LE PORTRAIT ET LE STATUT DE LA FILLE PUBLIQUE À LA FIN DU XIXe SIЀCLE
THE PORTRAIT AND STATUS OF THE PUBLIC GIRL AT THE END OF THE 19th CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: During the XIXth century, women were not allowed to be involved in public life, economics and politics. Excluded from certain domains, used by the urban economy, with insufficient funds to define themselves, women were economically marginalized. They discovered in prostitution the means to achieve a certain independence, especially a material one. Invaded by poverty, violence and lack of power, they found a solution in debauchery which was the only immediate alternative. The prostitute is considered a victim, endowed with failure. Thus, we can talk about the marginality of this woman who is not included in any social class because in the eyes of people she does not exist as a member of society. Without understanding her rights, she remains a person who can never integrates into the moral of the century. Although, as social victims, the prostitutes prove their human character by the mixture of qualities and defaults that they experience during their existence, by their appearance and their way of acting.

• Details
• Contents