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Inside Europe's Biggest Red Light District
2025/2/21
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
C
Caroline West
K
Kate Lister
Kate Lister: 本期节目探讨了都柏林Monto红灯区在1860年至1925年间的情况，它是欧洲最大的红灯区之一，节目邀请了Caroline West博士，她是《错误的女性：在都柏林被遗忘的红灯区Monto卖淫》一书的作者，来讲述这段历史。
Caroline West: 我开始研究Monto是因为我读到的一句话，说Monto的女性在医院治疗梅毒时被枕头闷死。这句话让我震惊，促使我深入研究这段被遗忘的历史。Monto位于都柏林市中心，面积只有一平方英里，却在60年间有数以万计的女性在那里工作或经过。它与当时天主教会试图塑造的理想女性形象相冲突，因此被掩盖和隐藏。Monto的形成是由于其他地区的妓院被取缔，以及人们不愿看到性工作而造成的。贫困和1801年的《联合法案》导致富人离开都柏林，他们的房屋变成了廉价的公寓，为Monto的妓院提供了空间。尽管面积很小，Monto却吸引了成千上万的人，包括性工作者、士兵、水手和皇室成员。19世纪，性工作的法律地位模糊，如果外表像性工作者，就可能被逮捕。《传染病法案》并非出于公共卫生目的，而是为了保护士兵和水手免受性病感染，对性工作者进行强制检查，手段残忍，造成了严重的身体和心理伤害。Monto的性工作者在Westmoreland Lock医院遭受了残酷的梅毒实验，医生James Morgan在1870年左右对性工作者进行梅毒实验，手段极其残忍。对性工作者的梅毒实验虽然残忍，却为梅毒的治疗做出了贡献。爱尔兰大饥荒导致贫困加剧，许多女性被迫从事性工作。贫困、家庭暴力和缺乏教育机会是导致女性进入Monto从事性工作的主要原因。Monto既有光鲜亮丽的一面，也有许多女性遭受贫困和痛苦。Monto的性工作者建立了强大的社区，互相支持。Magdalene洗衣房与Monto相邻，一些妓院老板会把床单送到那里清洗，这导致一些性工作者被送进洗衣房。Magdalene洗衣房只接收“新堕落的女性”，拒绝帮助那些长期从事性工作的人。爱尔兰对性工作的态度依然存在双重标准，性工作者仍然面临暴力和歧视。在Monto，避孕措施有限，意外怀孕和堕胎很常见。Monto的助产士Granny Dunleavy为性工作者提供接生服务，也进行堕胎。Monto的性工作者在怀孕后，通常会选择将孩子托付给当地家庭，而不是送进母亲和婴儿之家。研究Monto的历史需要心理上的自我保护，因为其中包含大量令人痛苦的内容。一些妓院老板会帮助怀孕的性工作者伪造身份，逃往美国。Monto的性工作者在临死前互相支持，制作了Monto十字架，为彼此举行体面的葬礼。Monto的性工作者对当时的时尚潮流产生了影响。Monto在1925年3月12日正式关闭，这与Frank Duff领导的天主教运动有关。Monto的关闭是多方努力的结果，不仅仅是Frank Duff的功劳。Monto关闭后，性工作依然存在，但形式发生了变化，性工作者面临新的挑战。我们需要关注性工作者背后的个人故事，避免简单地将性工作标签化为剥削或赋权。在制定与性工作相关的政策时，必须倾听性工作者的声音和经验。我们需要以尊重和同理心对待性工作者，避免使用污名化的语言。
Supporting_evidences
Caroline West: So it was really a singular sentence that really changed the whole course, I suppose, of my life. And this book was that I read in a book about Monto that the women had been smothered with pillows when they went into hospital to try get treatment for syphilis.
Caroline West: Yeah, so Monto was a red light district in Dublin in this tiny little one square mile area of tenements, houses, cottages.
Caroline West: So it really, it's like a snapshot of Irish history of 60 years, but it actually really helped like fight for our independence.
Caroline West: It kind of came about because a lot of the brothels got shut down through the rest of the city and people just didn't want to see it.
Caroline West: And poverty really kind of changed things.
Caroline West: But still, like even if it was one square mile, there are still tens of thousands of women who pass through there.
Caroline West: A lot of the time it was if you looked like a sex worker, you could be arrested.
Caroline West: They wanted... They wanted to keep their soldiers and sailors and everything else on the battlefield and working and they were being felled by the brothel instead.
Caroline West: So what they would do to the women would be to bring them in for a quote unquote voluntary exam.
Caroline West: So they... They weren't subjected to the Contagious Diseases Act, but they were subjected to being experimented on for trying to find the cure for syphilis.
Caroline West: Now, like back in the day, if you had any kind of vaginal discharge, they were like, like that's an STI.
Caroline West: So, you know, we have that sex work aspect to that that doesn't get talked about, you know, and we have to ethically remember those women and like what they went through for saving the rest of us from syphilis, you know.
Caroline West: So we had a grey famine in the late kind of 1840s into the 1850s.
Caroline West: And their options really for outside work were domestic servants, which was high risk of sexual violence and regular violence.
Caroline West: But a lot of them stayed poor because you have extremely traumatized people coming in to do sex work and extremely traumatized in situations as well.
Caroline West: So they supported each other.
Caroline West: The Magdalene Laundry backed on to Monto.
Caroline West: So it meant that if you had one incident maybe of sex outside marriage or they said seduced at the time.
Caroline West: And a lot of, I interviewed a lot of current sex workers for the book as well.
Caroline West: So we used to have foundling hospitals, which is where you can kind of go and leave your baby if you couldn't take care of it.
Caroline West: But up until then, they could access abortion pills.
Caroline West: And then her great great granddaughter spoke to me for the book and she found out through asking her uncle about the family history that yeah, the granny Dunleavy did carry out abortions, not just the childbirth, but they didn't talk about it because they didn't think that was appropriate.
Caroline West: But for the ones that had to leave their babies behind, the choice was either go to a mother and baby home or they gave their babies to the local families in the area.
Caroline West: it took a lot to be honest so I haven't experienced the Montau women but I have experienced sexual violence and I have experienced poverty and other challenges you know and I think a lot of people will see parts of themselves in the book as well because some of those experiences are unfortunately.
Caroline West: So they do things like that.
Caroline West: And instead of accepting that, they made their own cross called the Monto Cross.
Caroline West: So a lot of the madams and the higher class kind of sex workers were again, really glamorous, would attend high society events and be there in all their dresses and all their finery.
Caroline West: So according to one man, Monto was officially shut down on the 12th of March, 1925.
Caroline West: But behind the scenes, there were loads, loads of women actually doing the work to make sex workers lives safer.
Caroline West: So no, it definitely hasn't finished.
Caroline West: Yeah, I think looking at the people behind the term is really important.
Caroline West: So I think making sure that there's always a seat at the table for sex workers, if you're doing anything related to sex work or trafficking or prostitution, whatever angle we're taking.
Caroline West: So we just think about the ethics of how we talk about people in this work, what the media, their responsibility is for talking about it.
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