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Prostitution in the 19th Century

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For an overview go to the Dutch version of this website

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Book: Selling Sex in the City

Suppose you are a student and want to write a paper or thesis on a topic relating to the history of prostitution. Or you are an author and want to write a historic novel on the subject. This edited (hand)book will be a good basis to start getting ideas and reducing those to a feasible project. And th e best thing is that the e-book version is now freely available online (= open access) via this link . What is the book about and what are my observations on it? "Selling Sex in the City offers a worldwide analysis of prostitution that takes a long historical approach which covers a time period from 1600 to the 2000s." (Source: Brill)

40 Dutch regulations on prostitution online

Prostitution was legal in the nineteenth century. As part of the General Local Regulations (AVP), municipalities could determine the regulations on this topic themselves. It is quite a search in a municipal archive to find such an ordinance. So when I came across a bounded collection with no less than forty nineteenth-century prostitution regulations from various municipalities at an online antiquarian bookshop a year ago, I was overjoyed . My delight disappeared, however, quickly when I noticed the price tag. Shortly afterwards I discussed my beautiful findings with colleague Frank de Jong of the International Institute of Social History (IISH). He immediately had an interest in purchasing the collection and also wanted to scan it and make the data online available. The findings turned out to fit perfectly with the local regulations of various municipalities from the same period that the IISH already owned. The idea of adding and digitising the regulations has recently been ...

Terminology: from whore to sex worker

'Words have the power to shape our thinking about human worth in profound ways.' Historian dr. Katie Hemphill said it perfectly in her new book . It reminded me of a publication where women who provided sexual services for payment were consistently referred to as whores . A phrase that in current times has the same negative association as tart, floozy, tramp, fallen woman, or hooker. For that reason, I always preferred: prostitute . But nowadays this word has become synonymous with trafficking and violence towards women. Governments, therefore, have adopted the expression sex worker . These terms can be found when accessing government records in the archives. It does not mean, however, that through time, the definitions have been similar. For this reason, it is vital to understand past interpretations. How are the women who provided sexual services described in formal Dutch archive resources?