Resumen de Crib Girls and Clients in the Red-Light District of Ouray, Colorado: Class, Gender, and Dress
Mary Van Buren, Kristin A. Gensmer
An examination of dress-related artifacts from the Vanoli block (5OR30), a sporting complex in Ouray, Colorado, indicates that the prostitutes, working in the cribs on the block, and their clients dressed in clothing that was thoroughly working class. This conclusion contrasts with previous research on brothel assemblages that has demonstrated that the madams and prostitutes who resided in such establishments purchased relatively expensive items of clothing and decor that were not consumed by their working-class neighbors. An examination of the sartorial choices made by the women and men on the Vanoli block, from the perspective of practice and performance theory, suggests that they were shaped by the specific conjunction of class and gender politics that characterized Western mining towns at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
