“Vergonhosas Saturnais”: a experiência prostibular em Belém do Pará (1900-1945)

Abstract

In this thesis I analyze the medical, hygienist, legal and police discourses on prostitution in Belém from 1900 to 1945, and how the prostitutes were protagonists and active in the face of these control mechanisms. The prostitutes who circulated in the republican and modern Belém lived in a socio-economic and culturally diverse space, a city of codes, rules and symbols influenced by the Belle Époque, a period in which prostitution gained greater visibility, previously reclusive to private care, the prostitute began to expose herself in the streets, boulevards and cafes. From the discourses on prostitution, I present the cultural changes and the implementation of new codes and rules of behavior. The arrival of foreign and national women in the Amazon. Discussions and narratives about the "white traffic" and the crusade against caftism. Through the crimes of pimping that the owners of pensions and brothels responded, I expose how the brothel world was profitable and contributed to the city's economy. How they acted doctors, hygienists and public authorities in an attempt to implement hygienic and disciplinary measures in the homes of prostitutes. I present the cases of infanticide and abortions committed by prostitutes and how they were judged and their acts displayed to society. an unwanted pregnancy. I discuss the institutionalization of medicine in Belém and what are the medical thoughts about the female body. I describe the arrival of the services of Prophylaxis of Venereal Diseases within the context of sanitarianism. The concern of doctors with the prostitutes defined as the main responsible for the “venereal disease.” Measures to regulate prostitution and initiatives to control to oar and to fix the women in a determined place to only exercise the prostitution there. I approach the moral discourses and how the prostitutes were not intimidated by this resource that tried to stop the sale of sex and their freedom to come and go in the city. I point out that the presence of alcohol and drunkenness was used by the judicial apparatus to incarcerate and control prostitutes. Finally, I tell a little about the affective life of the prostitutes, their loves, passions and the violence they suffered, for not fulfilling the desired model/standard of a woman.