Compromised Positions by Katherine Bliss: Politicization of Female Prostitution

Compromised Positions by Katherine Bliss Summary

Compromised Positions by Katherine Bliss discusses the politicization of female prostitution in regards to revolutionary social reform between 1910 and 1940 and why female prostitution played a vital role in this period of reform. Katherine Bliss delves into the issues of the public discussions and disputes over the legalization of sexual commerce, the regulation placed on the business by the State, and the inevitable spread of sexually transmitted diseases during the beginning of the nineteen-hundreds. Bliss focuses on the fact that political changes were placed in a fragile position repeatedly by reformers and their outdated ideals and expectations of gender and class. Not only did these ideals and expectations of class and race place great pressure on these political changes but the women whom held the positions of “prostitutes” as occupations were angered over the State’s use of power to challenge their way of life, as well as by men’s unwillingness to void any and all contact with brothels and prostitutes even with revolutionary promotions of monogamous relationships, sexual education, and especially with the growing understanding and spreading of sexually transmitted diseases due to a lifestyle of promiscuity.
With many issues arising as a result of the legalization of prostitution and despite attempts to regulate the “profession,” the State’s position on behalf of men by criminalizing the prostitutes and blaming the spreading of disease solely on these women plagued society in its entirety. In Mexico’s ideology of the old regime, the prostitute symbolized the corruption of women and marriage while simultaneously viewing prostitution as a method of keeping men’s desires and promiscuity at bay. The old regime maintained that while these prostitutes were necessary in maintaining an order in society by providing a service that kept worse things from happening, the role of men’s masculinity in sexual commerce was tolerated and often given biological predisposition as reason for their participation. As stated by Bliss, “By 1908…Lara y Pardo noted that a visit to a prostitute had become a mandatory rite of passage for teenage boys of all social classes and that a general male obsession with prostitutes threatened to be Mexico’s ruin of citizens could not turn their attention to more serious matters” (47). While there was a genuine concern for male promiscuity, this behavior was overlooked until the return and visitation of soldier caused a need for change.
As a result of the declining of the general state of society due to the revolt against the Porfirian regime, the State began to make changes to the ideals of men under the new revolutionary regime. For one the state “claimed the authority to shape the formation of the new families” (118) in order to ensure that young girls were surrounded by nurturing individuals. This meant that social workers could decide to not allow marriages between a girl and boy that did not provide this environment. The regulation of the family did not resolve the issue of the “corruption” of these girls and as a result, by the 1920’s public health officials began to acknowledge men’s masculinity as a cause of the spreading of disease, more specifically the spreading of syphilis and efforts by public officials began to void all contact by men with prostitutes. There were also efforts in the 1920’s and 1930’s to “classify and contain male sexual behavior” (153). There was not yet a clear blame on men for the corruption of young women or the spreading of disease, but there was an understanding of the need to contain the male responsibility for these issues. Because women were still seen as less than those of their male counterparts and also due to the fact that women were the ones who carried to deviant title, men were still not as regulated, in any.
By this time it was apparent to research, public officials, and other alike that men played a vital role in the spreading of disease as well, and that their masculinity as a centralized cause of sexual commerce was evident but because it was impossible to regulate these men lawfully the same way prostitutes were regulated, revolutionary reformers decided it would necessary to take legalized sexual commerce out of the limelight and make it less visible, instead of making men participate in the same types of examinations that prostitutes did.
Ultimately, the revolutionary state’s response to prostitution was one that was genuine but less effective than intended, however the state’s acknowledgement of male masculinity as a cause of problems within sexual commerce and prostitution was necessary in understanding of how the revolutionary state responded to such problems.

Bliss, Katherine E. “Compromised Positions.” 1968. The Pennsylvania State University.