ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on personal front which includes physical appearance and attributes and sartorial appearance, and considers the physical appearances of 'prostitutes'. The identification of 'the prostitute' by reference to physical appearance in the medical discourses was seen in Acton's remarks. A commonality shared by the different discourses is the problems encountered in attempting to define prostitution, and, as a concomitant, and more relevant to current purposes, defining who is 'a prostitute'. Physical appearance then may be reliable in pointing to HIV status of the individual and from that a membership categorisation of 'prostitute' may be made; this is 'co-categorisation' in Farraday's terms. Twentieth century deviance theorists also drew upon the notion that 'prostitutes' display physical features. The narrative of physical deterioration and of accelerated ageing is not a strong feature of the stories, although references to age are common.
