The Subaltern Sex Workers

Abstract

This bachelor thesis concerns itself with the living and working conditions of sex workers, and sex worker slaves in ancient Rome. Combining historical, feminist, and postcolonial theories; this paper looks at the way the Roman upper classes expressed a certain ‘Cultural Hegemony’ over the ‘subaltern’ sex workers. This thesis considers several aspects of the lives and work of sex workers: their places of work, their pay, the laws that concern their profession, how they were identified and how they prevented and dealt with unwanted pregnancies. Of these aspects, this paper will consider how the upper classes could have had a negative impact on the lives and working conditions of Roman sex workers, both directly and indirectly.