Labeled women: Roman prostitutes and persistent stereotypes

Roman texts frequently use the word "meretrix," or prostitute, to condemn certain women as immoral, even if the women under attack are not professional sex workers. Elite Roman men adopted meretrix as a general label for various distinct types of unconventional, sexually promiscuous women, ranging from greedy brothel girls to adulterous, politically active matrons.;The Roman discourse about meretrices illuminates Roman prejudices against unorthodox women who did not fill the conventional social roles of marriage and motherhood. The different stereotypes included under the general rubric of meretrix illuminate the complex relationship between the exaggerated stereotypes of the idealized matron and her counterpart, the despised streetwalker. This dissertation also explores the evidence for more prosperous courtesans and freedwoman concubines in Roman society.;Distrust of prostitutes' loyalties and their inability to enter into the normal family-based social structure formed the foundation of elite Roman invective against meretrices, rather than prejudice against women's sexual activity. This prejudice extended towards women who were not prostitutes but who also exhibited familial disloyalty in their political or economic behaviors.;By examining different caricatures of sexually promiscuous Roman women in historical, artistic, and literary sources, we can draw more general conclusions about the Roman construction of women's social roles. Through archaeological and literary sources, I also demonstrate that Roman prostitutes played a public and prominent role in daily urban life. I place Roman prostitutes within a social context of place, region, and time, examining how different temporal and spatial factors may have altered social attitudes towards them.;The Roman association between promiscuity and public female political and economic activity is the beginning of a long history of such labels in Western society. Only by understanding the roots of these stereotypes may we truly comprehend their influence upon our own culture and ideas about women's roles in society.