Actresses and Whores On Stage and in Society [Hardcover]

This book offers insights into the connection between actresses and prostitutes.For centuries, the categories of 'whore' and 'actress' have overlapped. Actresses are assumed to be sexually available and promiscuous, and prostitutes are assumed to perform for their clients. Using biographies of historical actresses and p rostitutes and interviews with contemporary sex workers, this book explores the various connections between actresses and prostitutes from Nell Gwynne to Mae West. In this highly original study, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present, Kirsten Pullen offers many new insights to theatre historians and scholars of cultural, social and gender studies.For centuries, the categories of 'whore' and 'actress' have overlapped. Actresses are assumed to be sexually available and promiscuous, and prostitutes are assumed to perform for their clients. Using biographies of historical actresses and p rostitutes and interviews with contemporary sex workers, this book explores the various connections between actresses and prostitutes from Nell Gwynne to Mae West. In this highly original study, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present, Kirsten Pullen offers many new insights to theatre historians and scholars of cultural, social and gender studies.The categories of whore and actress have overlapped over centuries. Actresses are assumed to be sexually available and promiscuous, and prostitutes are assumed to perform for their clients. Employing historical biographies as well as interviews with contemporary sex workers, this book compares actresses and prostitutes from Nell Gwynne to Mae West. Ranging from the seventeenth century to the present, Kirsten Pullen offers many new insights to theater historians and scholars of cultural, social and gender studies.List of illustrations; 1. Prostitution, performance, and Mae West: speaking from the whore position; 2. Betty Boutell, 'Whom All the Town Fucks': constructing the actress/whore; 3. Memoir anl3>