Since January, I have learned a lot in my english class, and most of what I have learned has been related to the books that we have been reading. The most eye-opening thing that I have learned is that there has been a problematic history concerning the presence of women in urban spaces. Years ago, a woman walking alone in an urban space was identified as a prostitute. Due to the changes that have occurred in the past two centuries, rarely would I be considered a prostitute if I was walking alone in an urban space. This is such a simple thing, but I have taken this for granted.
During the 19th century, stemming from a long standing perspective, if a woman was seen walking by herself in an urban space, she was considered a prostitute. Women were sexualized when alone in urban spaces. It was un-proper, and respectable women would not and could not be alone without giving off the wrong impression. At the turn of the 20th century; however, these antiquated opinions started to break down. In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway, a respectable woman, walked by herself in an urban space at the very beginning of the novel. By the time of Clarissa Dalloway, women were allowed to walk by themselves, and when seen alone in urban spaces were not nearly as often recognized as a call girl. Although the structure was breaking down, men occasionally still gleaned the wrong impression when spotting a woman by herself.
Even though standards were changing, men still gathered the wrong impression from observing a woman alone in an urban space. As Peter was taking a walk, his gaze landed on a young woman who was walking alone in the streets of London, England. He became infatuated with her and followed her for over a mile until she reached her house. Although the woman was oblivious to Peter following her, he imagined what she was like. When I first read this passage, I did not think that the woman Peter followed could have been a prostitute. When I read the excerpt again, I noticed that Peter mentioned that he saw the young woman wearing a “red carnation” (Woolf 52) which is historically a signal of prostitution, and that the young woman had “hanging flower baskets” outside of her house, suggesting indecency (Woolf 53) . Although the woman may or may not have been a prostitute, she represented the transition of opinions of what constituted a prostitution which occurred in the time of Mrs. Dalloway. Despite the fact that women were allowed to be unaccompanied in urban spaces without necessarily marked as being un proper, many years passed until women were freed of that distinction.
Now, I would have never had thought that walking by myself would distinguish me as a prostitute. In society today, indecent women are so much more explicit of the services they offer. The past hundred years have seen an increase in the quantity of spaces that respectable women are allowed to inhabit without appearing improper.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. 1925. Print.
It is interesting that you point out that "indecent women are much more explicit" nowadays. I wonder what that says about human character. Humanity as a whole is a lot more inclined to let what we do be seen by everybody else. Is that just a development of honesty and transparency or is it a decline in moral standards? We all know that prostitution is wrong, but what makes women flaunt the fact that they are? Are we becoming more comfortable with immoral actions as long as we have someone else to do them with? I do not know the answer, but these are very intriguing questions to ask.
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