MANAGING SEX: PROSTITUTION AND THE POLITICS OF EMPIRE IN 1920S SINGAPORE

Abstract

Following the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance in 1887, state regulation of prostitution in Singapore ceased. However, spiraling venereal disease rates renewed debates in the 1920s between authorities in Singapore and Britain over how to manage the Colony's prostitute community. While the local government campaigned for the revival of state regulation and compulsory medical examinations for prostitutes, metropolitan agents in London favoured the abolition of brothels and a voluntary-based system of healthcare. This thesis analyses the contrasting proposals that were forwarded by these two groups - the "regulationists" and the "abolitionists" respectively. It argues that the debate during the 1920s over the management of commercial sex was underlain by a discourse about the prostitute's rights and freedoms. Influenced by various factors, the regulationists and abolitionists forwarded contrastive and competing visions of the prostitute's liberties, which their respective proposals claimed to protect. Yet notwithstanding their differences, the regulationists and abolitionists converged in how they viewed Singapore's predominantly Chinese prostitute community through a racist and imperialist lens. While claiming an altruistic concern for the prostitute, both sides implicitly privileged British colonial rule as the best mechanism to help her achieve her liberties. An outwardly humanitarian and selfless discourse about the prostitute's rights and freedoms thus celebrated its European authors, proving itself to be inherently self-centered.