Compulsion, Voluntarism, and Venereal Disease: Governing Sexual Health in England after the Contagious Diseases Acts

2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Cox
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Health ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Contagious Diseases

Opposition to the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1864-1886

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Medical Examination ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
The Press ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Armed Services

Between 1864 and 1869, four laws, known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, were passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to reduce venereal disease in the armed services. These Acts, which applied to certain military stations, garrison, and seaport towns, gave a police officer authority to arrest any woman found within the specified areas whom he considered to be a prostitute. The woman in question was then brought before a magistrate who, if he agreed with the arresting officer, would order her to register and submit to a medical examination. If found to be suffering from venereal disease, she was sent to a hospital where she could be detained for three months or longer, at the discretion of the physican in charge. If she refused to submit to the examination or to enter the hospital, she could be imprisoned with or without hard labor.This legislation was enacted at the urging of officials in the War Office and the Admiralty who believed that the efficiency of the army and navy was being dangerously impaired because of the high incidence of venereal disease. Ultimately, they maintained, the security of the nation itself would be jeopardized.Parliament passed these laws very quietly, and the press referred to them only briefly, ostensibly because the subject was not considered seemly for public discussion. Little by little, however, English men and women became aware of this legislation, and with awareness came criticism.

Prostitute or Parasite: The Entanglement of Scientific and Social Victorian Discourses

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Hunniford
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Greek Drama ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Scientific Inspiration

Where does scientific inspiration come from? How does society determine its identity? Biology acts as a source for social metaphor, just as society can be the catalyst to drive scientific discovery. Though the word “parasite” has its origins in Greek drama, it became popularly associated with biology with the advent of the microscope. The story of the “parasite” is complicated by the frequent adoption of biological language to describe society and reinforce constructed social hierarchy. Prostitutes, as a group, are socially “parasitized” in the 19th century largely because of the threat of rapidly spreading venereal disease. The Contagious Diseases Acts, passed from 1864-1869, were a drastic medical solution to a problem that could have been more easily solved through milder social reforms. The primary motivation seems to be a fear of contagion, class mixing, and the weakening of the empire. Both the unseen biological parasite and the prostitute or “social parasite” act as threatening forces in the Victorian mind. The language of primary social and scientific literature from the 19th century shows each discourse being influenced by the other in an inextricably entangled way.

From begums and bibis to abandoned females and idle women

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Wald
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Military

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a proliferation of laws in colonial India which targeted women deemed to be prostitutes. As the number of laws grew, so too did the category of ‘prostitute’. Yet, before the nineteenth century, it would have been difficult to identify many of these women or their activities as criminal, or even immoral. This article examines how such legal boundaries and conceptualisations came to be formulated. It suggests that the ‘prostitute’ category in India was shaped by the repeated failure of the East India Company's surgeons and officers to control venereal disease among the European soldiery. Such attempts at disease control were experimented with from the late eighteenth century and, as this article argues, were keys in the later formulation of the Contagious Diseases Acts. This article traces the decline of long-term, monogamous relationships between European men and Indian women, and the corresponding rise in shorter-term sexual transactions in and around military cantonments. By grounding later legal shifts within the military medical context, we can clearly see the forces behind the social and moral changes surrounding this group of women in the early nineteenth century.

Transience, Class and Gender in Interwar Sexual Health Policy: The Case of the Liverpool VD Scheme

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 544-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Caslin
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Working Class Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The City

Abstract Focusing on the implementation of the Liverpool VD Scheme, this article reasserts the importance of morality to interwar medical understandings about the spread of venereal disease. Despite claiming to offer impartial, practical solutions to the spread of venereal disease, the Liverpool VD Scheme, created in 1916, reflected and promoted the notion that the transient lifestyles of many of the working class presented physical and moral threats to the city. This article therefore counters suggestions that the interwar control of venereal disease was shaped by practicalities rather than moralities. Evidence is provided for the persistence of a medico-moralising that continued to place working-class sexual practices at the heart of discussions about the spread of venereal disease. However, presumptions about men’s biological need for sex combined with the local importance of the port, meaning that working-class seamen with VD were judged less harshly than working-class women with the same infections.

Sexually transmitted disease/HIV health-care policy and service provision in Britain

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 655-661
Author(s):  
R G Cooper ◽  
P D Reid
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Health ◽  
Sexually Transmitted Disease ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Transmitted Disease ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Unprotected Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The 19Th Century

The objective of this paper was to discusses historical developments of sexually transmitted disease (STD)/HIV sexual health policies in Britain, principally from the 19th to the 21st century. Repeating trends were identified and a consideration of how history addresses today's urgent need for better management of sexual health is discussed. In January 1747, the first venereal disease (VD) treatment was established at Lock Hospital, London. As the 19th century passed, sexuality emerged from a conspiracy of silence and became part of social consciousness. In Victorian times, prostitution was regarded with revulsion. Renewed medical interest in VD was brought about by improvements in medical knowledge from 1900–10. In the period 1913–17, there was a significant change in sexual health policy. From 1918, treatment centres increasingly recognized the difficulties in persuading attendees to return for a complete course of treatment. AIDS in Britain wrecked havoc in the period 1981–86 with incidences of infection in several widely differing groups and public alarm fuelled by the media. In conclusion, education, advertising and public health counselling need to be moulded effectively so that the public recognize the real risks associated with unprotected sexual intercourse.

scholarly journals “Sex Prejudice” and Professional Identity: Women Doctors and Their Patients in Britain’s Interwar VD Service

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-598
Author(s):  
Anne Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Health ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Professional Networks ◽  
Women Doctors ◽  
Gendered Politics ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Provision Of Care

Abstract The 1920s witnessed a radical approach to sexual health in Britain, and women doctors quickly capitalized on the opportunities offered by the new VD Service. Because venereology was considered low status, it was among the few interwar specialties that offered footholds to women. In view of the long-standing aversion to female engagement with subjects like venereal disease, the large numbers of women doctors entering the VD Service seems puzzling. But as this article reveals, their clinical work was facilitated by rapid shifts in social and medical attitudes toward the treatment of venereal disease as well as the role of women in public life. By exploring how these women navigated the shifting terrain of interwar public health, it deconstructs the notion that venereology was principally a male sphere of clinical practice and research. Moreover, it presents an important counterpoint to the narrative of women’s bodies subordinated to male medical authority. Although the individual lives of these women remain frustratingly elusive, a prosopographical study of their careers allows us to chart their professional networks and clinical activities. We can see how they appropriated prevailing moral codes and styled themselves as guardians of the nation’s health. At its heart, this article demonstrates how women established identities within a profession that remained inherently masculine. Moreover, it opens up new perspectives on the provision of care and the gendered politics of sexual health in a period of profound economic and social change.

‘Syphilis is given over to sentimentalists’: the Dublin Medical Press and Circular and the drive to extend the Contagious Diseases Acts

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (155) ◽  
pp. 399-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Daly
Keyword(s):  
Medical Profession ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
Dublin Medical ◽  
Irish Medical ◽  
Geographical Locations

Abstract In 1878, a meeting organised in Dublin by those in favour of repealing the contentious Contagious Diseases Acts ended in chaos and disruption. The acts themselves empowered police and doctors to forcibly detain and examine women (within specified geographical locations) suspected of being infected with venereal disease. The campaign to abolish the acts appeared to lack the widespread support that it had gathered in England, particularly in medical circles, and the disorderliness of the Dublin meeting seemed to confirm this. The Irish medical press, specifically the weekly Dublin Medical Press and Circular (D.M.P.C.) mirrored The Lancet’s vilification of those who sought to abolish the acts. This article examines the D.M.P.C.’s campaign to extend the acts in Ireland and explores its influence within the context of the debate surrounding these controversial acts. Despite prolific representation of leading English medics among those who opposed the acts, the D.M.P.C. did not offer any outspoken testimony for the repeal of the C.D.A.s by an important figure in the Irish medical profession. This article examines the reasons for such a muted response by Irish doctors to the draconian legislation that directly involved the profession.

Sexual dysfunction and sexual health concerns in women with diabetes

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meeking ◽  
Fosbury ◽  
Cummings ◽  
Alexander ◽  
Shaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dysfunction ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Health Concerns

465: Impact of Post-Prostatectomy Urethral Strictures on Urinary and Sexual Health Related Quality of Life

2006 ◽  
Vol 175 (4S) ◽  
pp. 150-151
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Montgomery ◽  
Bishoy A. Gayed ◽  
Brent K. Hollenbeck ◽  
Stephanie Daignault ◽  
Martin G. Sanda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Urethral Strictures ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related
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