P.279
Analítico de Periódico
GARNEL, Maria Rita Lino
A loucura da prostituição
Themis, Coimbra, A.III, n.5(Nov. 2002), p.139-158
PROSTITUIÇÃO
The aim of this paper is to understand how women's prostitution was considered in the beginning of the 20th. century by doctors, who already detained the power to decide who was normal and who was not. After establishing the power of medicine and medical doctors in Portugal in this period, it will be considered that while during the first half of the previous century, women's prostitution was considered demeaning but necessary to the good order of society, later on, doctors, under the influence of Lombroso, began considering prostitution necessary but indicative of an abnormal psychological state. The tenet of this paper is that to understand the construction of the female prostitute as an abnormal woman it will be necessary to understand how the normal woman was perceived. In fact, sexual female normality was mainly defined by women's reproduction role and by a restrained sexual performance. Thus, women's prostitution was perceived as indicative of a disorderely behaviour and in some well defined cases as a symptom of madness.