A01=Cynthia M. Blair
academic
activism
activist
african
america
american
Author_Cynthia M. Blair
black
Category=JBFV
Category=JBFW
Category=JBSF1
Category=JBSL
chicago
city
contemporary
cultural
culture
economic
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
feminism
historical
history
illinois
intersectional
labor
market
middle class
midwest
modern
prostitute
prostitution
race
racism
reform
research
scholarly
sex work
sexuality
social
taboo
turn of the century
united states
urban
usa
women
womens issues
Product details
- ISBN 9780226055985
- Weight: 595g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 15 Dec 2010
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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For many years, the interrelated histories of prostitution and cities have perked the ears of urban scholars, but until now the history of urban sex work has dealt only in passing with questions of race. In "I've Got to Make My Livin", Cynthia Blair explores African American women's sex work in Chicago during the decades of some of the city's most explosive growth, expanding not just our view of prostitution, but also of black women's labor, the Great Migration, black and white reform movements, and the emergence of modern sexuality. Focusing on the notorious sex districts of the city's south side, Blair paints a complex portrait of black prostitutes as conscious actors and historical agents, prostitution, she argues here, was an arena of exploitation and abuse, as well as a means of resisting middle-class sexual and economic norms. Blair ultimately illustrates just how powerful these norms were, offering stories about the struggles that emerged among black and white urbanites in response to black women's increasing visibility in the city's sex economy.
Through these powerful narratives, "I've Got to Make My Livin" reveals the intersecting racial struggles and sexual anxieties that underpinned the celebration of Chicago as the quintessentially modern twentieth-century city.
Cynthia Blair is associate professor in the Department of African American Studies and the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
