Backstreets is about prostitution. It allows the individuals who participate in it --- prostitutes, pimps, and those who buy sexual services --- to tell their own stories in their own words. Women, for example, explain why they become prostitutes and how they experience the daily sequence of ''tricks.'' Men discuss why the become customers of prostitutes and what they get out of the experience. Pimps describe how they see themselves and the prostitutes upon whom they depend. The authors have studied the prostitution market of Oslo for over ten years. Their research has involved extensive interviews with participants, observation of Oslo's prostitution district, personal interaction with prostitute women, and analysis of city police records. They conclude that prostitution is embedded in the gender relations of an economically stratified society and that those who experience prostitution over an extended period of time suffer deep emotional damage.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this fascinating and frightening study, combining interviews, police records, research data and their own observations and theories, the sociologist authors look at prostitution in Oslo and try to illuminate the nature of the money-for-sex transaction, as well as its effects on the participants and on society. The prostitute interviews are disturbing as the women outline various defense mechanisms they employ to distance themselves from their physical reality; these range from using fake names to washing frequently to taking drugs. The customer interviews are even more troubling: some men sentimentally believe that prostitutes enjoy their work; further, the men seek not only sex but "security, closeness and home" as well. The authors are at their best (and the book at its saddest) in exploring life after prostitution: the emotional damage of seeing one's body as an object doesn't go away; self-esteem and sexual pleasure are ruined, replaced by self-hatred and depression. Hoigard and Finstad assert in their compassionate and intelligent conclusion that the sale of sexual services must somehow be made obsolete and the damage to prostitutes, customers and society ended.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
''Backstreets is a major breakthrough that takes us into the daily, lived experiences of prostitution to reveal its harsh and brutal realities. Nowhere else have we seen the violation that prostitution is to women so fully and sensitively revealed. From women s lives Backstreets exposes the lies of liberal romanticization of prostitution. The unavoidable conclusion of this work is that we must challenge every social condition that gives men license to use women in these ways.'' --Kathleen Barry, author of Female Sexual Slavery
''No single study has gone this deeply into the aftermath of steady involvement in prostitution on the self-images, self-feelings, and personal relations with the opposite sex for both prostitutes and customers. The similarities of some of these prostitutes experiences with the reactions of survivors of incest and rape are also thought-provoking. Few studies ever present this much data on the backgrounds, strategies, and life-styles of customers and pimps. This 'triangulation of the world prostitution utilizing data about a significant number of women, clients, and pimps provides an unusual depth to this work.'' --Barbara Sherman Heyl, Illinois State University
''No single study has gone this deeply into the aftermath of steady involvement in prostitution on the self-images, self-feelings, and personal relations with the opposite sex for both prostitutes and customers. The similarities of some of these prostitutes experiences with the reactions of survivors of incest and rape are also thought-provoking. Few studies ever present this much data on the backgrounds, strategies, and life-styles of customers and pimps. This 'triangulation of the world prostitution utilizing data about a significant number of women, clients, and pimps provides an unusual depth to this work.'' --Barbara Sherman Heyl, Illinois State University
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