See also
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The social purity movement was a late 19th-century social movement that sought to abolish prostitution and other sexual activities that were considered immoral according to Christian morality. The movement was active in English-speaking nations from the late 1860s to about 1910, exerting an important influence on the contemporaneous feminist, eugenics, and birth control movements. [1]
The roots of the social purity movement lay in early 19th-century moral reform movements, such as radical utopianism, abolitionism, and the temperance movement. In the late 19th century, "social" was a euphemism for "sexual"; the movement first formed in opposition to the legalization and regulation of prostitution, and quickly spread to other sex-related issues such as raising the age of consent, sexually segregating prisons, opposing contraception, preventing white slavery, and censoring pornography. [2]
The rapid changing in American society was evident in temperance, women's rights, evangelical revivalists, and workers rights movements. Born out of a few debatable movements was the “Social Purity Movement” that has left a lasting legacy on sexual ethics and female bodily autonomy in the United States. Although this movement was mainly focused on the specific task of eliminating prostitution, its advocates had varying agendas and the results of this movement were skewed from the original task. Evangelism and a general moral panic around venereal diseases fueled the movement into gaining widespread support across the American public, including the support of some feminists and conservatives alike. Leading up to the social purity movement, the prevalence of prostitution was growing and conversations were being had around legalizing prostitution and regulating its commerce. [3] With the focus being on white women, even more specifically newly immigrated Eastern European white women, it was crucial that the popularity of prostitution be diminished to preserve the purity of white women (hence social purity). Prostitution was never legalized, yet the social purity movement had already begun and was breaking ground in other avenues to dampen prostitution and other products of lust.
Social purity as a movement took roots in the mid 1800s in England and was prominently led by an evangelical woman Jane Ellice Hopkins. [4] She spent her early childhood and early adulthood on the east coast of America, however her transformative social work began in the United Kingdom. Hopkins was responsible for a multitude of organised support groups for the movement and became successful in her appeal to male involvement in ways that other social puritists were not. [4] Her deep dedication to the church not only gave her helpful connections in the spreading of this movement in Europe, but also gave her a characteristic drive and passion for this work. She was able to make changes in very practical ways, such as raising the legal age of consent for women to 16, and in individual moral ways, such as asking "good" Christian men to pledge themselves to respecting women and dismantling hypocrisy in sexual standards. [4] Her work set a precedence for what was to be done in the United States. There was a gray area in this movement where feminists, eugenicists, and social purists could agree. Feminists were concerned about the sexual exploitation of women as an act of violence against them and eugenicists were concerned with the preservation of the ‘fittest’ citizens, needing white female chastity to achieve these aspirations. There was some intersection of goals with the social purists in this sense, and they inevitably influenced one another. Religion, feminism, and eugenicists found common ground in the control and/or protection of women's bodies as something sacred and necessary, but only white women's bodies were included in this protection.
The Social Purity Movement came to fruition under the White Slave Traffic Act passed in 1910, otherwise known as the Mann Act, named after politician James Mann. This Act originally intended to restrict the transportation of women by men across state lines for the purpose of ‘prostitution or debauchery’ but was later amended to include 'any other immoral purpose', which was interpreted in wildly different ways. [5] The Mann Act was made possible through the use of regulating foreign commerce[ how? ] which could have its own philosophical discussion[ clarification needed ] regarding the agency of women in the early 1900s. Under the revised Act under Section 3, it was stated that any man transporting a woman across state borders "with the intent and purpose of such person that such woman or girl shall engage in the practice of prostitution or debauchery, or any other immoral practice, whether with or without her consent...shall be deemed guilty of a felony." [5]
The calling to action of the public came in the form of newspaper articles featuring "white slave narratives" that revealed the tragic, and "common", situation that women who left home found themselves in. [6] Historians have referred to this as a part of a 'moral panic' that was sweeping across the United States during the Progressive Era, as activists and organizations were popping up in all different sections of American life demanding the government intervention on spreading corruption. These white slave narratives re-enforced assumptions that male sexuality was virtually uncontrollable, to the point of coercing and kidnapping them into prostitution, and yet women were also helpless to this coercion. The level to which some women were choosing prostitution versus those who were forced into it is unclear, but the numbers that were estimated are overestimated enough to lead scholars to believe much of this panic was ill-informed. [6] It also cannot be ignored that 'white slavery' makes a direct link to the previous system of 'chattel slavery', and the similarities or differences between these systems should be considered relevant to the movement [ clarification needed ].
Citations
Bibliography
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the developed Western world from the 1960s to the 1970s. Sexual liberation included increased acceptance of sex outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships. The normalization of contraception and the pill, public nudity, pornography, premarital sex, homosexuality, masturbation, alternative forms of sexuality, and the legalization of abortion all followed.
The Mann Act, previously called the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910. It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann of Illinois.
Paulina Luisi Janicki (1875–1950) was a leader of the feminist movement in Uruguay. In 1909, she became the first Uruguayan woman to earn a medical degree and was a firm advocate of sex education in the schools. She represented Uruguay in international women's conferences and traveled throughout Latin America and Europe. She was also the first Latin American woman to participate in the League of Nations and became one its most influential early activists. Her work has had a lasting effect on women of the Americas.
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of the middle class in 19th-century Britain, the Victorian era.
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement. Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists believe that prostitution can be a positive experience if workers are treated with respect, and agree that sex work should not be criminalized.
Lipstick feminism is a variety of feminism that seeks to embrace traditional concepts of femininity, including the sexual power of women, alongside traditional feminist ideas. The concept emerged within the third-wave as a response to ideals created by previous movements, where women felt that they could not both be feminine and a feminist.
The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, sex wars or porn wars, are terms used to refer to collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexuality deeply polarized the feminist movement, particularly leading feminist thinkers, in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continue to influence debate amongst feminists to this day.
Feminist sexology is an offshoot of traditional studies of sexology that focuses on the intersectionality of sex and gender in relation to the sexual lives of women. Sexology has a basis in psychoanalysis, specifically Freudian theory, which played a big role in early sexology. This reactionary field of feminist sexology seeks to be inclusive of experiences of sexuality and break down the problematic ideas that have been expressed by sexology in the past. Feminist sexology shares many principles with the overarching field of sexology; in particular, it does not try to prescribe a certain path or "normality" for women's sexuality, but only observe and note the different and varied ways in which women express their sexuality. It is a young field, but one that is growing rapidly.
Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but generally aim to legalize or decriminalize sex work, as well as to destigmatize it, regulate it and ensure fair treatment before legal and cultural forces on a local and international level for all persons in the sex industry.
Feminism is aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. It has had a massive influence on American politics. Feminism in the United States is often divided chronologically into first-wave, second-wave, third-wave, and fourth-wave feminism.
Feminism has affected culture in many ways, and has famously been theorized in relation to culture by Angela McRobbie, Laura Mulvey and others. Timothy Laurie and Jessica Kean have argued that "one of [feminism's] most important innovations has been to seriously examine the ways women receive popular culture, given that so much pop culture is made by and for men." This is reflected in a variety of forms, including literature, music, film and other screen cultures.
Feminist views on sexuality widely vary. Many feminists, particularly radical feminists, are highly critical of what they see as sexual objectification and sexual exploitation in the media and society. Radical feminists are often opposed to the sex industry, including opposition to prostitution and pornography. Other feminists define themselves as sex-positive feminists and believe that a wide variety of expressions of female sexuality can be empowering to women when they are freely chosen. Some feminists support efforts to reform the sex industry to become less sexist, such as the feminist pornography movement.
The practice of prostitution in colonial India was influenced by the policies of British rule in India. During the 19th and 20th centuries the colonial government facilitated, regulated and allowed the existence of prostitution. Not only was prostitution in India affected by the policy of the Governor General of India, it was also influenced by the moral and political beliefs of the British authorities, and conflicts and tensions between the British authorities and the Indian populace at large. The colonial government had a profound effect on prostitution in India, both legislatively and socially.
The International Abolitionist Federation, founded in Liverpool in 1875, aimed to abolish state regulation of prostitution and fought the international traffic in women in prostitution. It was originally called the British and Continental Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution.
The history of sexual slavery in the United States is the history of slavery for the purpose of sexual exploitation as it exists in the United States.
Intersectionality is the interconnection of race, class, and gender among an individual or group. This is often related to an experience of discrimination or a disadvantage. This definition came from Kimberlé Crenshaw. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a feminist scholar, is widely known for coining the term intersection in her 1989 essay, which sheds light on the oppression Black women have been exposed to, especially during the enslavement period. Crenshaw's analogy of intersection to traffic flow explains, "Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them. Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in the intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination."
Eugenic feminism was a component of the women's suffrage movement which overlapped with eugenics. Originally coined by the eugenicist Caleb Saleeby, the term has since been applied to summarize views held by some prominent feminists of the United States. Some early suffragettes in Canada, particularly a group known as The Famous Five, also pushed for eugenic policies, chiefly in Alberta and British Columbia.
Prostitution in the Spanish Civil War was part of a larger ideological battle about the role of women and race. Opposition to it came from both first-wave feminists and fascists, who would often have connections to beliefs about racial purity in their condemnation of prostitution. Accusations of prostitution would also be made to damage political and social enemies.
Feminist perspectives on sex markets vary widely, depending on the type of feminism being applied. The sex market is defined as the system of supply and demand which is generated by the existence of sex work as a commodity. The sex market can further be segregated into the direct sex market, which mainly applies to prostitution, and the indirect sex market, which applies to sexual businesses which provide services such as lap dancing. The final component of the sex market lies in the production and selling of pornography. With the distinctions between feminist perspectives, there are many documented instances from feminist authors of both explicit and implied feminist standpoints that provide coverage on the sex market in regards to both "autonomous" and "non-autonomous" sex trades. The quotations are added since some feminist ideologies believe the commodification of women's bodies is never autonomous and therefore subversive or misleading by terminology.