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Elizabeth Stride

(November 27, 1843-September 30, 1888) The third recognized victim of Jack the Ripper. Known as "Long Liz" by friends later in life, for her last name and lanky physique.

Born Elisabeth Gustafsdottir to a peasant family west of Gothenburg, Sweden. Unlike the other victims, Liz turned to prostitution early in life and at five-foot-five, with her dark brown hair, grey eyes, and angular features, she was a striking woman. She was known among Gothenburg police and gave birth to a stillborn daughter in April, 1865. In 1866, she moved to London as a domestic servant and in 1869 she married John Thomas Stride, a carpenter 13 years older than her. Their marriage was stormy and they separated at least twice, for the last time in 1881.
After leaving Stride, Liz lived in a dosshouse and lived off of charity handouts in addition to sewing, housekeeping, and occasional prostitution. From 1885 until her death, she had an on-and-off relationship with a dockworker, Michael Kidney. While described as "calm" and "sober", Liz was arrested several times for drunk and disorderly conduct and she and Michael were often at each other's throats.
Elizabeth Stride often told acquaintances that she'd lost her husband and two of her nine children in the sinking of the "Princess Alice" in 1878 and another survivor had kicked her in the mouth as they swam to safety, causing her to stammer. While Liz was missing the teeth in her lower left jaw, Thomas Stride actually had died of tuberculosis in 1884 and they had no children. This story was most likely to elicit sympathy and financial aid from others.

At 12:35 AM, Liz was seen speaking with a man in Dutfield's Yard, next to the International Working Men's Educational Club on Berner Street. At about 1 AM, Louis Diemshutz, the steward of the club, pulled into Dutfield's Yard with his pony and cart when the pony was startled by something in the darkness and refused to go farther.

Diemshutz dismounted the cart, knelt in front of his horse, and struck a match; he saw Liz Stride lying in the dirt with her throat cut and bleeding.
Beyond the throat wound, Liz had not been injured and her clothing was undisturbed, unlike Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman. Perhaps she was not a Ripper victim, perhaps the Ripper meant to go farther when the arrival of Diemschutz interrupted him. Having botched this killing, Jack had to flee. Leaving the East End and crossing into the City of London, he happened upon Mitre Square... and another victim, Catherine Eddowes.
by Lorelili October 9, 2012
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Prostitution

The act of performing sexual acts for money or other goods. Most prostitutes (also known as "whores", "harlots", "trollops", "hookers", or "strumpets") are women, although some men and (unfortunately) children are also in the trade.

This largely illegal profession is one of the oldest markets in the world and, despite efforts, will probably exist for as long as humans (and other animals) exist. Still, while prostitution is argued to be the "world's oldest profession", child abuse is just as old and nobody justifies that.

Contrary to the glamor that the media gives to the image of prostitution (such as films like "Pretty Woman"), there is hardly anything at all glamorous about the trade.

Most women who have become prostitutes were raped as children, came from unstable or abusive homes, suffer from addiction, any number of traumas, and often ended up as runaways before entering the sex trade. Low self-esteem is also a major risk factor, whether or not the girls come from poor familes.

Other women have been tricked or outright forced into prostitution; pimps, who can easily be described as men who have no respect for women and care only about their own gain, are the ones who recruit girls as young as twelve to work for them. The pimp usually lures the young, impressionable runaway by acting as a boyfriend or a father-figure to her, offering support to her... and training her like a dog all the while; once she's under his power, she has little chance to escape.

Even those who willingly turn to selling themselves do so out of desperation to survive rather than because they like the work. Mothers (especially poor, unmarried ones) who have fallen on hard times and are desperate to support their children have also ended up in the trade (like Fantine from "Les Miserables").

The idea of the "happy hooker", who likes her work, comes from the fact that the women usually are putting on an act; it helps them to attract buyers if they're smiling and happy instead of crying and upset. Plus, to quote "Moulin Rouge", they're "paid to make men believe what they want to believe".

Prostitutes range from the high-end call girls and courtesans in the legal brothels with rich clients to the homeless, drug-addicted streetwalkers who prowl the streets and the truck stops at night, shivering in their skimpy clothes, hoping that they will survive the night. The women are often looked on with disdain, disrespected, harassed and attacked, and treated as if they weren't even human. By and large, most prostitutes do not want to be prostitutes.
The world of prostitution is very dangerous; by and large, the practice is illegal in most of the world and the women are seen as criminals and thus their rights are pretty much forfeit.

The pimps and human trafficking rings have full power over the women; the pimps usually take all of the money that the women earn (beating the tar out of them if they make less than the pimps demanded or simply from the littlest act of defiance), force addiction onto them to keep them dependant on the pimps, and generally degrade and demean the women without compassion or concern for their well-being.

The risk and spread of STDs among streetwalkers is almost a nuisance compared to the dangers of the streets.

As criminals themselves, protitutes (especially streetwalkers) are less likely to be looked after by the police than the law-abiding; if she is harassed, attacked, raped, or threatened in any way, the woman in question usually cannot go to the police for help or she'll be arrested; if her pimp is arrested instead and she testifies against him, her life and the life of her family could be at risk.

The women must be on the defense all the time against their abusive pimps, corrupt cops, and the clients who use them; a major cause of death for prostitutes is murder. The woman will climb into the cars of clients (known as Johns) as disceetly as possible to avoid trouble from the police and go with these strangers to secluded places where they won't be interrupted, making her easy prey for serial killers. The disappearance of a prostitute may go unnoticed for weeks before anyone says anything.

Jack the Ripper, the Green River Killer, and Arthur Shawcross were just a few serial killers who targeted prostitutes.

How, pray tell, is it "hard out here for a pimp"? For a man who disrespects and actively exploits and destroys women?

Interstingly, in Sweden, it is legal for the women to sell themselves but it is illegal to buy from them; the punishment goes to those who deserve it: the pimps, traffickers, and Johns. The women themselves have legal protection, rehabilitation, and escape routes.

At the end of the day, prostitutes are human; they were human long before they were used and disrespected and will still be human.
by Lorelili May 22, 2009
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Anita Bryant

An infamous fundamentalist Christian singer, one-time model and spokesperson for Florida Orange Juice. Known today as the mother of the gay bashing movement.

Her heyday was during the late 1970s, when she began one long tirade about gays and lesbians, trying to repeal anti-discrimination policies. "Save our children", "homosexuals can't reproduce, so they recruit", "homosexuals sleeping with little boys", and on and on with the disgusting stereotypes about gays and lesbians.

Basically, a backstabbing whore who used religion and her position to pander to public fears and to spread her vitriol and slander lesbians and gay men.
"As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters."
-Anita Bryant

To this day, gays and lesbians cannot adopt, or marry, in Florida because of the harpy known as Anita Bryant. Because of her, the Reagan years and the Religious Right are still felt.

Thankfully, she fell from grace after a boycott of Florida Orange Juice, a boycott which many celebrities joined, forced her removal. Bryant's marriage ended in 1980 and has filed for bankruptcy in recent years, half-forgotten by the public.
by Lorelili July 15, 2011
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disregard

Verb: to disrespect, slight, scorn, disdain, violate, dishonor, dismiss, brush off, ignore, turn a blind eye, disobey, neglect, overlook, discount, or omit

Noun: an uninterested and/or uncaring attitude toward someone or something, an indifferent or disrespectful regard.
The CEO knew of the corporation knew that the dam would displace thousands of people from their homes, but he had only disregard for them as he thought of the money.
by Lorelili June 14, 2011
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virgin

Someone who doesn't give a fuck.

Thought to be an endangered species, with fewer and fewer of them in high school and even middle school with each passing set of students.
"Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence."

"I remember a girl named Virginia. We called her 'Virgin', for short, but not for long."

"Virgin + Mother = Virgin Mother = Oxymoron."
by Lorelili January 16, 2006
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wench

A stout, voluptuous maiden. Usually associated with the Rennaissance and taverns, where the wench is pictured as a bar-maid, boldly flirting with the swashbucklers and pirates.

Is a softer, less-offending version of bitch.

A mispronunciation of "wrench".
Misspelling in classifieds:

"FOR SALE: 8,500 pound power wench and a queen-size water bed."
by Lorelili March 23, 2005
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wencher

Somebody who goes wenching (persuing women in a lecherous way). A womanizer.
"Art thou yet a wencher, my husband? Wherefore must thou surrender to such lust that thou shalt tumble in a stable with some flax-wench of a dairymaid and forget the wife that awaits thee?!"

"From the beginning, Frida knew that her husband would be a wencher."
by Lorelili January 18, 2008
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