h.r.m.
Statistics as Control
Beyond establishing the woman as a commodity, what this word “grade”, clues one into the nineteenth century mindset, in particular, the desire to classify and organize to make sense of something. The desire for classification can be seen in both Lord Acton’s treatise and the Report of the Committee appointed to Inquire into the Pathology and Treatment of the Venereal Disease, with the view to Diminish its Injurious Effects on the Men of the Army and Navy, presented to both houses of parliament in 1868.
To define the extent of prostitution, Acton quotes several numerical figures from various sources. While he feels compelled to offer the numbers, he states that he has no hope of reconciling them, but merely offers them for the reader to consider (15). He also provides a chart drawn up by the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. This chart is followed with many disclaimers, in particular the following: “ The reader, who will, no doubt, observe that the numbers returned... in the C Division, which comprehends the Haymarket and Regent-street, figure as 150 only, may very naturally be disposed to challenge the accuracy of a report from his own personal experience of the circulating harlotry of the district” (17). As Acton acknowledges, and the caricature illustrates, the Haymarket was notorious for its prostitutes. However, the police inspectors defined the prostitutes by their domicile and not the areas they frequented. This was done to avoid a situation in which “ a false appearance of morality, [would] perhaps, be thrown over other quarters” (18). However, as Acton demonstrates, this is exactly what has happened with division C. Further, as Acton defines public notoriety as an essential part of prostitution, it seems that the places a prostitute frequents would be just as important as her domicile.
It is clear from Acton’s explanations that neither he nor the Chief commissioner sees these numbers as representative. Further, he even validates the authority of individual experience over these statistics. Thus, he seems to be undermining the authority of the numbers, and putting more trust in an individual opinion, as opposed to the expert inquisition of the police force which the chart embodies. Nonetheless, he does include the chart. This tendency to see numbers as representative of control or mastery over a certain phenomenon renders numerical classification appealing. This same tendency is seen in the bill of 1868 concerning venereal disease.
Reviewing the way that prostitutes are dealt with in France, this bill considers the regulatory role the government should play. A key characteristic of the French regulations involves a “wise” delegation of power to the municipal authorities (Venereal Disease.. l). A striking feature of these regulations is the issuance of a card to each woman registered as a prostitute that she must carry around to prove her clean bill of health. Yet, at the same time, the report recognized that “ all these measures [ are] to some extent conflicting with the ordinary rights of individuals” (l). How far can the municipal authorities exercise surveillance to protect private citizens without infringing upon their rights? The bill supports the delegation of power to municipal authorities rather than to the Courts of law, which would entail public enunciation of the prostitutes acts. The bill supports instead the “preventative or repressive regulations” on the municipal level (li). Despite ambivalence towards the French system of regulation, the bill lauds the statistics concerning the arrest of women for Acts of Clandestine Prostitution. The table shows that out of 1,934 women arrested for clandestine prostitution, 1,125 were restored to their friends, which is interpreted to mean “ that victims of seduction, want, or their own inexperience of the arts of vicious men, were rescued from vice and restored to their families”, while only 230 became registered prostitutes (lii). However, what “restored to their families” actually means is questionable. Are their families respectable? Do they return to the streets after a period of time? Do they continue to live and work in the city? What becomes of these girls several years down the road? This is again an example of how statistics can be used to assert an element of control. If one can classify and categorize prostitutes and the vice they embody, and turn them into numbers, they are more easily managed. The bill goes on to suggest regular medical inspections as a way to contain syphilis in London, on the model of Paris regulation system. Essentially, the way to eradicate syphilis is to expose the women to an expert gaze of a medical authority, who can deem her either clean, sanitary and disease free, or contaminated and dirty.
Acton, while he admits that some surveillance and supervision on the part of the municipal authorities is necessary, warns that it has the potential to quickly become excessive. He states that delegating authority to the municipal police “ would at once give the power, and thousands would avail themselves of it, to every unprincipled villain to bring discredit upon any woman he had a spite against and the discretion as to receiving charges could not then be safely entrusted to the ordinary and not over-pad policeman” (107). This challenge to expert rule is accompanied by a metaphor that Acton employs repeatedly throughout the book. He urges city-dwellers to look around them. “ The streets of London are an open book, and very few may walk therein who cannot and will not inquire and read for themselves. Shall those who of right should be commentators for ever leave an open field to the bigoted and the sinful…?” (58). This is a call to all residents to assert their role as a citizen of their city, and not to leave identification to the policeman, the bigoted, or the prostitutes, the sinful. He suggests that rather than expert and perhaps excessive inspection, a possible solution to reduce prostitution and vice in the city, is to change the way people move around the city. For example, the narrow streets in the Haymarket often cause theatergoers to thread through “ an intricate maze of loose women” (133). So, to deal with vice and immorality, surveillance will be necessary, but it is the way that people move around the city, and indeed the very layout of the city, that must be altered.
In the end, the caricature in Punch demonstrates that, in large part, it is the woman’s presence in a certain space that defines her as a prostitute. Presumably, Bella had already been acquainted with Fanny, but it was not until she met her in out on the street, near the Haymarket, at midnight, that she identifies her as a prostitute. While this caricature certainly plays upon and perpetuates stereotypes of the prostitute, it also undermines the notion that the prostitute is an inherently immoral and corrupt person, suggesting that perhaps being a prostitute is merely one facet of a woman’s identity.
The above chart is from Lord Acton's treatise, page 15.
The parliamentary Report on Venereal Disease etc... can be found through the database ProQuest, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. Once in the database, to access the paper Browse 19th C Subject Catalog > Health and Housing > Public Health and Sanitation> Infectious and Other Diseases > Venereal Disease.
Statistics as Control
Beyond establishing the woman as a commodity, what this word “grade”, clues one into the nineteenth century mindset, in particular, the desire to classify and organize to make sense of something. The desire for classification can be seen in both Lord Acton’s treatise and the Report of the Committee appointed to Inquire into the Pathology and Treatment of the Venereal Disease, with the view to Diminish its Injurious Effects on the Men of the Army and Navy, presented to both houses of parliament in 1868.
To define the extent of prostitution, Acton quotes several numerical figures from various sources. While he feels compelled to offer the numbers, he states that he has no hope of reconciling them, but merely offers them for the reader to consider (15). He also provides a chart drawn up by the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. This chart is followed with many disclaimers, in particular the following: “ The reader, who will, no doubt, observe that the numbers returned... in the C Division, which comprehends the Haymarket and Regent-street, figure as 150 only, may very naturally be disposed to challenge the accuracy of a report from his own personal experience of the circulating harlotry of the district” (17). As Acton acknowledges, and the caricature illustrates, the Haymarket was notorious for its prostitutes. However, the police inspectors defined the prostitutes by their domicile and not the areas they frequented. This was done to avoid a situation in which “ a false appearance of morality, [would] perhaps, be thrown over other quarters” (18). However, as Acton demonstrates, this is exactly what has happened with division C. Further, as Acton defines public notoriety as an essential part of prostitution, it seems that the places a prostitute frequents would be just as important as her domicile.
It is clear from Acton’s explanations that neither he nor the Chief commissioner sees these numbers as representative. Further, he even validates the authority of individual experience over these statistics. Thus, he seems to be undermining the authority of the numbers, and putting more trust in an individual opinion, as opposed to the expert inquisition of the police force which the chart embodies. Nonetheless, he does include the chart. This tendency to see numbers as representative of control or mastery over a certain phenomenon renders numerical classification appealing. This same tendency is seen in the bill of 1868 concerning venereal disease.
Reviewing the way that prostitutes are dealt with in France, this bill considers the regulatory role the government should play. A key characteristic of the French regulations involves a “wise” delegation of power to the municipal authorities (Venereal Disease.. l). A striking feature of these regulations is the issuance of a card to each woman registered as a prostitute that she must carry around to prove her clean bill of health. Yet, at the same time, the report recognized that “ all these measures [ are] to some extent conflicting with the ordinary rights of individuals” (l). How far can the municipal authorities exercise surveillance to protect private citizens without infringing upon their rights? The bill supports the delegation of power to municipal authorities rather than to the Courts of law, which would entail public enunciation of the prostitutes acts. The bill supports instead the “preventative or repressive regulations” on the municipal level (li). Despite ambivalence towards the French system of regulation, the bill lauds the statistics concerning the arrest of women for Acts of Clandestine Prostitution. The table shows that out of 1,934 women arrested for clandestine prostitution, 1,125 were restored to their friends, which is interpreted to mean “ that victims of seduction, want, or their own inexperience of the arts of vicious men, were rescued from vice and restored to their families”, while only 230 became registered prostitutes (lii). However, what “restored to their families” actually means is questionable. Are their families respectable? Do they return to the streets after a period of time? Do they continue to live and work in the city? What becomes of these girls several years down the road? This is again an example of how statistics can be used to assert an element of control. If one can classify and categorize prostitutes and the vice they embody, and turn them into numbers, they are more easily managed. The bill goes on to suggest regular medical inspections as a way to contain syphilis in London, on the model of Paris regulation system. Essentially, the way to eradicate syphilis is to expose the women to an expert gaze of a medical authority, who can deem her either clean, sanitary and disease free, or contaminated and dirty.
Acton, while he admits that some surveillance and supervision on the part of the municipal authorities is necessary, warns that it has the potential to quickly become excessive. He states that delegating authority to the municipal police “ would at once give the power, and thousands would avail themselves of it, to every unprincipled villain to bring discredit upon any woman he had a spite against and the discretion as to receiving charges could not then be safely entrusted to the ordinary and not over-pad policeman” (107). This challenge to expert rule is accompanied by a metaphor that Acton employs repeatedly throughout the book. He urges city-dwellers to look around them. “ The streets of London are an open book, and very few may walk therein who cannot and will not inquire and read for themselves. Shall those who of right should be commentators for ever leave an open field to the bigoted and the sinful…?” (58). This is a call to all residents to assert their role as a citizen of their city, and not to leave identification to the policeman, the bigoted, or the prostitutes, the sinful. He suggests that rather than expert and perhaps excessive inspection, a possible solution to reduce prostitution and vice in the city, is to change the way people move around the city. For example, the narrow streets in the Haymarket often cause theatergoers to thread through “ an intricate maze of loose women” (133). So, to deal with vice and immorality, surveillance will be necessary, but it is the way that people move around the city, and indeed the very layout of the city, that must be altered.
In the end, the caricature in Punch demonstrates that, in large part, it is the woman’s presence in a certain space that defines her as a prostitute. Presumably, Bella had already been acquainted with Fanny, but it was not until she met her in out on the street, near the Haymarket, at midnight, that she identifies her as a prostitute. While this caricature certainly plays upon and perpetuates stereotypes of the prostitute, it also undermines the notion that the prostitute is an inherently immoral and corrupt person, suggesting that perhaps being a prostitute is merely one facet of a woman’s identity.
The above chart is from Lord Acton's treatise, page 15.
The parliamentary Report on Venereal Disease etc... can be found through the database ProQuest, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. Once in the database, to access the paper Browse 19th C Subject Catalog > Health and Housing > Public Health and Sanitation> Infectious and Other Diseases > Venereal Disease.