Calling enslaved Black women prostitutes misdescribed their coerced sexual exploitation

Evidence

Since prostitutes are women and men who engage in sexual behavior for money or pay of some kind, it is a term inaccurately used when applied to enslaved black women who rarely received compensation for the use of their bodies as sexual latrines. Abolitionist women and men labeled black women “prostitutes” because they were trapped by the language of the Victorian ethos. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99

Categorization

• DEFINE: Exposes the conceptual error in applying ‘prostitution’ to rape under slavery — a key terminological clarification.
• XREF: connects to: Bribery framing absolved slaveowners while making female submission appear consensual — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 73; Slave girls were sexually assaulted from age thirteen through bribes or force — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 69; Slave parents rarely prepared daughters for the reality of sexual exploitation — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 70 (+7 more)

Related

• Devaluation of black womanhood licensed exploitation and prostitution (similarity 0.90)
• Rape of black women was ignored because they were seen as sexually permissive (similarity 0.90)
• Abolitionist ‘prostitution’ language reinforced the myth of Black female wantonness (similarity 0.88)
• Bribery framing absolved slaveowners while making female submission appear consensual (similarity 0.86)
• Slave parents rarely prepared daughters for the reality of sexual exploitation (similarity 0.85)
• Slave girls were sexually assaulted from age thirteen through bribes or force (similarity 0.84)
• Sexual exploitation of black women continued and was institutionalized after slavery. (similarity 0.84)
• Sexual exploitation dehumanized black women more than labor exploitation did (similarity 0.83)
• Historians have normalized and minimized the rape of enslaved black women. (similarity 0.83)
• Black women’s exploitation is better described as masculinization than black men’s de-masculinization. (similarity 0.82)
• The cult of true womanhood demoralized enslaved women and enabled manipulation (similarity 0.82)
• Abolitionists who condemned rape still blamed enslaved women as accomplices. (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century sexual morality taught mistresses to blame enslaved women for rape (similarity 0.81)
• Labeling black women as sexual savages enabled their rapes by denying their humanity. (similarity 0.81)
• Rape of enslaved black women devalued black womanhood beyond slavery’s end. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Calling black women matriarchs ignores the traumas of their coerced childbearing #corroborates (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 213
• Devaluation of black womanhood licensed exploitation and prostitution #corroborates (0.50) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 195
• Sexual exploitation dehumanized black women more than labor exploitation did #corroborates (0.40)