Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State

ISBN-13: 9780521270649 / Angielski / Miękka / 1982 / 360 str.

Judith Walkowitz

Opis

The state regulation of prostitution, as established under the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869, and the successful campaign for the repeal of the Acts, provide the framework for this study of alliances between prostitutes and feminists and their clashes with medical authorities and police. Prostitution and Victorian Society makes a major contribution to women's history, working-class history, and the social history of medicine and politics. It demonstrates how feminists and others mobilized over sexual questions, how public discourse on prostitution redefined sexuality in the late nineteenth century, and how the state helped to recast definitions of social deviance.

Recenzje

'Walkowitz reveals the complexity of the social, economic, moral, religious and political (including feminist) issues that were entwined in the CD controversy through a virtuoso analysis. Walkowitz exposes the void that still exists in the historical explanation of changes in ideas and policies on sexual and social relations of the sexes that have transpired since late Victorian times. The exposure is a worthy challenge to a social historian who can match Walkowitz's gifts in research and analysis.' The American Historical Review

Spis treści

Preface; Introduction; Part I. Prostitution, Social Science and Venereal Disease: 1. The common prostitute in Victorian Britain; 2. Social science and the great social evil; 3. Venereal disease; Part II. The Contagious Diseases Acts, Regulationists and Repealers: 4. The Contagious Diseases Acts and their advocates; 5. The repeal campaign; 6. The leadership of the Ladies' National Association; 7. Class and gender conflict within the repeal movement; Part III. Two Case Studies: Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts: 8. Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts; 9. The repeal campaign in Plymouth and Southampton 1870–4; 10. The making of an outcast group: prostitutes and working women in Plymouth and Southampton; 11. The hospitals; 12. The local repeal campaign, 1874–86; Epilog; Notes; Selected bibliography; Index.