'Eene kentering in de publieke opinie, die wij met blijdschap constateerden'. Prostitutie, geslachtsziekten en de strijd om de moraal

Samenvatting

A Trend in Public Opinion We Must Be Prepared to Meet. Prostitution, Venereal Disease and the Struggle for Morals. Aspects of late-nineteenth-century public responses to increases in prostitution and venereal diseases in the Netherlands are sketched, drawing on diverse historical sources. While physicians and public health advocates favored regulation, they were opposed by a heterogeneous coalition of abolitionists, including Protestant moralists, feminists, middle-class reformers, politicians, and a new generation of physicians. By focusing on the "innocent victims" of venereal disease, the wives and children of prostitute clients, and by targeting the moral double standard, they succeeded in discrediting the regulationist project. 49 References. Adapted from the source document.