Rescuing the soiled dove: pop culture’s influence on a historical narrative of prostitution

Abstract

American popular culture romanticises relationships between sex workers and their customers; novels, films and television depict prostitutes as innocents in need of rescue by a wealthy or powerful man. Miss Laura’s Social Club, a restored Victorian brothel in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA, functions both as an informal house museum and the visitor centre for the city. The narrative of Miss Laura’s is influenced by popular culture depictions of prostitution and a desire to show the city in the best possible light. In this qualitative case study, the researchers use an embedded thematic analysis to explore themes that emerged from an earlier study of informal learning at Miss Laura’s. The themes under discussion are the visitor centre’s dual roles as a marketing tool and as a museum and the Cinderella/romanticised themes in the narrative of the lives of ‘the girls’ that worked in the bordello. Using a feminist framework, the researchers examined the inherent tension between the site’s role as a museum and its role as a marketing tool for the city, explicitly pondering the responsibilities of heritage tourism sites to provide information beyond the hegemonic power structures.