ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on the reading of the story of the two prostitutes and King Solomon with the sex workers. This story is not a rape text per se, but the sex workers' standpoint to the story explains why rapes are so often not reported, especially when the victims are sex workers. Their stories inform the deep stigmatization of sex workers by the police and courts of justice and their insights carry over into the interpretation of this story. For the sex workers, the story is demeaning to prostitutes, portraying them as unreliable witnesses in court, and as deserving of violence, or as responding only to threats of violence. The sex workers’ interpretation shows how deep-seated stigmatization of sex workers can promote rape myths such as the myth that "sex workers cannot be raped". The myth encourages abusive behaviour against sex workers by police officers and clients alike.
