The Truth of the Matter is Hard to Truly Uncover.

Saloon Girls and their Truth

"I always thought Saloon girls were women who were the flirty seducers of the west. I had assumed because of the movies I saw, and the romantic tales of Heros and Cowboys from the Old West that Saloon Girls were simply the disguised prostitutes of the time." ~Mack G.

Originally saloons are thought of to be the bars of the old west. The exciting place with shoot outs, cowboys, alcohol, and dancing excitement. While in the movies the saloons of the old west are portrayed as such, with girls in suggestive roles, that is not quite the truth of what saloons really were.

Saloons themselves were where a community lay that was not quite considered a town, think of it as a camping ground with many people setting up tents in the same area. That is exactly what little places with saloons were often more considered than official towns. These communities are what present-day think of as representing the Wild West Towns.

It was at first that these old west towns held no ill-reputed women, after all, each seemed to hold a certain moral standard and hid behind low paying jobs such as a laundress or a seamstress. Later, however, not long after the creation of saloons, the saloon owners began to entice women into working there, and so started the Saloon Girl.

Working in a saloon allowed women to earn money that they would not otherwise be able to earn. Instead of sewing and washing clothes, they were hired for entertainment: singing, dancing, talking with old lonely souls, tempting the men into buying more alcohol, in turn, earning more money.

It was more often than not that widows were what made up saloon girls, as the job was a means to help them support young girls or to support the widows themselves with no male figure to do as much for them. Women took the jobs as saloon girls to escape farm labor, however even working as a Saloon girl had dangers. 

Often saloon owners took excellent care of their girls, buying them decent dresses in which to wear, making sure they were respected by threatening those who offended by often letting them be shot and killed, but some hazards came with the job. Violent deaths were not uncommon, neither was the prospect of suicide after a woman passed her prime. There were times when she would overdose or be lost to sickness, ending her life after being let go from the job allowing her to support herself

Saloon girls, while often were mistaken to be purely prostitutes of the west, were actually respectable women. They may not have been as high as married women in standards, however, saloon girls never truly sold sex as was often believed. Instead, they sold only really drinks and dances more than anything. Now, like any profession, some less respectable individuals indeed sold sex on the side, however, that was not the intended job of a saloon girl. Saloon girls made more money than those considered actual prostitutes

So, saloon owners hired these young women to help entertain the lonely men of the west, who usually outnumbered women in these little communities about three to one. They did not, however, allow a customer to spend too much time with any one girl fearing they might lose their girl to an actual marriage. The women would dress in flashy clothing and dance the night away when they weren't talking to these lonely men. Talking to the men who were drinking usually caused the men to then buy the girl a drink as they became drunker themselves. Since a saloon owner couldn't let his girls become drunk so easily, he often replaced their drinks with colored water or tea, perhaps the only real trick a saloon girl would pull was encouraging men to spend more money on drinks that way.

And so is the true history of Saloon Girls in the Wild West.

Revisiting my research point (Edit):

Upon revisiting my sources and previous understanding of my research I have begun to question what a saloon girl really was. According to articles I had previously come across in my research before, they were known to be as something specific and painted very carefully with fantastical ideas of a beautiful girl working in a flashy gown to talk and dance with the saloon goers...

Now, it almost seems as if there is something hidden when the term 'Saloon Girl' comes up, a sort of mythical filter. This brings to question something more in my mind, what if there was no clear distinction as to what a saloon girl actually is?

According to an article of 'Brothels and Saloons: An Archaeology of Gender in the American West' the roles of saloons and brothels were indeed similar when being used by the people of the times in mining-focused towns, and often OVERLAPPED. The only difference had to do with materialism! Nothing was even said of the different job requirements of each place, but it did indeed speak of women often holding chemical substances. From previous research I can remember coming across, on several occasions, the need for chemical substances (drugs) when in need to avoid a pregnancy. When reading this, it was a huge indicator that again brought up the question: were saloon girls an actual specific role of a kind of female? Or were they really the same as those in the brothels and simply working in a different environment? 

Upon further research into an article of the west, it is proven that many of the blogs and supposed research were said to have been very romanticized. Each written by a source who doesn't quite make it as a first-person point of view, rather, each of the writers seemed to have this general fanatical image and ideas of what a saloon girl really was.

An example of contradictory details would be between the two writers who spoke of one, a saloon girl was treated with fine respect and care, and two, a saloon girl faced large dangers in the line of work (being beaten to death and such).

 So now the idea of a saloon girl has begun to morph into the thought that perhaps a saloon girl was actually a romanticized fantasy drawn by lonely or tired miners who visited these places of alcohol to ease off the stress of the day. 

Now whether my conclusions, one or the other is correct, it is nearly impossible to prove. No one from the period is exactly still alive to tell us the answers, and if they were it would be their truth. True to them as mentions in the article 'The Social Value of the Saloon'.

The truth of the matter may never actually be known...

Sources:

1.) Soiled Doves of the old West

The first website I visited to begin getting the basis of what Saloon girls actually were.

Saloons of the 1800s

Soiled Dove of the West

Black and white of a saloon in action

2.) Painted Ladies Saloon girl by Melissa Brinks.

Allowed me to read about what kind of dangers a Saloon Girl's job entailed.

What was considered a "Painted Lady" meaning another nickname for saloon girls

When a drunken man nearly beat a woman to death

3.) Fallen Angels of their time.

It was a helpful website teaching me exactly what the owners of Saloons were like.

Assumption of what Saloon girls portrayed

4.) Book Tradition America’s History 9th addition by Henretta, Edwards, Hinderaker, Self. For AP course (Chapter 15, pg. 473)

The book allowed me to see the normal traditions of women's roles in the west at the time.

5.) Calico Queen, sweethearts of the West.

Was a website that let me see the different levels of the profession and how society viewed certain roles.

Romanticized Wild West of stories

6.) Ladies of Dance and musical entertainment.

This was a helpful site to allow me to read of the traditional clothing worn by Saloon girls of the time and how to accurately dress like one in modern-day.

Victorian style dress that women of the time wore

 A Madam/Widow who would often run certain enterprises after saloon girls were let go

Saloon girl in action

A community of the Wild West at sundown

7.) Nine Doves who changed face of the Old West.

This site was more specific on certain ladies who helped to change the face of the west.

8.) Dance Hall Girl; legends of America.

Was a website that helped solidify views of saloon women.

9.) Saloon Girls American west women.

Helped show the views of saloon girls and backing up previous information.

10.) Feminist theory as reference for understanding an article.

Main Quote - “Feminist theory encompasses a range of diverse ideas, all of which originate with the following beliefs: (a) society is patriarchal, structured by and favoring men; (b) traditional ways of thinking support the subordination of women and the neglect or trivialization of issues particularly affecting women; and (c) this patriarchal order should be overthrown and replaced with a system that stresses equality for both sexes.”

11.) Brothels and Saloons, the gender differences in old America.

Main Quote - “Saloons and brothels served similar functions in the mining boom-towns, often overlapping. A critical difference between the two types of collections lies in who was selecting the material culture: men or women. Women's contributions to the archaeological assemblages of sporting establishments can be identified by items specific to them, as well as by relatively high percentages of pharmaceuticals. High frequencies of armaments and generic personal items in the brothels may have more to do with the specific activities taking place in the brothels than with gender. The importance of distinguishing between the brothels and saloons is examined in the context of feminist theory.”

12.) The Social Value of the Saloon.

13.) Romanticized Wild west; perhaps the truth can never be known.

Main Quote: “Nineteenth-century media audiences were subsequently exposed to a wilder West than the one of reality. This pattern continued into the modern era, as western films and television shows built upon the existing, romanticized imagery.”