The Filthy BrothelsPhoto byWikimedia Commons
The Wild West became the West when women arrived. They established communities, challenged gender norms, and brought a sense of civility and compassion to the region, shaping its cultural landscape into what we know today.
We're not talking about the mothers and wives of the early settlers. We're talking about the madams and the white doves who used one of the oldest professions in the world to civilize the Wild West. Let's discover the filthy truth behind the brothels of the Wild West.
The Land Of The Lonely
Before women arrived at the frontier, the Wild West was known as the Sad West mainly because the towns were simply settlements with tents and holes.
Some holes to sleep in and some to do their morning business. These towns were, in reality, simple work camps that had no sense of domestic life whatsoever, and these were the 1800's which meant gender rules were quite strict.
Without women, domestic life was a distant dream for these men. The situation was so bad that men would cross-dress to comfort each other or spend a fortune getting their hands on a female's shorts or seeing a female's ankle.
When the women arrived in the West, they witnessed a lot of desperate men, and they saw a clear financial opportunity. There was no society in the Wild West to judge these women, and they knew the overall demand for love was high, and they had to supply as there was none.
Brothels To Boost The Economy
During the 1800s, job opportunities for women were very scarce, and those who dared to venture to the West would be employed as teachers who would be paid only eight dollars a year. This was considered a high-paying job. Other opportunities included being laundresses, clerks, and factory workers.
By being a brothel workers, these women became independent, making more money than their customers. Once the women came, the testosterone-heavy camps turned into fertile towns. The women got wealthy from all the money from the desperate cowboys, and they used this to create a market structure.
The Madams of the Wild West often owned general stores, ran schools, and even provided money to build churches so that men could go and repent for their brothel adventures.
With all this happening, Wild West cities were born, and madams had everything! They had money and power, and most used it to get orphans and poor kids into schools. They also offered help during the civil war and provided shelter during calamities.
The saloon girls' influence made Wyoming the very first territory to offer women the right to vote. The Wild West was the first state to advocate equality, and soon it spread to other forms of the West.
Privacy Was A Luxury
The offices of these doves in the Wild West could either be a saloon, a dance hall, a crib, a fancy parlor house, or even the street. These saloons had humble beginnings in the Wild West. The wagons these women arrived in as passengers had to do until buildings began cropping up.
Due to the political power held by madams, they had complete legitimacy under their work's explicit nature and protection. However, the towns were small, and humans tended to populate quite rapidly. There would be nights when these salons and parlors would have more customers than the number of beds.