The Sexual Question: A History of Prostitution in Peru, 1850s-1950s

Cambridge Latin American Studies #119

by Paulo Drinot

The creation of Lima's red light district in 1928 marked the culminating achievement of the promoters of regulation who sought to control the spread of venereal disease by medically policing female prostitutes. Its closure in 1956 was arguably the high point of abolitionism, a transnational movement originating in the 1860s that advocated that regulation was not only ineffective from a public health perspective, but also morally wrong. The Sexual Question charts this cyclic process of regulation and abolition in Peru, uncovering the ideas, policies, and actors shaping the debates on prostitution in Lima and beyond. The history of prostitution, Paulo Drinot shows, sheds light on the interplay of gender and sexuality, medicine and public health, and nation-building and state formation in Peru. With its compelling historical lens, this landmark study offers readers an engaging narrative, and new perspectives on Latin American studies, social policy, and Peruvian history.

Genres: History

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Paulo Drinot is Senior Lecturer in Latin American History at the Institute of the Americas, University College London. He is the author of The Allure of Labor: Workers, Race, and the Making of the Peruvian State and editor of The Great Depression in Latin America and Che's Travels: The Making of a Revolutionary in 1950s Latin America.

Reviews

[LaanSiBB]

Intersecting medicalization, social policies, urban studies, public perceptions and migration history, this book is an interesting narrative in the margin of euroamerican sex studies. The part of racialized pandemic brought from Chinese immigrants and tensions with indigenous population requires more attention. Another point on female, sexuality, brothel abolition and liberty is dynamic to supplement for women history in general. The only query is the timeframe of analysing a century, which might limit the time scope to political discourse and policy timeline.

[RYAN PHAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super stylized laminated hardcover

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paulo Drinot examines both the creation and closure of Lima's Barrio Rojo and tells us about Peruvian society in the first half of the 20th century. He tells readers why prostitution regulation was adopted and then abandoned, and how that tells readers about the history of Lima and Peru. His approach intersects with studies that look at the gendered character of state formation in Latin America. He adopts an approach to studying the state that moves beyond seeing the state as a paternal and patriarchal state acting upon society. He challenges the idea that the medicalization of prostitution and disease was an elite 'top-down' project.

He says "In Peru, projects were highly racialized, officials began to look and see if the Indian could be redeemable or improved" and that there was a belief that "Prostitutes [were] needed to be made safe for men to turn them away from sexual perversions like gayness or masturbation." By studying prosititon it explores ideas about how male and female sexuality informed attempts to govern prostitution and venereal disease. The regulation of prostitution in Lima produced two things: (1) society was increasingly pathologized (Euro racial thought influenced the Latin American elite's views of themselves) & (2) Pathologized society allowed for regeneration and civilization.