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From: travis@douglass.cs.columbia.edu (Travis Lee Winfrey)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Feminist & Functionalist views of Prostitution
Message-ID: <6553@columbia.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 89 16:56:14 GMT
References: <9194@oregon.uoregon.edu>
Sender: ambar@ora.ora.com
Reply-To: travis@douglass.cs.columbia.edu (Travis Lee Winfrey)
Organization: Columbia University
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Approved: ambar@ora.com

In article <9194@oregon.uoregon.edu> PACHINN@oregon.uoregon.edu (Patrick Chinn) writes:
>Can anyone out there help me?  I'm and ugrad at the University of Oregon,
>and I'm trying to write term paper comparing the Functionalist and Feminist
>views of Prostitution.  I've done a couple hours of work on the UofO library
>computer searching for books, but I've turned up almost nothing.

Sounds fab, but what are the functionalist and feminist views of
prostitution?  Surely you've found *some* books on prostitution: there
are hundreds of titles available.  You did spend some time looking
through Books In Print, not just the library catalog, right?

>If you know of any good books, articles, or any other material that might
>help, please let me know.  Any hints will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

You should definitely look at 

  Sex Work : Writings by women in the sex industry
  Frederique Delacost & Priscilla Alexander, editors
  Cleis Press, 1987

This is a collection of article and interviews by women in various
aspects of the sex industry: prostitutes, strippers, porn stars,
massage parlor workers, etc.  There are also remarks from people
working on both sides of the politicization of the sex trade (i.e.,
those who think prostitution should be legalized, and those who think
it is female slavery).  There is an large, annotated bibliography, and
a list of relevant organizations, e.g., Coyote (Cast Off Your Old
Tired Ethics), a prostitute advocacy group.  The tone of the book is
largely in favor of legalization of prostitution.

You may want to want to call Coyote yourself.  They'll have offices in
Las Vegas, and maybe in Reno and Los Angeles.

I believe there is an article by Susan Brownmiller on Prostitution in
"Woman in Sexist Society," edited by Vivian Gornick, which should be
widely available.  If not, you could look for Brownmiller's 70's
publications, since I'm pretty sure she spent a lot of time on the
subject.

For a very strong view, there's Kathleen Barry, who has written
"Female Sexual Slavery," (several editions: Prentice Hall, 79; NYU
Pr., 84; NYU Pr., 87).  I've not read these books, only some articles
about her.

There are other books I could recommend, but I'm not really certain
what you want, since you mention that you've already been in the
library.

t

Arpa:	travis@cs.columbia.edu	Usenet: rutgers!columbia!travis