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CLASS AND GENDER DYNAMICS OF THE PORNOGRAPHY TRADE IN LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

JAMIE STOOPS
JAMIE STOOPS*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
*
University of Arizona, Department of History, Social Sciences 215, 1145 E. South Campus Drive, Tucson, AZ 85721jkstoops@email.arizona.edu
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Abstract

During the second half of the nineteenth century, British social purity campaigners framed the pornography trade as a major source of cultural and moral pollution. As in their anti-prostitution efforts, purity campaigners presented the abolition of pornography as an attempt to protect women, children, and impressionable members of the lower classes from sexual immorality. Their rhetoric and policy efforts, however, reveal deeply entrenched fears of middle-class vulnerability to the negative effects of pornographic literature and images. Building on existing obscenity studies scholarship, this article explores the role of class and gender tension in nineteenth-century pornography regulation. In contrast to the majority of work on Victorian pornography, this article focuses on the British lower classes as producers and distributors rather than consumers of pornography. In addition, this article argues for a higher level of female participation in the pornography trade than has been previously recognized. By focusing on the contradictions and biases at the heart of campaigns against pornography, this article explores the ways in which regulation efforts and discourses of obscenity were shaped by the class and gender dynamics of the pornography trade.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 137 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Professor Laura Tabili and my seminar colleagues, particularly Sofia Zepeda, for providing enormously helpful suggestions and guidance throughout the long process of writing this article. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers who wrote such considerate and fair critiques of the article's earlier versions.

References

1 Pornography' as it is used in this article refers to any visual or literary material intended to sexually arouse. I reject the distinction between ‘pornography’ and ‘erotica’ employed by many scholars because it reinforces conceptions of pornography as an inherently inferior form of cultural production. This article uses the term ‘lower classes’ rather than ‘working class’ in order to include those members of the lower middle class such as small shopkeepers and travelling booksellers who had strong social and cultural ties to the working classes, occupied economic strata on the borderline between the working and lower middle classes, and who were framed in purity campaign literature as belonging to the lower orders of society. More specific class labels are employed where available and appropriate.

2 See National Vigilance Association (NVA), Pernicious literature (London, 1889)Google Scholar, p. 1, in which obscene publications are described as ‘a menace to our religious, social, and national life’.

3 Roberts, M. J. D., ‘Blasphemy, obscenity, and the courts: contours of tolerance in nineteenth-century England’, in Hyland, Paul et al., eds., Writing and censorship in Britain (London, 1992), pp. 142–3Google Scholar.

4 See Marcus, Steven, The other Victorians: a study of sexuality and pornography in nineteenth-century England (New York, NY, 1964)Google Scholar.

5 See ibid., pp. 126–8.

6 See Nead, Lynda, Victorian Babylon: people, streets, and images in nineteenth-century London (New Haven, CT, 2000), pp. 149–50Google Scholar; Sigel, Lisa Z., Governing pleasures: pornography and social change in England, 1815–1914 (New Brunswick, NJ, 2002)Google Scholar, p. 120; see also Colligan, Colette, The traffic in obscenity from Byron to Beardsley: sexuality and exoticism in nineteenth-century print culture (Basingstoke, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Nead, Victorian Babylon, pp. 164–74.

8 Sigel, Governing pleasures, p. 10.

9 Nead acknowledges female consumption and exposure to obscenity in public venues, but does not include discussion of women as models, producers, or distributors.

10 See Nead, Victorian Babylon, pp. 149–50; see also Walkowitz, Judith, Prostitution in Victorian society: women, class, and the state (Cambridge, 1982)Google Scholar, p. 4.

11 See Walkowitz, Prostitution.

12 Bristow, Edward, Vice and vigilance: purity movements in Britain since 1700 (Dublin, 1977)Google Scholar, pp. 40–2.

13 For an example of the use of ‘pornography’ as a valid category of nineteenth-century publications, see Sigel, Governing pleasures.

14 For a comparison between an obscenity case classified as ‘pornographic’ for the purposes of this article and one that would not be, see ‘The dissemination of impure prints’, Surrey Mirror, 14 Jan. 1893, p. 8, and ‘Are Zola's novels obscene?’, Reynolds's Newspaper, 19 Aug. 1888, p. 5. In the first example, the seized materials are photographs and based on the description are probably pornographic rather than classified as obscene on other grounds. The works of Emile Zola, in contrast, contain sexuality but do not appear to have been written or sold for the purposes of arousal.

15 Bristow, Vice and vigilance, pp. 53–4.

16 Ibid., pp. 42–3.

17 Roberts, M. J. D., ‘Morals, art, and law: the passing of the Obscene Publications Act, 1857’, Victorian Studies , 28 (1985), pp. 609–14Google Scholar.

18 Quoted in Bristow, Vice and vigilance, p. 49.

19 For example, see ‘Police’, Times, 16 Feb. 1889, p. 5, in which the prosecution provided evidence only that the accused had sent obscene images to an adult man but nevertheless based a major part of their argument on the assumption that the images might have corrupted children.

20 Letter from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, 11 Apr. 1906, The National Archives (TNA) Home Office papers, HO 45/10930/149778, pp. 2–3.

21 Bristow, Vice and vigilance, p. 2.

22 For example, the SSV dedicated greater attention to seditious literature and blasphemy in its early years, while the NVA had a stronger focus on aid for prostitutes and other poor women, as well as opposition to the Contagious Diseases Acts.

23 Bristow, Vice and vigilance, pp. 44–9.

24 See Ryan, Michael, Prostitution in London with a comparative view of that in Paris and New York (London, 1839)Google Scholar; see also NVA, Pernicious literature.

25 For more on the Victorian press and social purity, see Hampton, Mark, Visions of the press in Britain, 1850–1950 (Urbana, IL, 2004)Google Scholar.

26 Between 1857 and 1900, roughly forty trial proceedings under different (usually unspecified) statutes were conducted at the Central Criminal Court. Relevant examples can be viewed at The proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913, under the category of ‘Sexual Offences>other’. In addition to cases tried at London's Central Criminal Court, newspaper reports indicate numerous other trials in Britain's various local courts during the same period. For examples of newspaper coverage of two cases, see ‘Alleged indecent prints’, Illustrated Police News, 3 July 1880, p. 4; ‘The sale of indecent literature’, York Herald, 11 Aug. 1888, p. 5.

27 Mayhew, Henry, London labour and the London poor, i (London, 1861–2)Google Scholar, pp. 41, 215. These sections provide the examples of music hall lyrics and indecent publications, two of many forms of working-class culture Mayhew identifies with vice and immorality.

28 For more on the role of prostitution in the social purity movement, see Bland, Lucy, Banishing the beast: feminism, sex, and morality (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

29 See ibid., pp. 95–123.

30 Untitled column, City Press, 13 May 1871, p. 4.

31 For example, see Stephen Ford, ‘Vicious literature’, Sentinel, June 1879.

32 Mayhew, London labour, p. 240.

33 See ‘Sham suppression of vice’, Examiner, 5 Oct. 1872, p. 977. This article is one of the few to criticize the SSV for ignoring upscale pornography shops near its headquarters and instead choosing to focus on the ‘small fry’ lower-class dealers in pornography.

34 See ‘The state of the strand’, Times, 28 Aug. 1885, p. 5; ‘The nuisance of the streets’, Pall Mall Gazette, 15 Jan. 1883, p. 12. See also ‘Untitled column’, Aberdeen Evening Press, 9 Aug. 1884, in which pornography hawkers are referred to as ‘disreputable street-pests’.

35 Purity’, Northeastern Daily Gazette, 12 May 1888.

36 See for example ‘Holywell-Street revived’, Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, 21 Aug. 1858, p. 180.

37 ‘Trial of Richard Estrabrook (34) and John Baker (43)’, Aug. 1877, in The proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913, www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed 1 Oct. 2011).

38 See ‘Trial of Simeon Cohen (46)’, Jan. 1904, in The proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913, www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed 1 Oct. 2011).

39 See ‘Trial of Edward Francis Stirling (57)’, Dec. 1876, in The proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913, www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed 1 Oct. 2011).

40 Mayhew, London labour, p. 240.

41 W. A. Coote, ‘The National Vigilance Association’, Sentinel, Aug. 1887, p. 102.

42 Ford, ‘Vicious literature’. In this article, he recommended ‘A young man's safeguard to the perils of the age’ as an appropriate gift for young men.

43 For example, see ‘Law and police: Middlesex sessions’, Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Mar. 1870, p. 5. The defendant in this case is described as carrying on a wholesale mail order trade for four years, escaping prosecution for that entire period.

44 Letter from ‘Report from the Joint Select Committee on Indecent Advertisements, 1908’, in Ovenden, Graham and Mendes, Peter, eds., Victorian erotic photography (New York, NY, 1973)Google Scholar, p. 29.

45 For an example of a pornographer employed as a warehouse clerk, see ‘Police’, Times, 31 Mar. 1863, p. 11.

46 Police’, Times, 9 Sept. 1867, p. 9.

47 See for example ‘Middlesex sessions: February 16’, Times, 17 Feb. 1870.

48 The trade in foul literature’, Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, 24 Jan. 1874, p. 107.

49 ‘Edward Francis Stirling'; see also ‘Trial of Jane Wadsworth’, 16 Aug. 1847, in The proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913, www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed 1 June 2013).

50 Report from the Joint Select Committee’, p. 29.

51 ‘Edward Francis Stirling'.

52 For example, see ‘Trial of Mary Elliott’, 5 Jan. 1858 in The proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913, www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed 1 June 2013).

53 Mayhew, London labour, p. 215.

54 Ford, ‘Vicious literature’, p. 6.

55 J. C., ‘Our servants’, Sentinel, Feb. 1881, pp. 3–4.

56 Police’, Times, 24 July 1873, p. 11.

57 Ryan, Prostitution in London, p. 97. Sales made at girls' boarding schools are also reported in ‘Law and police: Middlesex sessions’, p. 5.

58 Pestilent publications’, London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art, and Science, 7 Mar. 1868, p. 219.

59 See Mendes, Peter, Clandestine erotic fiction in English, 1800–1930: a bibliographical study (Aldershot, 1993)Google Scholar, pp. 89, 136.

60 Ibid., pp. 136–7, 156.

61 Ibid., pp. 26, 31.

62 Minute notes, 28 Mar. 1952, TNA, Home Office papers, HO 354/162.

63 See George Trobridge, ‘The nude in art and the semi-nude in society’, Westminster Review, Sept. 1905, p. 306, in which the author expresses the opinion that no woman could become an artist's model unless she had already ‘parted with all sense of shame’.

64 For more on the social status and public perceptions of nude models in late Victorian England, see Smith, Alison, The Victorian nude: sexuality, morality, and art (Manchester, 1996)Google Scholar, pp. 220–1.

65 See ‘Late advertisements’, Edinburgh Evening News, 16 June 1892; ‘Miscellaneous’, Citizen, 8 Feb. 1883.

66 Clerks, assistants, etc, wanted’, Manchester Evening News, 12 Dec. 1882; ‘Clerks, assistants, etc, wanted’, Manchester Evening News, 1 July 1890; ‘Situations vacant’, Edinburgh Evening News, 22 Sept. 1887.

67 Miscellaneous wants’, Western Daily Press, 25 Oct. 1892, p. 2.

68 ‘The indecencies of prostituted art’, Sentinel, Feb. 1884, p. 274.

69 Artists ‘models of New York’, Century Illustrated Monthly, 25 (London, Nov. 1882 – Apr. 1883), p. 570; see also ‘Some types of artists' models’, Cosmopolitan Volume, 21 (May–Oct. 1896), p. 16, in which the author discusses the different types of personalities projected by models of different nationalities.

70 See Figures 1 and 2. These images have been selected as representative samples from the pre-1900 Image Collections at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. For additional representative samples of Victorian nude and pornographic photography, see Ovenden and Mendes, eds., Victorian erotic photography.

71 Trade in foul literature’, p. 106.

72 Ryan, Prostitution in London, p. 107.

73 See ‘Indecencies’, p. 274.

74 Immoral literature and art’, Sentinel, Dec. 1884, p. 358.

75 See Hansard's parliamentary debates, 3rd series, vol. 325 (1888), p. 1712; See also Ryan, Prostitution in London. This treatise contains a section on the work of the SSV and their efforts to eliminate the pornography trade in girls' schools. Ryan never discusses how this topic is relevant to prostitution, leaving the reader to assume that the two issues are closely intertwined.

76 See ‘Surrey Sessions’, Times, 5 Mar. 1889, p. 4.

77 See Mayhew, London labour, p. 215; Ryan, Prostitution in London, p. 97.

78 See Walkowitz, Prostitution. As she writes in the book's introduction, ‘Pollution became the governing metaphor for the perils of social intercourse between the “Two Nations”.’

79 For examples of contagion-related imagery, see ‘Immoral literature’, p. 358; ‘Impure literature in the streets’, Leeds Mercury, 10 Sept. 1885, p. 7; ‘Selling indecent prints in the streets’, Western Times, 19 July 1887, p. 5.

80 See Nead, Victorian Babylon.

81 See ibid.; see also ‘Pestilent publications’.

82 The disorderly state of the streets in the west end of London’, Sentinel, Nov. 1882, p. 163.

83 See J. C., ‘Our servants’, pp. 3–4.

84 NVA, Pernicious literature, p. 28.

85 J. C., ‘Our servants’, p. 4.

86 Trade in foul literature’, p. 106.