Fashion: How Did Prostitutes Dress and Dress? Essay Example

But if we consider the girls who are forced to get into such profession are very helpless and they need to be saved. We cannot blame the young innocents for what they are but the people involved in this business should be slaughtered. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to learn and understand the type of clothing accepted and adopted by prostitutes across the world and their perception about it. Our objective is also to understand their behaviour regarding their profession and to compare it all with our hypothesis.

METHODOLOGY:

Primary research: Imagine waking up one day needing some extra cash and having no way of getting it. There’s no food in the fridge, you have bills to pay, you have a job, but it doesn’t pay nearly enough for your costs and each breathe you take is accompanied with the worry and the realization that you might not make it through another day. Getting an extra job is just a bandage on a situation that is getting worse, considering that because of your lack of education or networking skills you’ll most likely be stuck flipping burgers or asking some shopper at the super market if they are paying cash or credit.

Or imagine for a minute you’ve been told from the time you were young that the only way for you to get out of the barrio is finding some guy with big pockets to pay your way. Having the idea entrenched in your psyche that your brains aren’t good enough to make it through, but rather low cut shorts and revealing outfits are an easier and more lucrative ticket out of a situation. For

some these scenarios aren’t far from reality. While interviewing a female escort on phone we got to know their choice of clothing and how appropriate it is for them to dress this way in relation with their profession.

We also got to know their lifestyle and the pros and cons of getting into such profession. There have been many reasons for different girls for getting into this profession. Many of these escorts belong to different parts of the country and some of them are from the neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. As told by the person on phone, in a profession where the appearance is all that talks, they have to be dressed as per the changing scenario.

Earlier they had a different style of presenting themselves. In their village they wore the normal sarees and blouses sometimes only blouses and underskirts and also wore heavy make up to attract men and earn money. But after they were trafficked to bigger town and them to cities, they could observe what other girls wore. Since she was interested in watching movies and had an interest in glamour she started dressing herself like the other companions and getting inspiration from the ‘c-grade’ movies.

She said that the other girls, which she called companions wore tight fitted blouses which revealed the cleavages and skin fitted jeans so as to attract men with their vitals. Looking attracting and updated is all it takes for them to earn money to serve their daily needs and at times they might just get lucky to get some extra perks. Although there are times when they are exploited by the policemen around that area as

they not only take the commission or bribe to let them work but they also exploit the girls sexually by harassing them physically and beating them.

Secondary research: There are many articles and links which say that in ancient times there were dress codes for category of people. To be more specific on prostitutes, different part of the classic world had their way of implementing the code for this category. Special forms of dress for prostitutes and courtesans were first introduced in Ancient Rome in the form of a flame-colored toga and re-introduced in the 13th century: in Marseilles a striped cloak, in England a striped hood, and so on.

Over time, these tended to be reduced to distinctive bands of fabric attached to the arm or shoulder, or tassels on the arm. Later restrictions specified various forms of finery that were forbidden, although there was also sometimes a recognition that finery represented working equipment (and capital) for a prostitute, and they could be exempted from laws applying to other non-noble women. By the 15th century, no compulsory clothing seems to have been imposed on prostitutes in Florence, Venice(the European capital of courtesans) or Paris.

I quote “The first written Greek law code (Locrian code), by Zaleucus in the 7th century BC, stipulated that "no free woman should be allowed any more than one maid to follow her, unless she was drunk: nor was to stir out of the city by night, wear jewels of gold about her, or go in an embroidered robe, unless she was a professed and public prostitute; that, bravos excepted, no man was to wear a gold ring, nor be seen in one of those effeminate robes woven in the city of Miletus. " Clothing

and appearance Female prostitutes were the only Roman women who wore the toga, a formal garment otherwise only male citizens were permitted to wear.

This crossing of gender boundaries has been interpreted variously. Expensive courtesans wore gaudy garments of see-through silk.  Some passages in Roman authors seem to indicate that prostitutes displayed themselves in the nude. Nudity was associated with slavery, as an indication that the person was literally stripped of privacy and the ownership of one's own body. A passage from Seneca describes the condition of the prostitute as a slave for sale: Naked she stood on the shore, at the pleasure of the purchaser; every part of her body was examined and felt. Would you hear the result of the sale?

The pirate sold; the pimp bought, that he might employ her as a prostitute. In the Satyricon, Petronius's narrator relates how he "saw some men prowling stealthily between the rows of name-boards and naked prostitutes. "The satirist Juvenal describes a prostitute as standing naked "with gilded nipples" at the entrance to her cell. The adjective nudus, however, can also mean "exposed" or stripped of one's outer clothing, and the erotic wall paintings of Pompeii and Herculaneum show women presumed to be prostitutes wearing the Roman equivalent of a bra even while actively engaged in sex acts.

In 1378 a ten-year-old girl named Nicolosa was fined fourteen lire for wearing a fine silk gown with tassels on the streets of Florence. In 1398 a prostitute of the same city was prosecuted for failing to wear high-heeled slippers and a bell on her head. All across Italy officials were sent to weddings, funerals and general social gatherings to

ensure that the participants were wearing the kind of clothing the law specified they could. The common thread between all of these incidents is the attempt being made by the governing bodies of Renaissance Italy to regulate.

There are many other articles which the similar incidents of the history, I quote “The history of prostitution stems from the same roots as slavery. In ancient Rome, prostitutes were often foreign slaves, captured, purchased, or raised for the purpose of prostitution. They were required to wear distinctive dresses to set themselves apart from the normal citizen. The attire of a prostitute is the clear distinction to know whether one is a prostitute or not. It was required in the days of old, and is somewhat of a requirement to attract the eyes of men today. You can see them typically on street corners of downtown or rundown areas.

These prostitutes are also known as Brothels. They tour the streets at night waiting for someone that they can exchange sexual services. The name and meaning of prostitute clearly identifies how they present themselves. As mentioned before “to expose”, or “to place up front”. But now the issue we face as we approach the year 2011 is distinction.

The clothing of a prostitute is not hard to obtain. Just to name a few, clothing lines such as Bebe, Express, Jones New York, American Apparel, Style;co, DKNY, Jessica Simpson, take pride in how sexy, or revealing they can make a woman feel or look. Unquote. Fashion says bras are beautiful and no longer an undergarment to hide. I quote “Singers such as Beyonce, Lady GaGa, Carrie Underwood, and Alicia Keys are not concerned

about the dangers women face when they dress like these celebrities. If you had full-time bodyguards armed and ready to defend, maybe you could dress like them. We would not be writing this article. Ex-Porn star, Danielle Williams comments, “A lot of women are dressing provocatively because society tells them that this is acceptablea€”this is the fashion now.

Unfortunately, the young women have Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton as their ‘role models’. And they tell them that being slutty is cool. People imitate what they see”. Her words, filled with emotion are so true. ” Unquote. According to the sources available at internet, there are certain cites which have posts on the clothing and lifestyle on female escorts. An interview of a high rated escort was available on the referred site stating the escort’s (Miss Wood) lifestyle and work as an escort.

Miss Wood has said in the past: "I've had people say to me: 'You're a dirty whore, you trash marriages. But that's not true - it's the men that do that. It's just a job for me. "

CONCLUSION:

If we observe the clothes that are worn by the modern prostitutes then we can see that their clothes are very tight fitted and revealing. This means that the shape of their body is clearly revealed, their breasts are seen completely shaped, or the pants are so tight everyone knows just exactly how they are formed. It does not mean that someone is not wearing socks or a long sleeve shirt.

This would include shirts and blouses too short. When they cannot comb their hair without revealing their stomach, then it is too short. Of course, some have it

showing without even lifting their arms, referring to the dressing style of Bollywood actress Vidya Balan in the movie ‘Dirty Picture’. Then there are tops with the neck line cut way too low. Also, there are the skirts that come up beyond the knee and with slits that go to the thigh. They also wear see-through thin material that reveals the skin. Tight clothes are a signal that says, "Look at my body.   Dressing like a prostitute is not being nude.

The prostitute first lures men with her body to entice them to want more. Tight clothes are a signal that says, "Look at my body. " But In today’s world the teenagers’ style of clothing is misinterpreted with female escorts. We conclude that contradicting from our hypothesis, every person dresses according to the requirement of their profession, so does a prostitute. She has not only been keeping herself updated to the high fashion but she also knows how to create her own identity and attract her customers.

Although their way of dressing had not been accepted by the masses in early ages, these days the line between prostitutes’ appearance and teenagers’ style of clothing is getting diminished by the world of media and changing fashion.

Reference

http://dr1. com/articles/prostitution_2. shtml

http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sumptuary_law

http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Prostitution_in_ancient_Rome