History 364-0-01: Gender and Sexuality in Victorian Britain; Northwestern University, Fall 2014

Prostitution and the Child Prostitution Scandal, Day 1

• Rape is the forced penetration of the female sex organ by a male sex organ, but in Victorian times, the female must prove that she physically struggled throughout the event
  • This is why there was some form of chloroform or opiate involved – because she can’t physically struggle (it wasn’t only to protect them)
  • It was nearly impossible for a woman to accuse her husband of rape because, in Victorian language, it is assumed that a woman gives consent through marriage
• The age of consent is the age at which a woman can legally consent to sexual activity; in the 1880s, the age of consent in Victorian Britain is 13
  • Stead refers to 13-year-olds as children and wants to increase this age to 16; he and his allies are furious because this legislation has been dormant

• “Victorians Uncovered,” a British docu-drama
  • There were brothels that specifically catered to men who liked children
  • It was a sexual fantasy to take a virgin, and it was considered safe from diseases (some believed the myth that it would cure the man of other diseases)
  • The aristocratic members of the parliament declined increasing the age of consent because they thought male privilege was being challenged
  • Children were kidnapped off the streets and imprisoned in brothels
  • Stead believed the wealthy were being abusive because wealth is power and poverty is weakness
  • Those who engaged in child prostitution believed that it wasn’t rape, it was a contractual exchange of a child’s virginity in return for cash
  • Stead required more evidence, so he decided he needed to go into the underground, where people saw as the place corruption festered
  • Stead posed as an aristocratic libertine with an interest in children in order to research; at first he was uncomfortable, but became more accustomed to the environment
  • Stead was fully committed to exposing all the details of the exchange, but in the process, became more drawn to the exchange
  • A warning was included in the newspaper letting people know that they should not read the newspaper if they are not ready to get shocked, and advised men to keep it away from their wives and children; this warning only increased the value of the sensation
  • The publication enraged members of the establishment and they tried to cover up what was revealed
  • A lot of people included in the publication disliked how they were portrayed in the article
  • One person who was particularly insulted was the mother of the girl that Stead had purchased for 5 pounds, and he underestimated how far she would go to protect her reputation
  • Although Stead followed through with the entire purchase process of the girl, he did not engage in sex; he did this to demonstrate the entire process that is done
  • Stead returned the girl he had purchased for the publication, but that didn’t stop people from wanting him prosecuted; he was convicted of assaulting the girl and sentenced to 3 months in prison
  • He was treated as a class-war prisoner
  • Five years later, he discovered he was a spiritualist; radical journalism and spiritualism don’t go well together
  • Stead thought the end was near, and it happened on the Titanic; he helped others get onto rescue boats, but didn’t try to help himself as he accepted his death that he had anticipated