In those days prostitution was very well developed.
According to the inhabitants the concept of “Victorian era” is associated with bigotry and stiffness. But in those days attended and the second side of the coin”. In London, the second half of the nineteenth century was highly developed prostitution. In the capital alone, legally, there were about 80 000 moths.
In the Victorian era a Patriarchal society meant that a woman’s place was to be near her husband. Ladies were not allowed to work and have their own income, their main task was considered to be the birth of children and farming. Those women who tried to achieve financial independence, could except to go to work as a stenographers or maids, but this lacked even a piece of bread.
It was then that the attitude towards prostitution began to radically change. Young women regarded him as an intermediate to make money fast, and then change the craft. However, many were detained in brothels for years to come.
Prostitutes were divided into several categories. At the bottom were those who worked in brothels. Those women had to give most of the earnings to the owner of the establishment (“Madam”). There were those who were engaged in prostitution, with no one sharing. The “elite” of this craft was considered a member of the demimonde or the other courtesans. These ladies communicated only rich and aristocrats. Some even managed to marry their clients.
Many traditional affordable sex ceased to be interesting, so in some brothels practiced joy with a sadomasochistic slant. Such institutions enjoyed a much greater popularity than the usual brothels.
The legal age of entry into the profession” began with 13 years. Some poor peasant families sold their daughters to brothels, even with 11 years to regularly receive a percentage of the working girls.
In 1885 the journalist William Thomas stead (W. T. Stead) started the fight against child prostitution. He published a series of revelatory articles in the magazine Pall Mall Magazine about how there were sale girls. The journalist described the purchase of a 13-year-old virgin. Initially, the client was shown a doctor’s note confirming the virginity of the child, and then asked to use the chloroform, the girl did not resist in the “right” moment.
The London public outrage forced the government to accept the amendment in the Criminal code on increasing the age of sexual consent to 16 years. Subsequently, William Thomas stead was nominated for the Nobel peace prize.
Is the number of legal prostitutes could not lead to massive infectious diseases and from the customers and among themselves prostitutes. In 1864 a Law was passed about infectious diseases. All ladies of easy virtue, it was necessary to compulsorily undergo a medical examination. Those who had venereal disease, were isolated in hospitals for three months. Refused suspended from work.
The famous writer Charles Dickens made a lot of good for ladies of that time. Together with the philanthropist Angela Burdett Giorgini-Derby County (Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts), he created a shelter for prostitutes “Urania Cottage”. There went the prostitutes who do not want to exercise their profession and wishing to start life anew. It is the stories of fallen women, and reasons, forcing them to go to the bar, was the basis of the works of Dickens.
