Yet pimps continue to be excoriated, with no reference to whether or not they are abusive. There are two main reasons for this. Many girls seek out pimps and even love their 'man'. If a bank teller's husband beats her, he is charged with assault, not with being a bank teller's husband. The best explanation of the schism between these two portraits of the pimp is that pimping, like prostitution, is not a monolithic institution.
Some pimps are husbands and friends, who offer protection and partnership.
But, especially on the street level of prostitution, other pimps are kidnappers, batterers and rapists who deserve to be taken to a back alley where feminism can be more graphically explained to them. But such criminals are not generally the ones being prosecuted by the law and the court system. Barry reports talking to a street prostitute who had been raped and kidnapped by pimps, and another who had been slashed by a razor the night before. It is because regular woman are protected by laws that prosecute rapists and kidnappers, but the law routinely ignores assaults against whores. Prostitutes are persecuted and physically abused by a legal system that protects other women.