A man in Montmartre in 1910, The French dealt with prostitution differently than the English.
Last night I read chapter on the white slavery panic, in the Age of Light, Soap and Water by Mariana Valverde.
Apparently, there existed an overblown but institutionalized fear about white slavery in ‘the Tighsolas era’ 1909-1914, which became a symbolic fear of sorts, for the all the anxiety aroused in parents by all the social changes happening; children moving to the city, immigrants pouring into the country, women’s changing social role.
You know the kind of fear “YOUR kids are in danger..from unknowns, ‘others’ who lurk in dark places.” (These days, just exchange ‘city’ for ‘internet’.)
At the same time, some people recognized that women of all races were involved in prostitution, so they preferred to use the term traffic in women, the term used today.
(In 1967, during Expo year I was 12 and in sixth grade. A policeman came around to our classroom to warn us about dangers of Expo 67, especially bad people who might stick a hyperdermic needle in your arm in a bathroom, and sell you into white slavery. I had no idea what white slavery was (and no one explained.) I imagine I had to look our for nasty Boris Badenuv types behind the Russian Pavillion who would send me to Siberia and force me to wield a pick axe. Remember, in those days, The Russians and Communists were the bad guys. Well, I went to Expo 50 times, and sometimes all alone and only had the time of my life.)
In 1910, it was the fear of those swarthy-types, especially Chinese, that fueled this white slavery panic. At the same time, the “social evil” as it was called was also blamed on parents (for lax child-rearing) and on the girls themselves, for wanting nice clothes and a comfortable life! Also on the textile factories and shops, for paying their female workers so little. And on the entertainment industry, cabarets and motion pictures for their iffy fare and iffier patrons. And also on ‘feeble-mindedness’ for it was believed by some that most of these prostitutes were feeble-minded and that they bred feeble-minded children. Some social activitists, including Carrie Derick, suggested that these women should be sterilized.
Of course, out West and in French Montreal they tolerated prostitution up to a point. When the citizens of Rosemont created an outcry in their community, an alderman suggests that a red light district be created.
I found only one mention of ‘white-slavery’ in the Gazette of the era from 1913. (Only a portion are on-line.) Two negroes and three white girls were arrested (the negroes for vagrancy) on St. Alexandre and the police were trumpeting this arrest as putting a major dent in the white slave trade in Canada and the US – as the people involved were Americans. (It’s the kind of hyperbole that sounds all too familiar today.) The ‘slaves’ in question, both in their mid-twenties, admitted nothing.
The fact was, there were procurers of all skin colours in those days, including respectable looking middle-aged matrons.
I don’t know where I’ll put this in Flo in the City: It certainly puts Marion’s difficulties finding a flat of her own to rent in perspective. (It shows what a determined lady she was.)
And maybe this explains, quite simply, why the Presbyterian church ladies of Richmond shunned mother Margaret. She was bringing up her daughters too wild… Yet, it was her son, Herb, who turned out to be something of a criminal (although the Nicholsons would never admit it to themselves, that would have shaken their beliefs to the core.)
Hey, I like my title, Boris Badenuv and the Presbyterians. Sounds like a rock group.
