| dc.description.abstract | ["In the nineteenth century, prostitution was seen as a necessary evil, it was seen as healthy for men to be sexually active. Because it was a necessary evil, prostitution had to be controlled, and it was thus regulated by the State. This regulation entailed that sex workers were supposed to be regularly medically checked for venereal diseases. However, from Christian spheres, State regulation of prostitution was increasingly seen as a way of stimulating this public sin. Prostitution got linked to slavery and needed to be abolished. The movement against the regulation of prostitution was a Christian movement that originated from the orthodox-Christian Réveil movement that came up in Europe around the middle of the nineteenth century. The principles of the Réveil were that good Christians were supposed to help out others. Thus they also wanted to help out sex workers. The British abolitionist Butler inspired the preacher Pierson to fight the regulation of prostitution and to start an organisation called the DAP, the first organisation in the Netherlands against the regulation of prostitution. A few years later, Butler also inspired the aristocratic Klerck-van Hogendorp to start a female organisation against the regulation of prostitution, called the Women’s Union. Both these organisations were at the core of the fight against the regulation of prostitution. They both originated from an orthodox-Christian principle, and they both used political tactics in a way of changing the State regulation of prostitution. However, their differences influence the way they operated and can thus explain why they were two different organisations within the same movement. They both used their own ways of influencing public opinion, gaining more members and trying to achieve their common goal of fighting the State regulation of prostitution. But they also collaborated, for example by organising a congress or by handing in a petition to the government with requirements that set the basis for the eventual Law change. In 1911, they got what they campaigned for: the Dutch Bill of Morality got implemented in the Netherlands. Brothels and female trafficking were implemented in Dutch Criminal law. The work of the movement against the regulation of prostitution had paid off."] | |
