Prostitutes, or sex workers as they are often referred to nowadays, are usually marginalized and generally depicted in a negative light in comics and graphic novels. Most frequently, a stereotypical image of female sex workers as victims of society from a patriarchal viewpoint is perpetuated. Violence against prostitutes is often the central theme for graphic novels, like in From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
Characters that are, or used to be, prostitutes are almost exclusively victimized or vilified. Even powerful, authoritative, and independent women, like most from the Sin City series of graphic novels by Frank Miller, are, in the grand scheme of things, at the mercy of more powerful male figures. In the Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown tried to counter this prevalent misogynist depiction of prostitutes in his graphic novel Paying For It.
I will show that Paying For It , although partly flawed, is an important work for the portrayal of prostitutes in comics, and a valuable contribution in the debate about the decriminalization of sex work.
Dalla, Rochelle L. Overall, Christine. Evaluating Sex Work. Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer. Keywords: Literature, Culture, Comics Studies, pop-culture, sex workers, representation. Abstract Prostitutes, or sex workers as they are often referred to nowadays, are usually marginalized and generally depicted in a negative light in comics and graphic novels.
References Austen, Chuck and Ron Garney. Uncanny X-Men New York: Marvel. Brown, Chester. Paying For It. Casey, Joe and Tom Raney. Jenkins, Paul. Generation M. Miller, Frank. Moore, Alan and Eddie Campbell. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4. Open Journal Systems.
