This is a brief overview of what I learned from my research paper:
- Prostitution was used to keep working men coming back during the Gold Rush
- Dance houses influenced prostitution since it was a place to be drunk and dance with women around
- Indigenous women were the primary peoples to take part in prostitution and were degraded for this; being called things such as “squaws”
- Gifts for sex was how prostitution started– it was not always money but gifts still supported the women and in some cases advanced an Indigenous woman’ status
- It was thought that Indigenous women would assimilate and thus stop their sexual deeds with the working men
- While primarily white working men were taking advantage of Indigenous women’s sexuality and offering of sex, they still believed that women should remain chaste and virtuous according to their religious beliefs
- Prostitution came about due to the influx of male workers in BC when the Gold Rush was happening– men were away from their wives and needed to relieve the stresses and hardships of their work
- Masturbation and seducing pure women (not Indigenous women) were worse than cheating on a wife with an Indigenous women because there were barely seen as human
- Organizations such as the Young Womens Christian Organization only pushed women farther from Christianity and living a virtuous life
- Casual use of sex for pleasure became prominent once women abandoned Christian doctrines
