Actresses and Whores

For centuries, the categories of 'whore' and 'actress' have overlapped. Actresses are assumed to be sexually available and promiscuous, and prostitutes are assumed to perform for their clients. Using biographies of historical actresses and p rostitutes and interviews with contemporary sex workers, this book explores the various connections between actresses and prostitutes from Nell Gwynne to Mae West. In this highly original study, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present, Kirsten Pullen offers many new insights to theatre historians and scholars of cultural, social and gender studies.