The word 'prostitute' has become a very loaded term and we see this with other serial murders like the Yorkshire Ripper, where the Police of the day are painted as hopeless misogynists.
What is really, really important is that we remember the lives and times of these women with sensitivity- the difficulties of everyday life- days before a welfare state, the daily violence that can occur in a slum environment, the types of addictions and mental issues that can arise for all sorts of reasons, the lack of rights(woman couldn't vote for another 30 years and even then it was restricted), there were no woman Police officers for another 30 or so years as well(and when they did join they were segregated from the men). So the times were very, very difficult for women. No rights. No real chances of employment except as domestic servants for example particularly in the slum.
What these women who died all had in common was that they only had one thing left to sell. They had tried and failed at everything else. Almost all had at one time been in the Workhouse. It was sell themselves or die. There was no DWP to go to or Housing Association. There was no PIP or DLA. And so these women took the decision to survive by any means they could. Was it prostitution? I suppose it was in the technical sense but it was also casual prostitution as a last resort when all else had failed. I can't even imagine the mental anguish these women had to go through to arrive at such a decision and have to act upon it or essentially die. It just doesn't bear thinking about.
We never met the victims so it is impossible for us to form a judgement on what they were like as people. Maybe we wouldnt have liked them. Maybe we would have liked some, not others. Maybe we would have liked them all. It really doesn't matter. We can only tell their stories.
What is really, really important is that we remember the lives and times of these women with sensitivity- the difficulties of everyday life- days before a welfare state, the daily violence that can occur in a slum environment, the types of addictions and mental issues that can arise for all sorts of reasons, the lack of rights(woman couldn't vote for another 30 years and even then it was restricted), there were no woman Police officers for another 30 or so years as well(and when they did join they were segregated from the men). So the times were very, very difficult for women. No rights. No real chances of employment except as domestic servants for example particularly in the slum.
What these women who died all had in common was that they only had one thing left to sell. They had tried and failed at everything else. Almost all had at one time been in the Workhouse. It was sell themselves or die. There was no DWP to go to or Housing Association. There was no PIP or DLA. And so these women took the decision to survive by any means they could. Was it prostitution? I suppose it was in the technical sense but it was also casual prostitution as a last resort when all else had failed. I can't even imagine the mental anguish these women had to go through to arrive at such a decision and have to act upon it or essentially die. It just doesn't bear thinking about.
We never met the victims so it is impossible for us to form a judgement on what they were like as people. Maybe we wouldnt have liked them. Maybe we would have liked some, not others. Maybe we would have liked them all. It really doesn't matter. We can only tell their stories.
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