Victorian Sexual Practices and Prostitution

A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

The public face of Victorian morality was one that saw the only purpose for sex was to produce children. The good Victorian women were one who endured sex for the sake of her marriage. She was to submit to her husbands advances with her mind else where.

The following was recorded the 1912 journal of Lady Hillingdon"When I hear his steps outside my door I lie down on my bed, open my legs and think of England." Most of are aware of the lore of legs of furniture being covered lest the make a male have impure thoughts.

Yet, it seems that the Victorians were obsessed with not only preventing intercourse between men and women, but to keep the youth especially from any kind of self gratifications. Young males were kept from satisfying their own needs by means of being encouraged to eat a bland diet or by more painful contraptions applied to there burgeoning manhood.

Women were seen as non sexual beings but many women could be cured of a variety of ailments by visiting their doctor to have an orgasm for strictly medical reasons. . This was achieved manually or by medical devices designed for the purpose. It was a wonder the whole middle class population of Victorian women were not inclined to become hypochondrias who visited the doctor very frequently.

While the hot and bother Victorian gal might have to give her local physician a visit for sexual release, Victorian men had no problem finding the local brothel to find relief. . could The figures for prostitution in the city of London vary, but reasonable estimates place the number between 7,000 (from the Police Dept) to 80,000 (by the Society for the Suppression of Vice) .New York city was home to 700,000 people, including 6,000 prostitutes. By 1892, numbers of prostitutes, according to the city's physicians, social workers and police, was at least 30,000.

Social scientists of the day looked at conditions of prostitutes. They were young adult women between 18 and 25. Their first sexual expeiences were unremarkable. They made no claim of earlier sexual exploitation other than that which was common to other sexually active women of the time. The other women would have been respectable married women and common law wives who counted themselves among the lower working class

These young women had better over all health because the did not toil 14 hours a day in sweat shops or share their living quarters with several other family members . The over crowed conditions in the new slums, meant that many poor and working class women had their health ruined at a young age due to disease and pollution especially soot from nearby factories. They were exposed more than other household members because it was their job to remove it from the home. Many a working class wife would find herself home from the sweat shot to sweep the levering ending amount of coal dust off of the family furnishings.

Young prostitutes had means by which to rent a room in a part of the city that was not over crowded and covers with the dangerous ash from factories close by. Most young prostitutes chose to enter the profession after working in factories or domestics. There wages were low and simply contributed to over crowded tenement household. Some young women did well enough for themselves that they could send some earning to their families and maintain their own residence.

Their diet and ability to purchase better than thread bare hand me down also helped them to enjoy a better quality of health than their more traditional counterpart. Unaware of how germs spread many a young women living with her parents would be given the clothing of a deceased sibling or coursing. Many times when the deceased had passed from common diseases such as Cholera, the contaminated bed clothes were passed on to the female relative closest in size. Young prostitutes could pay for newer clothes and afford to pay washer women to keep their orderable in a more respectable condition.

Many young women who entered prostitutions only did so until they found someone though marry. Even if they still to work outside the home, most married above their social circumstance Many married clients. The fact that these fallen women frequented bars that good women were not allowed entering greatly helped them move on from entrenched poverty. These women were exposing to a great number of different kinds of men for all different social strata. Good women who were isolated in their tenement neighborhoods had an only had a small number of potential husbands to choose from. A clever Victorian call girl could literally 'work 'her way from street walker to well kept mistress. These women were known as "silk hat girls ", as they were the companions of gentlemen who could afford silk hats.

A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of these young women were motivated to make the transition from prostitute to respectable housewife by relocation. It was situated that about half of American prostitutes were orphans living with other relations, when they entered the profession. Many more did not have families to account to for their sinful choices by the time they sought to marry; because neighborhoods were ethic in nature and class stratified it was essential for a girl to leave in order to not be unmarriageable damaged goods. Families whose daughters who did marry someone other then a former client, were more then willing to keep their secret of girl's dark past if the husband thought he was marrying a virgin.

Many women would have day occupations such as an agricultural worker or shop clerk but they would supplement these earnings with prostitution. Sexual exploitation and was often a workplace hazard for women for women in domestic service or employed in sweat shops. These women could not escape as easily their reputation. Many of these women were really girls who were used as sex slaves by their employers. Blame still feel on the girl for tempting her male superior. These poor women were seen as the norm by popular Victorian culture as 'fallen angels" .Many came to a sad end via suicide or murder.

Young Women who ended up in forced prostitution did not fare well, the Victorian Prostitute forced or not to engage in her trade was a risk for ending up in prison. Sexually transmitted diseases or being subjected to unsafe abortions were daily risks for sex workers. But given the reality of starving on the street, dying in childbirth, or succumbing to Cholera or other slum prevalent plagues many women were willing to become 'fallen angels'..

Effective birth control and STD prevention was not available to many women. Prostitutes had sexually transmitted disease at a higher rate then married women. Still mortality was so high from common things like the flu that this probably did not discourage many desperate women from making what they saw as an easy buck... Abort ion while very unsafe, was still available to deal with unwanted pregnancies. Some prostitutes supported their illegitimate children; in conditions similar to working class widows did their legitimate offspring. Condoms were used by more educated women and became widely used in brothels serving upper class men. They were very hard to find and not economically feasible for the local street walker.

In the 1830's prostitution was seen as a limited social problem. in American society . The huge wave of immigration later in the century and the deterioration of the cities industrial areas; caused prostitution as a profession of social vice that authorities wished to band from their city.

Sources

http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/prostitution.html http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/Prostitution.htmhttp://www.victorianweb.org/gender/prostitution2.html

Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State by Judith R. Walkowitz

 

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