Prostitution In Victorian Era Essay

The world today consists of children roaming the streets, technology taking over the world, and being able to work wherever you'd like but, could you imagine a life without all these things? Believe it or not there was a time in life where these things were very uncommon to see. This would be known as the victorian era. This time period was between 1837 and 1901. Daily life was very different from now. Health, social classes, and fashion are just three examples of how daily life was different in the victorian era.

Judith Walkowitz’s book Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State, deals with the social and economic impact that prostitution had on English society in the mid to late 19th century. Throughout her piece Walkowitz illustrates the plight of women who are in the prostitution field and that are working the streets throughout England. She starts with the background of most of the prostitutes in Victorian England then talks about the Contagious Disease Act in 1864 that attempted to curb the venereal diseases being spread by prostitutes. Walkowitz also discusses two specific cities in England that prostitution was a ‘social evil’, Southampton and Plymouth, where the repeal campaigns were successful.

The predicaments leading up to a person choosing prostitution as a method to support oneself financially must be difficult, however many women residing in the East End of London succumbed to such a lifestyle. Sadly, all five canonical victims of the notorious ‘Ripper’ had come to live out their lives in a manner most of us would find unfathomable. In James Tully book, Prisoner 1167: The Madman who was Jack the Ripper, explains the how the East End of London was a place where prostitution was prevalent:

There is no clear or simple definition of the term prostitution (Levine, 1993 cited in..). According to research, the nature of commercial sex work, and the policies that are implemented and linked to sex work do not have a clear status, especially when examined historically and geographically. However, in Britain, during the modern period, prostitution has become increasingly well defined by legal and medical services. A model of venereal female sexuality was implemented during the nineteenth century. This model informed social policies, which were designed to tackle what was considered to be prostitution’s dangerous, and disturbing ‘ill-effects’. The culmination of

In comparison to Victorian society many men were deceived in the streets of London by prostitution most women seek sex for money however, some deceive men and take all that they own and leave them with nothing. All these vile acts are done for the intent of continuity of life in Victorian society, through acts of deception those who are less fortunate are able to make a living and are able escape the grasp of despair and

The Victorian generation was a time of harsh restraints on sexuality for everyone, but in particular women. It was a time when sexual repression used to be viewed as an best trait of the well-bred girl. In an technology when the subjects of the time were "the cult of true womanhood" and the "code of chivalry" it was once to be expected that ladies could be sexually ignorant and repressed. For the period of Victorian instances, as a way to be considered a woman, one would abstain from normal wish. In other words, no sex, and only virgins were viewed appropriate ladies.

The increased regulation and social advocacy surrounding sex led to the civil rights and privacy of prostitutes being infringed upon and led the way to further regulation and suppression of the occupation in the nineteenth-century. Without focusing on the root causes of the prostitution problem, local magistrates conspired against the prostitutes in order to publically shame them and in some cases exile them from England altogether. Essentially, the predominantly male reformists were denigrating something that they themselves considered to be a necessity. They wanted prostitution to exist, but on their terms and where they, and others that wandered the London streets could not see

Ironically, Victorian prostitutes lived a better life than other working class women. They enjoyed more wealth and longer life. However, once women lost their chastity, they are considered to violate the social norms which were dominantly set by men. Society would no longer accept them again. It is no way for them to become “respectable” again.

Debates have been going around for many years and the longest debate in history that has caused controversy is prostitution mostly referred as "the world's oldest career". Prostitution is similar to global warming that no one really talks about it. Prostitution is a sex business that is selling one's body in return for a benefit or for another type of advantages to survive. Most of the people are forced into prostitution by their pimps. Prostitution could be legitimate and controlled in some states such as Nevada and in most states even though it is prohibited still young women are forced to sell their bodies by pimps. Also as the internet continues to develop it becomes much simpler to discover private escorts and other different approaches

Over the nineteenth century, the term ‘prostitute’ experienced exponential fluctuation in meaning and application, with simultaneous competing and fluid definitions. The ‘prostitute’ had many varied interpretations; mostly the term was targeted towards working class women who challenged the ‘hegemonic masculinity’ of Scotland’s middle class men. Women with criminal records, public disturbances, illness, who dressed or behaved ‘immodestly’, who were destitute, unemployed, unwed mothers or faced police harassment faced claims from authorities that they were ‘prostitutes’, or at least used it as an occasional supplementary vocation. Linda Mahood notes the vacillating classification criteria of a ‘prostitute’ was due to greater concern with “practical control than with systematic, academic or philosophical discussions”, with reformers assured of their ability to discern ‘prostitutes’.

Josephine Butler was born on the 13th of April in 1828 in Milfield Hill Northumberland, and she was the seventh child of John Grey and his wife, Hannah Annett. Born during the Victorian era, she was a revolutionary activist and a leader of a National Women’s Political campaign. Inspired by her father, who was a leading liberal and agricultural reform in the English border country, Josephine became aware of the terror of slavery and mistreatment of women, which sparked her care for the imprisoned and ill prostitutes. During the time, women were not allowed to vote, but Josephine managed to repeal the Contagious Disease Act, which was an act strongly supported by the public. This act was passed as a rationale to protect military men from getting sexually transmitted diseases from prostitutions, but allowed the latter to be sexually assaulted by police officers as they checked them for venereal disease. By repealing the act, Josephine Butler highlighted the great injustice that prostitutions faced. Moreover, she also campaigned for higher education for women, and sought equal suffrages. Nevertheless, she never became the national heroine of her time as compared to Florence Nightingale, and her accomplishments were much undermined. This essay narrates the exciting and complex journey of Josephine Butler, the influences she received throughout her life, as she struggled through her campaign that made her the historical heroine of today.

In California, between 1850’s to the Chinese Exclusion Act, most of the Chinese women who came to San Francisco were either slaves or indentured. They were often lured, kidnapped or purchased and forced to work as prostitutes at the brothels which is run by secret society of the Tongs of San Francisco. Chinese prostitutes also were smuggled and had worked at the Chinatown brothels in the Comstock Mines in Nevada. Chinese prostitutes were commonly known as prostitutes of the lowest order. “Both outcast slatterns and Asian slaves stood at the edge of the irregular marketplace, far more socially stigmatized than ordinary prostitutes.”

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

a very long time and that the sex industry was thriving at least a few

In those days, so many people were forced into prostitution to earn an income. The living conditions were very low. People were poor, homeless, enemployed. There was crime and desperation. Mostly people were forced into prostitution to survive.