Feminizing venereal disease
Subtitle: the body of the prostitute of nineteenth-century medical discourse
By: Mary Spongberg.
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
Subjects: Sexually transmitted diseases -- History -- 19th century.; Prostitutes -- Health and hygiene.; Prostitution -- History -- 19th century.
Description: Feminizing Venereal Disease traces the medicalization of the prostitute as a symbolic source of social disease - the ordinary sick body - of Victorian England. In doing so it presents a forceful argument about the gendering of nineteenth-century medicine, drawing out the inter-relationship between concepts of femininity, public health regulations and the state.

A fascinating example of how history can enlighten contemporary discourse, the book concludes with a compelling discussion of the impact of Victorian notions of the body on current discussions of HIV/AIDS, arguing convincingly that AIDS, like syphilis in the nineteenth century, has become a feminized disease.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.