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This thoughtful exploration of legalized prostitution in Neuberg, Germany, includes interactions with sex workers; independent madams; municipal officials; and the owners, employees, and clients of new mega brothels. Staiger (Clarkson Univ.) also discusses Zuhälter—a nebulous category of pimps, traffickers, and others, ostensibly eliminated by the 2002 legalization, that now functions to enforce the new system. Staiger skillfully depicts the paradoxes of German attitudes toward sexuality—on one side, nudity on beaches and in bath houses and spas is not eroticized but acceptable; on the other, public spaces are replete with advertising depicting young, nubile, female bodies, and the heterosexual male gaze and extreme objectification of women are virtually unchallenged.

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A. H. Koblitz, emerita, Arizona State University, Choice