Accepted Prostitution

What would be the limits you would set in order to care for your child? Most people will say that there are no limits, they will do anything for that child. Anything including, taking up an extra job, giving them that extra piece of toast even though your still starving, or giving them an extra blanket when their cold. Small but noticed sacrifices that the sacrifice feels great about doing. This is what most people think about when they say they will do anything for their children. They don't think about killing someone in order to keep their kids safe, or offering their body up for paid sexual favors. These are sacrifices that are extreme in nature and it'd be interesting to see if the same statement, "id do anything for my child," still stands knowing those extreme reproductions.

In the short story Night Women, there is woman that dose just that for her son, she prostitutes her body for money. In viewing prostitution in this light and makes this degrading act seem almost romantic. In the context of the story the woman seems to be doing this by choice, which typically isn't the case in prostitution. In doing so the prostitute isn't viewed as a prostitute but as a mother caring for her child. This sounds relatively straight forward in terms of comprehension but in fact the story is very confusing and unclear in its mood toward the mother. The author isn't sure if the mother should be painted in a just light or if in fact she is breaking the law for all the wrong reasons. It's even said at the beginning of the story that the husband of her son was one of her "husbands". This offers a very contradicting message in, that the mother was involved in prostitution far beyond the scope of having a child, that's how she had the child. In understanding this, it's no longer the act of caring for the child but the act of an obsession.  The woman cold be using her now child to justify her addiction to sex, saying it is now a means for supporting her family rather than pure pleasure.

That is just one of the supporting examples of the just, unjust act of prostitution in this narrative. I think it stands to viewed in just that way. Prostitution has been around for the longest time and in some countries/states its a legal profession. However, in most states and countries its a violent illegal use of a woman's body. This, I believe is what the author is trying to address and contradict, the legal act of prostitution verse the illegal one and the emotions that are evoked from this comparison. Even in the story there is no act of physical violence or struggle but yet we still see this act as being shady. In any case, regardless of illegality, it takes away from the true meaning of making love by putting a price on it and turning it into a capitalistic crime.