From the Brothel to the Body
Subtitle: Male Sexuality in Japan's Prostitution Debate, 1870-1920
Contributors: Gordon, Andrew; Miller, Ian J.; Pflugfelder, Gregory M.
Published: 2012
Language: eng
Description: This dissertation argues that the Japanese debate over prostitution regulation between the 1870s and the 1910s saw a fundamental shift in the construction of male sexuality as a political tool. Before the turn of the century the Protestant Christian "abolitionists" and the brothel-keeping "regulationists" who debated Japan's system of licensed prostitution did not describe erotic desire as an inherent property of male bodies; rather, both camps asserted that men did not experience erotic desire unless they visited brothels. On that shared understanding, the two sides debated whether desire itself was desirable: while abolitionists argued that desire harmed society by training men to use women as tools for pleasure, their opponents argued that the experience of desire stabilized male psyches.
Notes: Keywords: Brothels, Feminism, Instinct, Moral Reform, Prostitution, Sexuality.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2012