Prostitutes Brugge,

Women with a deviant survival strategy? The life courses of prostitutes in Bruges, 1750-1790

Investor Relations. Women with a deviant survival strategy?

Prostitutes Brugge are street walkers to the south-east of Gare du Nord on the street called Rue des Commercants. Three Days in Amsterdam July 18, But Prostitutes Brugge going to dubious alleys in the Prostitutes Brugge of the night, you should be watchful of your surroundings and Prostitutes Brugge an alert mindset.

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New footage - London's Red Light District / Soho in May 2021

Stay updated. Corporate Social Responsiblity. Investor Relations. Review a Brill Book. Rights and Permissions. At Prostitutes Brugge glance, Bruges—a provincial town in Belgium—and prostitution may appear to be worlds apart.

With its mediaeval and mediaeval-esque Prostitutes Brugge, cobblestone streets, and canals, Bruges is known as a picture-perfect tourist destination. Its charms attract people from all over the world, but unlike in Amsterdam, the must-sees in Bruges do not include the red-light district. Moreover, visitors who are not deliberately on the Prostitutes Brugge for prostitutes are unlikely to have spotted a single one in the last decade because commercial sex is simply not part of the scenery.

Rather, contemporary Bruges is a small provincial Prostitutes Brugge, and as such it is an interesting case study because it affords us the opportunity to see how prostitution evolved in a languishing urban centre during the early modern and Prostitutes Brugge eras.

There is less literature on the sex trade in Bruges than there is for larger cities. In doing so, I will rely on unpublished research and data collected by myself, masters students, and Pasop, a non-profit organization that Prostitutes Brugge with prostitutes in the region.

Under discussion are the push and pull Prostitutes Brugge involved Prostitutes Brugge the trade, the legal norms concerning prostitution, the social profiles of sex workers, their dependency on their employers, and their working conditions. Not all of these topics are analysed in depth for all the periods covered due Prostitutes Brugge the limitations of the primary source material, which include normative sources, registration lists, police and court records, interviews, and social Prostitutes Brugge.

Each type of source has particular advantages and disadvantages, but discussing these in detail here would take us too far from the matter at hand. What is important to keep in Prostitutes Brugge is Prostitutes Brugge the availability of a specific source largely depends on the legal framework of the era. However, before examining the legislation, I will first outline the context, as well as the factors that have influenced the supply and demand of commercial sex.

As mentioned in the introduction, while prostitution was widespread in Bruges at the end of the Middle Ages, the situation has since greatly altered. Two periods proved decisive in bringing about this change. The population decreased from 42, inhabitants in to 29, just one hundred years later, 5 and the sex trade shrank to meet the needs of the remaining locals as well as soldiers, merchants, and sailors.

The second turning point came during the second half of the twentieth century Prostitutes Brugge Bruges finally overcame its stagnation and increasingly was profiled as a tourist destination.

However, Prostitutes Brugge is merely the long-term evolution, and a simplified picture of it at that. The era between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries was not a single uninterrupted run of financial desolation. For example, periodic improvements to the port and waterways brought repeated cycles of growth to the trade sector. When Ghent was reconnected with the sea aroundthe canal shipping trade in Bruges thrived yet again.

Textile production, although it had been in a state of crisis since the seventeenth century, remained important until it failed to industrialize in the Prostitutes Brugge century.

Abject poverty became widespread, and the crop failures of the s worsened an already dire situation. Their customer base was varied, consisting of youngsters, married men, and the clergy as well, the latter being Prostitutes Brugge fairly large group in Bruges.

The presence of itinerates such as sailors, traveling merchants, Prostitutes Brugge military troops caused the supply to exceed local demand, and the Prostitutes Brugge group in particular fuelled the Prostitutes Brugge.

Bruges became a garrison town in the seventeenth century, and soldiers of all ranks show up as clients in the source materials well into the twentieth century. The constant demand by soldiers and other men for sex was met by a steady supply of impoverished women during all but the last period under discussion. And while Bruges did not attract many immigrants, foreigners did supplement the local labour force; prostitution was Prostitutes Brugge mobile occupation and women involved in it could pass through many urban centres in Prostitutes Brugge region since the distances involved were small.

During the mediaeval and early modern eras, prostitution was handled via a combination of repression and tolerance. The proportions Prostitutes Brugge repression and tolerance, however, fluctuated over both the short term and in the long run, although the terminology used sometimes makes this difficult to determine from Prostitutes Brugge materials available. Economic transactions were not entirely irrelevant, as the authorities did prosecute those who remunerated more often than women who had Prostitutes Brugge had premarital sex.

However, the sources require careful reading in order to distinguish which was which. Even so, actual prostitution was not always prosecuted. Tolerance prevailed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and while brothel keepers were routinely fined, the collection pattern demonstrates that the fines were not meant to be punitive, but instead functioned as a form of taxation. However, an increasing number of brothel keepers were prosecuted towards the end of the fifteenth century—perhaps not coincidentally, as Bruges was past its peak—and so tolerance Prostitutes Brugge gave way to repression.

This Prostitutes Brugge quite a substantial number given that the average in Ghent—a city almost twice the size of Bruges—was only two a year.

Nevertheless, the policy of repression was aimed at regulation rather than abolition, and as long as social norms were by and large respected, prostitution was tolerated to varying degrees. Many prostitutes were only brought to trial as the result of complaints or at the request of family members.

It seems that when the Bruges authorities deviated from this pattern it was because of a perception on the part of the authorities that the sector was growing too conspicuous. In some years, they raided brothel houses and arrested all the women present, which resulted in peaks in the prosecution rate of up to thirty-eight a year. Indeed, visibility seems to have both triggered periods of Prostitutes Brugge and influenced policy towards prostitution in general.

Eighteenth-century court records show that public solicitation was Prostitutes Brugge more harshly than prostitution hidden behind brothel doors, even though these houses were located in the centre of Bruges. When Louis Stevens was interrogated following an accusation of Prostitutes Brugge keeping inthe aldermen seem to have been most upset by the fact that he lured in customers by sending his girls out onto the streets to seduce men.

Nevertheless, they show that the authorities were looking to remove prostitution from public spaces, not put a stop to it. The same attitude Prostitutes Brugge into the nineteenth century but was translated into an entirely different Prostitutes Brugge regulation instead of repression Prostitutes Brugge segregation. Prostitution was allowed but could only take place in official brothel houses, and the prostitutes had to be registered and medically monitored.

This approach was first put into practice in France at the start of the revolution, and under Napoleon it spread throughout much of Europe, including the southern Netherlands.

Bruges, however, followed suit somewhat later. While Ghent Prostitutes Brugge had an ordinance regarding the regulation of prostitution inthe first such law in Bruges dates from Furthermore, they were not allowed to solicit customers outside of the brothel and they had to undergo a weekly medical examination; if infected with a venereal Prostitutes Brugge, they were hospitalized. Prostitutes Bruggethe town had ten official brothels and twenty-two registered prostitutes.

However, many more worked illicitly; there were at least seventeen clandestine houses of ill repute and forty-five illegal prostitutes at the time.

Prior to World War iiBruges adjusted the ordinances pertaining to prostitution three more times, in, and And while regulation remained the primary focus of the new laws, both the changes that were made and how the policies were enforced show that the influence of the abolitionist movement had grown.

For example, clandestine houses were harshly suppressed several times at the end of the nineteenth century. They shared the social and moral considerations of the abolitionists, but their policy was primarily concerned with ensuring that soldiers had access to a disease-free sexual outlet. It was believed that banning commercial sex outright would have affected morale and also encouraged homosexuality and clandestine prostitution. As such, strict regulations were put in place with regard to brothels and prostitutes servicing the troops, and other forms of prostitution were forbidden.

Inregulations pertaining to prostitution throughout Belgium were formally declared null and void by the central government, which opted to take an abolitionist approach that has lasted to this day. Attempts to control venereal diseases had not been effective, and it was considered immoral for the state to Prostitutes Brugge involved with the sex industry at any level. This move was also in line with international trends, given that Belgium was one of the few countries still attempting to regulate prostitution.

Moreover, prostitution is still handled by municipal Prostitutes Brugge and local policies are not always in line with national law. In Ghent, for example, sex workers are registered and prostitution is tolerated within a specific neighbourhood; furthermore, renting windows so that prostitutes can showcase Prostitutes Brugge bodies, while illegal according Prostitutes Brugge the criminal code, is permitted in Prostitutes Brugge area.

In Bruges, on the other hand, there is no divergence between legislation and local policy simply because the sector is so Prostitutes Brugge. While forced prostitution and Prostitutes Brugge trafficking are issues Prostitutes Brugge must be dealt with, they pointed out that the majority of sex workers are not working under such circumstances.

They argued that the legislation was only created to address a minority of prostitutes, and that by concentrating on this group alone legislators have turned all sex workers into passive victims despite the fact that many are making their own decisions.

Bruges & The Red Light District

In smaller cities and places not characterized by much mobility, locals constitute the majority of the prostitute population. The number of foreign sex workers gradually increased, as did the distances travelled—a trend only interrupted by major wars and the resultant constraints on movement.

Nineteenth-century Bruges had roughly the same number of foreign sex workers as today, but their origins were quite different. In20 per cent of non-native prostitutes came from countries outside of the European Union and 12 per cent from western Prostitutes Brugge, while in the nineteenth century one woman hailed from the United States and 97 per cent from neighbouring countries.

Individual career possibilities are determined by a complex interplay of personal traits and circumstances. An educational gap does not appear until the Prostitutes Brugge century, when 49 per cent of Prostitutes Brugge prostitutes were found to be illiterate as opposed to 41 per cent of the Prostitutes Brugge female Prostitutes Brugge.

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Specific figures for Bruges are not available, but in present-day Flanders the mean age at which prostitutes quit school is nearly 18, although education is compulsory until this age and Prostitutes Brugge majority of teenagers go on to study at a university or take part in Prostitutes Brugge form of higher education.

Of course, this can partially be explained by general evolutions in education, such as increased access and greater diversity within the curriculum, but it does indicate that prostitutes have become a more distinct group within society.

Their numbers only declined in the nineteenth century after the collapse of the textile industry. Domestic service then became the single most important employment sector for young women and the number of servants who ended up in prostitution markedly increased. The common belief that domestic servants were particularly Prostitutes Brugge to prostitution cannot be confirmed, Prostitutes Brugge it may be explained somewhat by both differences in professions and a certain degree of compartmentalization within the prostitution sector.

In the early modern period, domestic servants were better off than lace makers because they lived with their employers and were not dependent upon the vagaries of the market. Prostitutes Brugge, servants had more to Prostitutes Brugge if they lost their position, and therefore turned more Prostitutes Brugge to work as full-time brothel prostitutes. Lace makers, on the other hand, were more likely to supplement their meagre incomes by occasional streetwalking. At the start of the century, an increasing number Prostitutes Brugge prostitutes worked at one point in manufacturing or catering, and by the turn of the century they had been joined by part-time cleaners, nurses, saleswomen, labourers, and others.

This is hardly surprising given that prostitution has always offered comparatively higher wages, which is the primary motivation for women joining Prostitutes Brugge profession, even among those already earning a decent income.

In the eighteenth century, the smallest recorded amount Prostitutes Brugge the services of a prostitute was five pennies, whereas Bruges lace makers only earned two to four pennies a day. In the eighteenth century, the mean age of prostitutes at the time of their first arrest was 23, while the estimated mean now is For the most part, this was a Prostitutes Brugge shift.

The nineteenth-century mean was 26, which then dipped slightly in the first half of the twentieth century to This means that the bulk of the Prostitutes Brugge came in the second half of the twentieth century. This trend is related to shifts in the ages Prostitutes Brugge which they joined and then left the Prostitutes Brugge.

Nearly three in four of all prostitutes in eighteenth-century Bruges were younger than 24—25 at the time of their first arrest, and the court records containing such information indicate that most had started Prostitutes Brugge their late teens or early twenties, although a few had started as young as 14, and one even at This remained unchanged in the nineteenth century; while 45 per cent of prostitutes began working in the sector before the age of 20, 38 per cent indicated they had started between the ages of Prostitutes Brugge and Changes in the legislation and alterations in the norms surrounding adulthood and the appropriate age at which to start working help explain this evolution.

In the eighteenth century, there was no legal distinction between those who had turned 25—the actual age of majority Prostitutes Brugge the time—and those who had not. People began working at much younger ages than today and were considered to be adults well Prostitutes Brugge that time. In the early-modern era, women were seen as being adults from their mid-teens onward, a time when they were paid as adult labourers and no longer referred to Prostitutes Brugge children.

Prostitutes Brugge, Telephones of Girls in Brugge, Flanders

The stopping age has undergone a similar evolution. While nearly one in three contemporary sex workers Prostitutes Brugge 40 or over, this was almost never the case in the eighteenth century. In his research on prostitution in eighteenth-century London, Randolph Trumbach argued that prostitutes stopped when they got too old because once youth and beauty were gone, the clients disappeared. The few older prostitutes operated at the margins of the sector.

In any case, the ageing of the prostitute population has had important Prostitutes Brugge, such as extending the length of their careers in the profession and changes in their family circumstances. While the greater majority of eighteenth and nineteenth-century prostitutes were unmarried Table 3. It Prostitutes Brugge certainly possible that the Prostitutes Brugge sources available did not always note when an absent husband had been mobilized. The contemporary sex worker population contains the greatest number of mothers—a rather notable finding given the widespread use of birth control.

However, there are some reasonable explanations. Present-day prostitutes tend to be older when joining the profession, and having been fertile longer than women in the past they are thus more likely to have children in general.

Either way, it only confirms that sex workers are actually quite ordinary women. While they cannot all be stereotyped as poor young migrants, analyses do Prostitutes Brugge that some groups are overrepresented.

Women with minimal prospects, such Prostitutes Brugge migrants or the poorly educated, do Prostitutes Brugge become prostitutes more often than others; Prostitutes Brugge, as Bruges has become more diverse, offering more possibilities to more people, prostitutes increasingly come from distinct social groups.

However, this does not make them passive victims. While it is the case that some sex workers, both official and illicit, work under the oversight or protection of a brothel owner, madam, procurer, or pimp, this is not true of all.

Many prostitutes have operated independently throughout history. When the sector is lucrative, it attracts more people seeking to arrange contact between prostitutes and their clients—intermediaries, in other words. Prostitution is not as profitable in Bruges now, and as a result there are many more independent sex workers in the city; nearly half operate in private settings, whereas this is only the case for one fourth of the prostitutes in East and West Flanders as a Prostitutes Brugge.

The court records indicate that some were accompanied by an intermediary or were called to a house of ill repute whenever they had customers, while others had arrangements with the inns they frequented.

However, few streetwalkers were entirely dependent on intermediaries and about one in ten of all prostitutes received customers in their own homes—an activity that they often combined with running their own brothels. All the same, the level of organization involved in eighteenth-century prostitution is remarkable.

In Bruges, as in other early modern cities, debt bondage was the most common method employed for keeping prostitutes in such houses. Marianne Stiers, for instance, Prostitutes Brugge that Prostitutes Brugge though she earned a lot of money, she had to give it all to the bawdy woman to cover the debts she had run up because of the wine she drank, thus Prostitutes Brugge it impossible to leave.

Indeed, few of the eighteenth-century prostitutes indicated that they had started against their will but many claimed that they lost their freedom after entering the Prostitutes Brugge house. Marie Le Boeuf testified that she entered the brothel on her own initiative, but when she thought better of it, she could not leave because she was under surveillance, and she said that her only hope was that her father would come to fetch her.

Presumably, the latter situation became increasingly uncommon over time due to increased regulations, particularly in the last few decades. According to Ans Traen and An Mortier from the ngo Pasop, Prostitutes Brugge prostitution is much less widespread today than is often believed. They indicated that they do not know of a single sex worker in West Flanders who is constrained by an intermediary or for whom it is impossible to stop.

Prostitutes were often persuaded to take up the profession via misrepresentations. For Prostitutes Brugge, Jacoba Mesijs said that she started because Prostitutes Brugge prospective madam claimed to know girls in Antwerp who had earned eighty-one guilders in sixteen days.

And while forced prostitution was the exception rather than the norm, it did occur. Anne Marie Cootens testified that while looking for work, she had moved in with Marie Callens, who, unbeknownst to her, ran a house of ill repute. Prostitutes Brugge she had Prostitutes Brugge found a job after a few days, Anne Prostitutes Brugge had to sell some of her clothing.

Rather, they acquired more debt and were passed between brothels, thus becoming trapped in trafficking networks. Indeed, Prostitutes Brugge here all assisted migration, both voluntary and involuntary—is not a modern phenomenon. Eighteenth-century brothel owners in Bruges corresponded with colleagues elsewhere to exchange girls and plan their travel.

The only thing that Prostitutes Brugge over the course of time was the expanse of territories they operated across. In fact, eighteenth-century sex workers who were not native to Bruges Prostitutes Brugge began their careers there. Most were prostitutes on the move and the city was just one more stop on the road. Indeed, such networks allowed for a great deal of mobility; some women Prostitutes Brugge stayed in Bruges for a few weeks or months before they continued on their way.

The role played by trafficking networks is hard Prostitutes Brugge pin down. Yet it is certain that they were not merely mechanisms of forced prostitution, although they did operate as such in some cases. The aforementioned Marianne Stiers, for example, was passed between brothel keepers as a result of her debts. Other women, however, willingly took part in trafficking. He was Prostitutes Brugge found guilty because the women involved were of age and were already working as prostitutes before travelling to Bruges, which—according to the police—meant that they had not been forced.

Prostitutes Brugge,

In Ghent, for example, sex workers are registered and prostitution is tolerated within a specific neighbourhood; furthermore, renting windows so that prostitutes can showcase their bodies, while illegal according to the criminal code, is permitted in that area. By using a life course analysis, we were able to analyse both the reasons for, and consequences of, prostitution.

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