内容説明
In addition to shouldering the blame for the increasing incidence of venereal disease among sailors and soldiers, prostitutes throughout the British Empire also bore the burden of the contagious diseases ordinances that the British government passed. By studying how British authorities enforced these laws in four colonial sites between the 1860s and the end of the First World War, Philippa Levine reveals how myths and prejudices about the sexual practices of colonized peoples not only had a direct and often punishing effect on how the laws operated, but how they also further justified the distinction between the colonizer and the colonized.
Book Description
From the 1850's until the 1880's, British Colonial administrators across the globe established wide-ranging legislation aimed principally at slowing the spread of venereal disease and the subsequent loss of soldier-power it brought about. Virtually every British colonial possession and interest was subject in the later half of the nineteenth century to Contagious Diseases (CD) ordinances and regulations that identified female prostitutes as the principal source of infection. Women working as prostitutes, particularly those serving British soldiers and sailors, were required to register officially as prostitutes and undergo regular examinations designed to detect venereal disease. This system, which differed in detail from colony to colony, was in place by the mid-1870's throughout most of the British Empire.
Though most agree that the CD ordinances were put in place primarily to protect the health of British soldiers, a closer examination reveals that the laws were not just about the control of VD but also "a conscious instrument of colonial dominance". Drawing upon original research and never before examined primary sources, Philippa Levine creates a new picture of sex at the turn of the last century. She reveals the ways in which ideas about race and the colonized were intertwined with prostitution and its practices throughout the far reaches of the Empire.
