{"product_id":"dressed-against-the-law-sex-workers-power-and-gender-defiance-in-ancient-rome","title":"Dressed Against the Law Sex Workers, Power, and Gender Defiance in Ancient Rome","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat happens when clothing becomes a crime?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eDressed Against the Law\u003c\/em\u003e, ancient Rome emerges not as a marble monument of order and virtue, but as a deeply anxious society obsessed with sex, status, appearance, and control. At the center of that obsession stood some of its most scrutinized and misunderstood figures: sex workers, whose bodies, dress, and public presence exposed the fragile boundaries of Roman power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis bold and provocative book explores how the Roman world tried to regulate femininity, masculinity, sexuality, and social rank through law, fashion, public morality, and punishment. From forbidden garments to legal stigma, from the politics of visibility to the policing of desire, \u003cem\u003eDressed Against the Law\u003c\/em\u003e reveals how sex workers became powerful symbols in Rome's struggle to define who counted as respectable, who could be seen, and who had to be marked as different.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut this is not only a story about prostitution in antiquity. It is also a story about gender defiance, social anxiety, and the enduring relationship between dress and domination. In a culture where clothing signaled virtue, citizenship, class, and sexual legitimacy, those who crossed or blurred these boundaries unsettled the entire social order. Their existence forced Rome to confront uncomfortable questions it could never fully resolve:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWho has the right to appear in public?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWho gets to perform gender correctly?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eAnd why does power so often begin by policing the body?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on Roman legal texts, literary sources, social history, and cultural analysis, this compelling study uncovers a world in which garments could condemn, visibility could incriminate, and identity itself could become a battlefield.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncisive, original, and hauntingly relevant, Dressed Against the Law is essential reading for anyone interested in:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAncient Rome and Roman social history\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWomen and gender in the ancient world\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSexuality, law, and public morality\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFashion, identity, and the politics of appearance\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePower, stigma, and resistance across history\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers of gender history, classics, feminist scholarship, and cultural criticism, this is a striking reexamination of Rome from the margins outward, where the people most heavily controlled often reveal the most about how a society truly works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAncient Rome never punished bodies. It dressed them for judgment.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Kobo eBook","offer_id":46813508829394,"sku":"54a5758b-a0db-309e-816c-29c12bf8e266","price":5.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/image_13573238-cdff-42b4-aac4-a8c6496cdf9e.jpg?v=1775379622","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/products\/dressed-against-the-law-sex-workers-power-and-gender-defiance-in-ancient-rome","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}