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fitzpatrick dissertation.pdf (1.61 MB)
ETD Abstract Container
Abstract Header
Women of Ill Fame: Discourses of Prostitution and the American Dream in California, 1850 - 1890
Author Info
Fitzpatrick, Angela C
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1372091610
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2013, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies.
Abstract
This dissertation explores representations of prostitution in California from 1850 to 1890 found in urban newspapers, political pamphlets, short stories, and novels. Employing feminist historical and cultural studies theories and methodologies, this dissertation interrogates the discursive relationship between prostitution and the American Dream understood as an articulation of desire for success and freedom inextricably linked to American exceptionalism. By demonstrating that prostitution was central to the social construction of power, identity, and difference in nineteenth-century California this dissertation contributes to existing scholarship on women's history, the American West, and prostitution. Historians have long debated the role of prostitution in nineteenth-century social life and the degree of economic freedom and sexual independence prostitution provided for women. The multicultural California frontier, full of the promise of freedom and success to anyone who dared join the adventure of the gold rush, offers historians a unique case study for exploring nineteenth-century cultural responses to prostitution and the extent to which prostitution represented the American Dream for nineteenth-century women. I argue that from 1850 to 1890 Californians used discourses of prostitution to police sexual behavior, enforce strict gender roles, control women's economic power, and limit immigration effectively constructing and dismantling various American Dreams. While middle-class Americans across the nation perceived prostitution as a social evil, the Californian middle class perceived prostitution as an even greater threat because this region contained more racial diversity, more gender ambiguity, and more economic mobility. In the absence of clearly defined social roles and power dynamics the need to draw lines around social differences was even greater. For middle-class Californians, prostitution represented economic exploitation and power, class and racial contamination, class and gender transgression, and sexual deviance therefore they believed prostitution had to be contained through criminal prosecution, state regulation, and moral reform. In their efforts to control prostitution, community leaders sought out "women of ill fame," identified as such because of their failure to conform to normative gender roles. California magistrates, merchants, legislators, and newspaper editors effectively policed the behavior of all nineteenth-century Californians in their attempts to control prostitution.
Committee
Andrew Schocket, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Ellen Berry, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kimberly Coates, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Wendy Watson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Pages
221 p.
Subject Headings
American Studies
;
Gender Studies
;
History
;
Womens Studies
Keywords
Prostitution
;
California
;
US West
;
19th century
;
San Francisco
;
Sacramento
;
Gold Rush
Recommended Citations
Refworks
EndNote
RIS
Mendeley
Citations
Fitzpatrick, A. C. (2013).
Women of Ill Fame: Discourses of Prostitution and the American Dream in California, 1850 - 1890
[Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1372091610
APA Style (7th edition)
Fitzpatrick, Angela.
Women of Ill Fame: Discourses of Prostitution and the American Dream in California, 1850 - 1890.
2013. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1372091610.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Fitzpatrick, Angela. "Women of Ill Fame: Discourses of Prostitution and the American Dream in California, 1850 - 1890." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1372091610
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
bgsu1372091610
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Copyright Info
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.