Page 235 - Cultural Theory
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••• Maggie O’Neill •••
The problems of leading double lives and experiencing prejudice from others is also
relevant here:
People see women involved in prostitution as weird, perverse, not ordinary peo-
ple … I think they think we’ve got two heads and are all nymphomaniacs.
(ibid.: 153)
Figure 11.4 ‘Look behind the mask’
Overwhelmingly, the pivotal issue emerging in our research (and in my previous
research over the past 13 years) is how susceptible sex workers are to violence from
clients/punters/customers as well as passers-by, and how few rights they have as a
‘common prostitute’:
They think you’ve got no rights. In the papers, it will say ‘a prostitute’ has been
murdered. Does it matter that she’s a prostitute, she’s dead – she is a woman too.
(ibid.: 154)
Women felt also that it was much safer to work indoors than outdoors and that there
were greater risks and dangers with street prostitution:
You don’t see the dangers on the street until something happens.
Nine out of 10 times you can always sus them out … ‘dodgy punters’ … you
might have seen them before in the area.
(ibid.: 153)
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