The Contagious Diseases Acts, as described in the pamphlets in the London Lowlife Collection, licensed and nationalized prostitution while making medical examinations of women for venereal disease compulsory. The acts were implemented in 1866 and brought with them a wide range of controversy. Mary Hume-Rothery, a writer who refers to herself as “Justina,” and an anonymous author are the writers of the three pamphlets in the London Lowlife Collection. According to the authors, a woman named Miss Garrett wrote articles in support of the Contagious Diseases Acts and encouraged the extension of the acts’ laws. The authors of the pamphlets in the London Lowlife Collection can be assumed to be females arguing for the sake of females. Each of the authors in the London Lowlife Collection writes in response to Miss Garrett’s article in varying degrees of disagreement.
Justina and the anonymous author both argue that the Contagious Diseases Acts were ineffective at best because they only focused on the physical symptoms of venereal diseases. Although registered prostitutes were forced to receive treatment in hospitals for their physical symptoms, the acts did not provide any guidelines or requirements for the education of morality. Without a change in morals, the authors assert that there would be no change in behavior. The anonymous author was particularly focused on religion and the issue of morality throughout her writing, so she put extra emphasis on the need for morality and the acts’ lack thereof.
Without a change in morality and thereby behavior, Justina and the anonymous author then contend that the acts simply force prostitutes into secrecy. The acts brought with them dishonor and prosecution for the women who tested positive for venereal diseases. Naturally, prostitutes would want to avoid such experiences and carry on their business without government interference, so the acts led to an expansion of clandestine prostitution. Prostitutes would evade registering as a prostitute, thereby escaping the necessity of examination. This was another flaw in the Contagious Diseases Acts that these authors pointed out: only public, and usually lower class prostitutes were required to be examined. Most of the time, prostitutes who served the upper ranks in the military were clandestine and remained untreated, thereby spreading the diseases further. Additionally, the acts could only possibly work in small, isolated communities with enough manpower. The police force carried out laws laid out by the acts, and the acts called for prostitutes to be treated twice a week. With the vast number of prostitutes, it could take upwards of 50,000 police officers to meet the needs of the acts. The authors argued that the acts did not propose a practical and realistic solution based on a lack of manpower.
In order to be affective, all three authors insist that the acts needed to require the monitoring of the men the prostitutes serve as well as the prostitutes themselves. Even if all prostitutes were treated, the men they interacted with before being treated would have contracted the disease. The men would have then spread the disease onto their wives and families, creating an endless cycle that could not be contained without the monitoring of men as well as prostitutes. Although Miss Garrett seems to have been in support of the acts extending to include all women, not just prostitutes, the authors of the pamphlets mention that there were no designs to include men in the examinations. This created an unjust pattern where women had the continuous chance of being violated, disgraced, and embarrassed while men remained untouched.
Mary Hume-Rothery offered men as the culprit for the cycle of venereal disease and prostitution. She argued that prostitutes were forced into their position by a lack of education, income, and opportunity, while men entered into deals with prostitutes willfully and knowledgeably with no more motive than their animal nature.
The authors are in agreement that the acts promoted prostitution and reflected the country’s faithlessness and despair. Justina and Mary Hume-Rothery endorsed equal education as a means to transcend prostitution and the resulting disease, arguing that knowledge and economic opportunity for women would give them more options than prostitution.
To move forward, I would like to explore Miss Garret’s articles to see what she explicitly says. I would also like to find out the outcome of the Contagious Diseases Acts to see if they continued in effect for several years or if they were repealed as a result of pamphlets like the ones I analyzed. I would also like to try to find out who the author of the third pamphlet is.
3 comments:
Alyssa,
This is some really interesting research, and I definitely think you did a very thorough job of identifying the major concerns that the Acts dealt with. One thing that might be interesting for further research is that you point out that, "the acts did not provide any guidelines or requirements for the education of morality,' and i would question why not? If the Acts were to include some dissertation on morality, what would the moral code of the time been? was there even a moral code at all, after all, didn't prositution just get legalized?
Another thing I thought of while reading your post was why Miss Garett seemed to want to extend to extend the acts to monitor all women, and yet not to the men in which women came in contact with. This reminded me of Kristeva's idea of "logic of identification," which in this case if we were able to identify how Garett idealizes the female sex, we might be able to see why she chooses not to extend the Acts to males. The "identification" would probably also shed some light on the moral code question as well; do women see themselves as subject to morality or as subject to men?
Lastly I think your plans for further research are dead-on with what I would do, especially looking into the life of the Acts and what was their real effect, and was it anything like what they were intended for? Also, I think in looking for this information you will probably uncover some other opinions about the Acts, and perhaps positing differnt perspectives about the Acts will give you a more well-rounded look at the effect the Acts actually had.
I agree with Emily, this is very interesting and you presented your ideas extremely well. I really am intrigued by the "morality" part of this research. I do wonder what religious guidelines played part in the laws of prostitution. The fact that they based the countries reputation on the acts of prostitues is highly amusing because women held virtually no political power, but subconsciously the authorative figures were empowering them.
I enjoyed reading your research and thought you analyzed the writers prominent arguments accurately, and offered some really interesting points.
My research in the Lowlife collection also led me to question Garrett's letter further, as well as each authors political inclinations and social background, as I feel this will enable us to examine the Contagious Disease's Act from a more informed stance.
I thought the point you made regarding the need for the investment into women's education was extremely important. It relates back to other works we have examined such as Fuller, Makin and Gilman, who argue that in order to "fix" or improve certain elements of society, women need to be given the chance to learn as this will help them make better life choices and raise awareness of the dangers of venereal diseases.
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