Response to “The Hustlers at Scores” article by Jessica Pressler

This article tells a really interesting story about a woman’s rise to the “top”. Roselyn Keo (known as “Rosie”) starts off from a humble beginning working at a diner to help her grandparents to making hundreds of thousand of dollars off rich men at the Scores Gentleman’s club. There’s a lot of cultural information present in this article related to things like beauty and the glitz of high value items. The article author, Jessica Pressler makes sure to include brands like Gucci, Chanel and Cadillac (their Escalade model) to paint a picture of the kind of lifestyle Rosie had attained with her new “profession”. She also uses examples of real and fictional feminine beauty icons such as Jessica Rabbit, Angelina Jolie, and Cleopatra to show the reader that these women were very attractive and could use their beauty  as an asset to help them lure in clients. Pressler includes a good deal of background information pertaining to Rosie’s upbringing. This helps the reader to understand the story better by giving the reader an idea of why Rosie became attracted to such a lifestyle. Rosie had came from a poorer background having been left with her grandparents after her mother and father left to Atlantic city, and was attracted to the idea of making money to help supplement income for her grandparents. Pressler describes her informants in a very “colorful” way showing the reader that Rosie was very capable, smart, and was basically the mastermind of the operation. To achieve this effect Pressler describes Rosie as “business-savvy”, and having “legendary organizational skills” among other things. This kind of language idealizes Rosie as a “genius” and makes it very entertaining to read. Ultimately, the article does a good job of being both informative and entertaining in its execution.

Comments ( 2 )

  1. Sara Sanchez
    I like how you described Rosie's & the other women's desire for designer items as a way to represent their shared belief on money & one of the ways they like to spend it. I also liked how you listed the beauty icons used to describe the women in the article, as I too believe it gives more of an image in our head the way these women looked and how they used that to their advantage to seduce & financially take advantage of the men they encountered.
  2. Emma Fournier
    I think you make a really great point that the author idealized Rosie in a sense based on the language she chose to use. There was so much description packed into this article, and I appreciate your unique perspective on how the author decided to portray Rosie based on some of her more positive qualities, and you deeming her the "mastermind of the operation". I love how you stated that!

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