The nineteenth century witnessed a discursive explosion around
the subject of sex. Historical evidence indicates that the sexual
behaviour which had always been punishable began to be spoken of,
regulated, and policed in new ways. Prostitutes were no longer
dragged through the town, dunked in lakes, whipped and branded.
Medieval forms of punishment shifted from the emphasis on punishing
the body to punishing the mind.
Building on the work of Foucault, Walkowitz, and Mort, Linda
Mahood traces and examines new approached emerging throughout the
nineteenth century towards prostitution and looks at the apparatus
and institutions created for its regulation and control. In
particular, throughout the century, the bourgeoisie contributed
regularly to the discourse on the prostitution problem, the debate
focusing on the sexual and vocational behaviour of working class
women. The thrust of the discourse, however, was not just
repression or control but the moral reform through religious
training, moral education, and training in domestic service of
working class women.
With her emphasis on Scottish 'magdalene' homes and a case study
of the system of police repression used in Glasgow, Linda Mahood
has written the first book of its kind dealing with these issues in
Scotland. At the same time the book sets nineteenth-century
treatment of prostitutes in Scotland into the longer run of British
attempts to control 'drabs and harlots', and contributes to the
wider discussion of 'dangerous female sexuality' in a
male-dominated society.
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