Sociation Today Fall/Winter2010, Volume 8, Number 2
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Sociation Today Fall/Winter2010, Volume 8, Number 2 http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v82/atonement.htm ® The Official Journal of The North ® Carolina Sociological Volume 8, Number 2 Association: A Peer-Reviewed Fall/Winter 2010 Refereed Web-Based Publication ISSN 1542-6300 Editorial Board: Editor: George H. Conklin, North Carolina Central University Board: Rebecca Adams, UNC-Greensboro Bob Davis, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Catherine Harris, This paper analyzed Hollywood's portrayal of Wake Forest prostitution, developing the idea of "Forced Atonement," University in which prostitutes experience one or more abusive Ella Keller, situations as a prerequisite for her transformation from Fayetteville deviant sex worker to non-deviant woman. The State University application of forced atonement against female prostitutes Ken Land, exemplifies the way some kinds of movies makes violence Duke University against women seem justified. Miles Simpson, North Carolina This study also explored the portrayal of forced Central University atonement experienced by prostitutes in order to (1) illustrate that forced atonement may be applied to any Ron Wimberley, N.C. State University deviant population in cinema. The term "forced atonement" describes any kind of abuse or abusive Robert Wortham, situation, taking place over time, after which the prostitute North Carolina Central University changes for the better. "Abuse or abusive situation" in the definition above encompasses verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, kidnapping, being traumatized, losing a Editorial Assistants loved one, attempted murder, and being killed. 1 of 22 1/23/2011 9:33 AM Sociation Today Fall/Winter2010, Volume 8, Number 2 http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v82/atonement.htm John W.M. Russell, Prior to experiencing a forced atonement, the prostitute Technical is immoral, criminal, and bad. The exemplifying narrative Consultant of certain movies included in the content analysis develops Austin W. Ashe, the idea that prostitution is always bad, the prostitute Duke University deserves punishment, that prostitutes must experience redemption, and through punishment (forced atonement) Submission change her criminal ways. The prostitute's lifestyle Guidelines inevitably backfires, resulting in punishing circumstances for Authors (rape, isolation, rejection) that make it impossible for her to justify prostitution any longer. Cumulative Searchable Index Five essential archetypes of forced atonement appeared of over the four decades' worth of movies included in this Sociation Today study. These archetypes evolved out of Hollywood's need from the to homogenize prostitution for mass appeal, and to frame Directory of the representations of prostitution into easily understood Open Access categories, as suggested by Horkheimer and Adorno's "The Journals (DOAJ) Culture Industry" (2002 [1987]). I developed these archetypes, "redeemed bad girl," "prostitute as victim," Sociation Today "hooker with a heart of gold," "the strong prostitute," and is abstracted in the "Galatea" using grounded theory, as described later in Sociological this study. Abstracts and a member The prostitute archetypes appear roughly limited by of the EBSCO specific decades, with some overlap, as social change does Publishing Group not occur in easily defined ten-year increments. The "redeemed bad girl" dominates movies made in the sixties. The North The "prostitute as victim" dominates movies made in the Carolina seventies. The "hooker with a heart of gold" dominates Sociological movies made in the eighties. Both the "strong prostitute" Association and the "Galatea" appear in movies from the nineties. would like to thank While some characters do not fit perfectly into the North Carolina descriptive parameters of an individual archetype, the five Central University encompass the classic stereotypes that appear repeatedly for its in film (Connors and Craddock 2000, Feng 2000, Rafter sponsorship of 2000, Wartenberg 1999, Hooks 1996, James 1995, Palmer Sociation 1993, and Maio 1991). With the exception of the "hooker Today with a heart of gold," which appears in the taglines of movie advertisements and in movie reviews (used by countless reviewers to describe the prostitute character in movies such as Trading Places, Night Shift, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) the names of these archetypes emerged during coding as descriptive labels. 2 of 22 1/23/2011 9:33 AM Sociation Today Fall/Winter2010, Volume 8, Number 2 http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v82/atonement.htm The Culture Industry "What is repeated is healthy--the cycle in nature as in industry...the bread on which the culture industry feeds humanity, remains the stone of stereotype." (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002:119). The Culture Industry produces and reproduces products in accordance with popular culture. Archetypes are an expression of the movie industry's search for improved box office receipts while balancing profit with industry regulations. When a certain kind of role results in commercial success, studios immediately try to reproduce that success by repackaging the old role in a variant scenario. Hollywood's portrayal of prostitution is an excellent example of this process. During the sixties, movies featured an archetype denoted as "redeemed bad girl." This archetype dominated because Production Code Administration (PCA) standards still mandated the punishment of sin and the condemnation of sexual relations outside of marriage. Sin in the form of prostitution was typically punished/redeemed by death, or redeemed by the marriage of the prostitute. This archetype evolved into the "prostitute as victim" during the seventies, in which forced atonement takes the form of systematic victimization rather than marriage or death. From the "prostitute as victim" comes the "hooker with a heart of gold" in the eighties, in which emotional abuse disguised as satirical violence and slapstick replaces the constant violence of victimization. The "Galatea" of the nineties develops from the "redeemed bad girl" archetype of the sixties. Here the prostitute is forced to atone not only for prostitution, but also for her low status and lack of upbringing. Finally, the "strong prostitute" archetype also developed in the nineties. It is the only archetype that breaks away from those mandated by the Culture Industry, and then only to a slight degree. In this archetype, while the prostitute may seemingly choose prostitution, she is still subject to a forced atonement. 3 of 22 1/23/2011 9:33 AM Sociation Today Fall/Winter2010, Volume 8, Number 2 http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v82/atonement.htm Prostitution The current study suggests that the movie industry reproduces the stereotypes of popular culture. Until the prostitutes' rights organization, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE) formed, the idea that a woman could choose prostitution as a viable career instead of prostitution resulting from economic necessity or similar circumstance did not appear in American movies. In the late seventies COYOTE and similar groups began to promote prostitution as lifestyle choice (Williams 1999, Jaggar 1997, and Jenness 1993), enabling an on-screen depiction of prostitution as empowering, even though prostitution still led inevitably to forced atonement. While prostitution has always existed, a great deal of variation exists in how to define prostitution. Those who want to make and keep prostitution legal claim it is a personal choice (Albert 2001, Sanchez 2001, Jaggar 1997, and Jenness 1993). However, this position ignores the people who are prostitutes because they have no other choice (Sanchez 2001). It also ignores people who have been so self-stigmatized through systematic emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that they believe they are making a choice, but are in truth falling prey to their own sense of self-loathing (Dalla 2002, Dalla 2001, Dalla 2000, Balos 2001, and Jaggar 1997). The movie prostitute is portrayed almost exclusively as though she has no other choice but to be a prostitute, which reinforces the idea that real life prostitutes have not made a choice and also excludes the possibility that a prostitute can choose prostitution. Over the last forty years, movies presented prostitute archetypes that reinforced the idea that women never choose prostitution as a profession. For example, a pimp played by Harvey Keitel manipulates Taxi Driver's (1976) Iris into becoming a prostitute. In Nuts (1987), the character of Claudia turned to prostitution because of her history of childhood sexual abuse. Pretty Woman's (1990) Vivian is a prostitute because she has low self-esteem and a history of maladaptive relationships. There are exceptions, and 1995's. Leaving Las Vegas is one of the few movies that show a morally complex prostitute (Sera) 4 of 22 1/23/2011 9:33 AM Sociation Today Fall/Winter2010, Volume 8, Number 2 http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v82/atonement.htm whose choice to be a prostitute does not fall into an easily explained—or understood category. A sample of approximately 200 movies concerning prostitution was compiled using the Internet Movie database (IMDB) and crosschecked with the Video Hound 2000 movie guide (Connors and Craddock). This list was then shortened by eliminating movies that concerned prostitutes in a tertiary way (such as Strange Days 1995), movies concerning male prostitution (such as My Own Private Idaho 1991), and finally movies not produced in the United States