Nothing New under the Sun? Representations of trafficking in turn-of-the-century England
Attwood, R. 2017. Nothing New under the Sun? Representations of trafficking in turn-of-the-century England. Bangkok, Thailand
| Title | Nothing New under the Sun? Representations of trafficking in turn-of-the-century England |
|---|---|
| Creators | Attwood, R. |
| Description | This article argues that little has changed over the past 130 years when it comes to negative representations of trafficked women. It explores the way in which the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women (JAPGW), one of the pillars of England’s early anti-trafficking movement, represented the female Jewish migrants it deemed at risk of being trafficked into sex work between 1890 and 1910. It argues that the JAPGW stigmatised these women, placing most of the blame for trafficking upon them and positioning them to a greater or a lesser extent as ‘undesirable and undeserving working-class foreigners’ who could never become respectable English women. The article also contends that the JAPGW, in outlining what was wrong with certain female migrants, drew a line between ‘the migrant’ and respectable English society at large, and paradoxically endorsed the extension of the very ‘anti-alienist’ and Antisemitic prejudices that it strove to dispel. |
| Keywords | Trafficking; sex work; Jewish history; philanthropy; England; women's rights |
| Year | 2017 |
| Files | |
| Place of publication | Bangkok, Thailand |
| Web address (URL) | http://news.trust.org/item/20170406023750-79fr5 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published online | 06 Apr 2017 |