Sunday, October 4, 2009
Prostitutes
I never thought I would be headlining anything school-related with such a title as Prostitutes, but here it is. I just happened to think it was a very interesting article. The author makes some fascinating points. He demonstrated first that in times of economic hardship it was almost commonplace for women to undertake prostitution as a means surviving. He further shows that times of economic hardships are a common occurrence during the first phases of industrialization. As a result, women were the first ones to lose their jobs, but were still expected to contribute their part to the family income. However, as the author identifies the spread of prostitution in relation to the growth of urbanization as a result of the initial thrusts of industrialization, these women were not committed to the act of prostitution. These women only used prostitution as a temporary means of survival. However, the amount of prostitution seemed like a problem of epidemic proportions to contemporaries. The government became involved in trying to stymie prostitution with laws such as Clause361/6 and Clause 180. However, these laws were contradictory and really ineffective for the most part. Although, I realize that the values of the time and the complaints made it necessary for the greater government to get involved, but I say let 'em go. The local police were doing there best to govern the conditions and were providing checkups to ensure against the spread of diseases. While they could not govern the entire whole of those engaged in prostitution, these options they were undertaking, while not doing more to lessen the occurrences, may have been creating safer sex. Give 'em checkups and let 'em go.
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In many ways, the question of prostitution is a highly politicized one. Certainly few people would argue that it is really possible for governments to prevent prostitution completely and undoubtedly few would argue that controlling the spread of veneral disease is in itself a bad thing but in connection to prositution, the issue turns on ideas about power and control. While requiring health exams of prositutes might seem a rational way to control the problem, it essentially punishes the prostitute while allowing their customers to escape humiliating exams. Such a policy allows for women's bodies to be subject to male control while continuing to defend the perogative of men to have sex with prositutes (and quite possibly give diseases to the prostitutes.) It also reaffirms the right of the middle class to control the working class (think about who prostitutes were). Hence the great opposition in England to the Contagious Diseases Act.
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