Economic dependence on a pimp traps prostitutes more than violence does

Evidence

While cases of the “white slave trade,” where she is dragged into the spiral by violence, false promises, mystifications, and so on, are relatively rare, what happens more often is that she is kept in this career against her will. The capital necessary to get her started is provided by a pimp or a madam who acquires rights over her, who gets most of her profits, and from whom she is not able to free herself. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1669

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The counterintuitive mechanism — coercion through starter capital and profit-sharing rather than physical violence — inverts the white-slavery narrative and explains why exit is so hard.
• XREF: Mirrors Milgrom’s analysis of how financial dependency structures bind agents to principals; parallels the capital-debt trap common to servitude regimes. — connects to: The pimp’s violence paradoxically reinforces the prostitute’s erotic submission and love — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1671; Prostitutes’ misery stems from material exploitation, not moral character — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1680; Prostitution ends only by eliminating its economic and social causes

Broader Connections

• Prostitutes’ misery stems from material exploitation, not moral character #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1680