This tweet has inspired me to write a short thread on attitudes to prostitution in the 1950s. The 1950s was a time marked by conservative attitudes toward prostitution: the Wolfenden Committee sat, pathologized women who sold sex, and recommended increasing criminalization. BUT
https://twitter.com/neiemer/status/1463454476094914561
There were dozens of prominent women's orgs, legal orgs, & even prominent police spokespersons who vehemently opposed this criminalization. They campaigned tirelessly in the name of prostitute's rights, and to prevent the harmful effects of pushing prostitution underground.
The Josephine Butler Society, after the 1959 Street Offences Act was passed, declared it to be a 'pimp's charter', because of the way that criminalization increased third party interest in prostitution.
The Left-wing press was crucial to the campaign for the rights and safety of women who sold sex. They routinely published pieces that criticized misguided criminalization and pointed out that prostitution was caused by women's poverty.
Where is that press today? They are promoting the further criminalization of sexual work in the name of supposed 'protection', just like the conservatives did in the 1950s. So I say: @guardian, the 1950s called & they want to remind you of the kind of thing you used to stand for.
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