Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls: Colorado Prostitution Review

Introduction: Scope and Purpose of MacKell's Study

In Brothels, Bordellos, & Bad Girls: Prostitution in Colorado 1860–1930, Jan MacKell discusses prostitution in Colorado across seven decades of frontier and early modern history. Prostitution, frequently referred to as the world's oldest profession, is notable for existing in some form in every known society. Yet because of sexual taboos that label it as immoral, it has not received a significant amount of scholarly attention. This is unfortunate, because prostitution — and how a society approaches it — can be deeply informative about that society's views of women, sexuality, and sexual relationships. Moreover, how a society treats those who are considered marginalized reveals far more about its attitudes toward women than how it treats upper-class women.

MacKell makes clear in her preface that her purpose is not exploitative. She speaks of wanting to right the wrongs done to these women, and she hints at the idea that difficult life circumstances frequently left women with few choices, making prostitution the only viable path to financial survival. Her goal was to go beyond the simple fact that these women exchanged sex for money and to examine their lives in greater depth — what motivated them to enter the profession, how they spent their time, what social consequences they faced, the nature of their interpersonal relationships, and other details that are typically ignored when the prostitute label is applied.

MacKell's Findings on Colorado Prostitution

MacKell's findings reveal a significant amount of detail about prostitution in Colorado from the first major gold rush through the 1920s. Even though some major cities made serious efforts to outlaw prostitution, it flourished openly throughout Colorado during this period. In the 1880s and 1890s, open solicitation was legal. After that, solicitation outside a brothel was generally illegal, but prostitutes continued to find ways to attract clients while obeying the letter, if not the spirit, of the law. Furthermore, even in towns that prohibited prostitution, the timely payment of fines by a brothel's madam could ensure the business continued without serious interference.

Another revelation is that prostitution could be a lucrative enterprise. MacKell demonstrates that a prostitute working in the right location and managing her business well could, in some cases, retire after a relatively short time. The age range of prostitutes was also striking — from 13 to 50, though most were around 21 years old (MacKell, 2004, p. 6). Many hoped to marry or become mistresses, and brothels actively promoted the image of their women as courtesans rather than streetwalkers. The madams themselves displayed a notable degree of organization: they worked to remain on the right side of the law, were often protective of the women in their care, and frequently served as surrogate mothers. MacKell also addresses the significant number of Asian women who were sold into prostitution before arriving in America — a phenomenon that accompanied the gold rush across the entire West, including Colorado.

The Central Argument: Humanizing the Prostitute

MacKell's central argument is that the women she studies were not, in fact, bad women. She does not minimize the darker aspects of their lives — drug abuse, alcohol abuse, abortion, assault, and murder were not uncommon in the profession. However, society has long either villainized prostitutes or reduced them to caricature, and this is something MacKell firmly resists. She portrays them as human beings first and members of their profession second, making clear that for many of these women, prostitution may have appeared to be the only viable career option available to them.

MacKell also highlights the positive, socially constructive contributions that prostitutes made to their communities, particularly in the developing West. In much of frontier Colorado, the social environment was overwhelmingly male-dominated, and prostitutes were often the only female companionship available to men in these communities. Their presence shaped the social fabric of these towns in ways that go well beyond the transactional nature of their work.

References

MacKell, Jan. Brothels, Bordellos, & Bad Girls: Prostitution in Colorado 1860–1930. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004.