Alice Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute

Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute

The book titled “Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute” is based on the memoirs of a sex worker Alice from 1913, the political and social implications of this business, and how it fits in that time and that of today. Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus edit the book. The book was initiated from the post found by these editors in San Francisco (SF) bulletin “A Voice from the Underworld,” from the oldest business arena that was despised by the society for centuries and still is. The book’s thesis is the negativity of the prostitution world accompanied by its rejection, corruption of the police, and verbal laws of brothels[footnoteRef:1]. The three accompanying arguments are the cruelty of the real world that directs abandoned girls like Alice to prostitution, wage discrimination by gender, and the helplessness of the women amidst the unavailability of reasonable opportunities for earning their livelihoods or inaccessibility to strong means like the police to look up to for support. [1: Goodreads, n.d., Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute, https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/30102481-alice. ]

Who was Alice? Alice Smith was one of those sex workers who sent candid letters to the San Francisco bulletin about their lives and experiences that led to doing this work. The purpose of writing these letters was to let the world know what this segment of the population was going through a century ago, which is still contrasted with contemporary times, depicting unchanged. When the editors of this book first found these articles, there were surprisingly letters from even those working-class women who have shared their experiences of turning to sex work[footnoteRef:2]. It was considered a meaningful work that needed to be critically highlighted by the world, especially political authorities.   [2: Ivy Anderson, and Devon Angus, Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute (London: ORION, 2016).]

Some of the reasons the book presents could lead a woman to sex work include social alienation of this very gender in the working class. Our society and political leaders have not supported the independence that this gender should enjoy[footnoteRef:3]. There could have been policies, laws, or Constitutional rights that should have talked about only women’s equality in pay, occupation, and social rights for earning. However, even working-class women thought turning to this ‘indecent’ profession was alarming. Under the shade of this disparity and its brutality that results in going to bed hungry each day, a rise of the less visible line between right and wrong is born, leading such deprived women to think of sex work. When their own family and close kin abandoned girls like Alice, they were left in poverty. They had to look for remuneration in one way or another regardless of the tarnishing of a woman’s reputation.  [3: C.E. Persons, 1915, \"Women\'s work and wages in the United States\", The Quaterly Journal of Economics 201-234.]

The purpose of Fremont Older publishing letters in the SF bulletin was to expose unfairness, human suffering, criminality, and political corruption at that time. He decided to give voice to this segment as well. “A Voice from the Underworld” was unleashed to let the sex workers give opinions about the upcoming Red Light Abatement Bill. The bill was aimed at eliminating prostitution and shutting down the brothels all over California[footnoteRef:4]. The bill was even extended to the termination of liquor selling shops to cease acts of instigation for prostitution. Older was that prostitutes should be allowed to present their beliefs about how the bill would impact them and what other options they would be left with for earning for themselves[footnoteRef:5].     [4: Justia, n.d., 2005, California penal code sections 11225-11235 article 2. Red Light Abatement law, https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2005/pen/11225-11235.html.] [5: Voices from the Underworld, 2016, Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute- Winner of the California Historical Society Book award, http://www.voicesfromtheunderworld.com/blog/tag/1913.]

Older had to face firing from SF bulletin, although he was saved by Hearst-owned San Francisco Call later, who had been willing to hire him for years[footnoteRef:6][footnoteRef:7]. However, other consequences consisted of the voiced narrative given to the prostitutes who had been facing backlash and criminalizing by the society despite being unfair themselves. The social alienation of the female gender in the form of having denied reasonable wages, legit work, absence of respect, and loveless marriages were clear examples of demoralizing behaviors from the society that forced such women to be in sex work that paid them well. Alice and other similar women were in a position to explain how sex work was more well-paid compared to other respected professions in the society that did not consider women as humans and did not show parity in wages for them.   [6: Ivy Anderson, and Devon Angus.] [7: Found SF, n.d., Fremont Older: Newsman, statesman, thinker, https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Fremont_Older:_Newsman,_Statesman,_Thinker]

Red Light Abatement Bill was an act that extended from liquor abolishing acts previously so that brothels and all other illegal sex performing areas could be closed. It was initiated by the middle-class reformers, particularly the males of that time, who wanted to ‘purify’ the society of this evil and make the society a better living place for the decent people[footnoteRef:8]. It was marked by the Progressive Era of the United States, in which political ignorance was evident in terms of granting human rights to all individuals on equal terms. If prostitutes were to be considered humans, the Constitution emphasizes that the right to employment, medical services, education, etc., must be provided to them without discrimination of color, race, sex, etc. However, it was that era where prostitution remained a core debate, and transformation was deemed important in terms of cleansing the society of this evil. [8: Hiroyuki Matsubara, 2001, \"The anti-prostitution movement and the contest of the middle-class reformers over cultural authority: San Francisco, 1910-1913.\" The Japanese Journal of American Studies 83-104.]

Consequently, the effect on sex workers of that time was obvious as they had to scatter around in the city and find themselves other places to live and earn[footnoteRef:9]. They had to flee from police arrests and were apprehensive of the political and police staff who, by no means, seemed to be in the position of offering sex workers and support. They had to take benefit of minimum-wage legislation so that the political authorities should ensure self-sufficiency for the women class. The letters elucidated the incidents where fourteen hundred prostitutes became unsafe from the society’s condemnation, which strongly gave rise to sisterhood among this segment to offer protection to each other[footnoteRef:10].  [9: Robert W. Cherny, California: Women and politics- from the Gold Rush to the Great Depression (Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press, 2011), 256.] [10: Ivy Anderson, and Devon Angus.]

The other story that I found fascinating was Alma Greene’s that was included in the letters from the sex workers within the bulletin. She said she was offered many proposals from the charities to accompany men on their tours as a so-called wife and earn ‘good money.’ She said she refused those offers since she had known some prostitutes who went on these journeys for five weeks and had to be treated like slaves, had to like those men and show affection when they were equally repulsive, and had to present themselves for the humiliation as a human that they were not worthy of[footnoteRef:11]. She believed that men from all walks of life, even if they are praying in a Church, are all the same. They come to the dance or clubhouses and want to have fun with these women, even if afterward, they show themselves as respected men who were engaged in reforms against the brothels. They had families but were still invoked in the vulgarism that they loathed. She was also one of those women who strongly voiced her opinions about empowerment, representation, and having the right to equal healthcare, salary, and food, just like other humans of the same country. [11: Voices from the Underworld, 2016.]