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001			052668
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008			230511s20012001usaa 000 u eng d
020			_a9780271021256
082	0		_aLAS 306.74 BLI _2
100	1		_aBliss, Katherine Elaine
245	1	0	_aCompromised positions _b: prostitution, public health, and gender politics in revolutionary Mexico City _c/ Katherine Elaine Bliss
260			_aUniversity Park, PA _b: Pennsylvania State University Press _c, 2001
300			_a243 p. _b: illus. _c; 24 cm
520			_aTo illuminate the complex cultural foundations of state formation in modern Mexico, Compromised positions explains how and why female prostitution became politicized in the context of revolutionary social reform between 1910 and 1940. Focusing on the public debates over legalized sexual commerce and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the first half of the twentieth century, Katherine Bliss argues that political change was compromised time and again by reformers' antiquated ideas about gender and class, by prostitutes' outrage over official attempts to undermine their livelihood, and by clients' unwillingness to forgo visiting brothels despite revolutionary campaigns to promote monogamy, sex education, and awareness of the health risks associated with sexual promiscuity. In the Mexican public's imagination, the prostitute symbolized the corruption of the old regime even as her redemption represented the new order's potential to dramatically alter gender relations through social policy. Using medical records, criminal case files, and letters from prostitutes and their patrons to public officials, Compromised positions reveals how the contradictory revolutionary imperatives of individual freedom and public health clashed in the effort to eradicate prostitution and craft a model of morality suitable for leading Mexico into the modern era.
546			_aEnglish
650		4	_aProstitution _z-Mexico
651		4	_aMexico _x-Politics and government _y-1910-1946
651		4	_aMexico _x-Social policy
942			_cMO
999			_c255749 _d255749