough dancing”? And where do they say it originated?
“Tough dancing” (e.g., the Turkey Trot, the Bunny Hug) involved close physical contact and suggestive movements. Moral reformers claimed it originated in brothels and low-life dives.
Describe the “worst” of these dances?
Those involving “pelvic contact” or “shimmying.”
Do they see this as dancing or something else?
Reformers saw this not as dancing, but as “overt sexual solicitation.”
Does all of this monitoring on dancing sound remarkably familiar from your own recent personal histories?
This mirrors modern panics over music genres or dance styles (like “twerking”) that challenge contemporary respectable norms.
What did the Chicago newspaper say about dancehalls?
The Chicago American portrayed ethnic dance halls as dens of vice where “innocent girls” were ruined.
The Czech paper saw this as an attack not only on the ethnic dance halls but on Czech girls. How so?
The Czech paper argued that their dance halls were community spaces.
How did the Czech paper defend the honor of working-class Czech girls?
They defended the “honor” of Czech girls by claiming they were hard-working and virtuous, unlike the “idle rich.”
What dance halls does the Czech paper say are in fact sites of perversion?
They claimed the private parties of the wealthy were the true sites of perversion.
How does the Czech paper engage in both a class and an ethnic attack at the end of the document
They used class and ethnic attacks, suggesting that “American” (Anglo) high society was more morally bankrupt than the Czech working class.
According to Free Lover and anarchist Emma Goldman, what is the real cause of the trade in women?
Goldman argued the cause was economic.
-Why do women sometimes turn to prostitution?
Capitalism paid women starvation wages
Are women turning to prostitution a moral deficiency on their part or a result of other things?
prostitution is a more “honest” and lucrative trade than factory work.
What does Emma Goldman mean by “the double standard of morality”?
She criticized the hypocrisy where men are encouraged to be sexually active while women are ruined for the same behavior.
-
Columbus Meets Pocahontas in the American South19
-
Interracial Unions in French Louisiana12
-
Father Lafitau & the Iroquois2
-
Baron & Hurons7
-
Fr. Jayme & Spanish Colonial Sexual Violence3
-
Native Peoples of North Carolina7
-
Module 2 essays54
-
Module 3 essays64
-
Module 453
-
Module 5 essays56
-
Module 6 Essays48
-
Module 746
-
Module 851
-
Kinsey21
