Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: prostitution, women's movements and democratic politics
- 2 The women's movement and prostitution politics in Australia
- 3 Taxes, rights and regimentation: discourses on prostitution in Austria
- 4 Prostitution policies in Britain, 1982–2002
- 5 Prostitution as public nuisance: prostitution policy in Canada
- 6 Towards a new prohibitionism? State feminism, women's movements and prostitution policies in Finland
- 7 Prostitute movements face elite apathy and gender-biased universalism in France
- 8 The politics of prostitution and trafficking of women in Israel
- 9 Italy: the never-ending debate
- 10 Voluntary and forced prostitution: the ‘realistic approach’ of the Netherlands
- 11 State feminism and central state debates on prostitution in post-authoritarian Spain
- 12 Criminalising the john – a Swedish gender model?
- 13 The invisible issue: prostitution and trafficking of women and girls in the United States
- 14 Comparative prostitution politics and the case for state feminism
- Appendix 1 Independent variable indicators
- Appendix 2 Worksheets
- References
- Index
9 - Italy: the never-ending debate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: prostitution, women's movements and democratic politics
- 2 The women's movement and prostitution politics in Australia
- 3 Taxes, rights and regimentation: discourses on prostitution in Austria
- 4 Prostitution policies in Britain, 1982–2002
- 5 Prostitution as public nuisance: prostitution policy in Canada
- 6 Towards a new prohibitionism? State feminism, women's movements and prostitution policies in Finland
- 7 Prostitute movements face elite apathy and gender-biased universalism in France
- 8 The politics of prostitution and trafficking of women in Israel
- 9 Italy: the never-ending debate
- 10 Voluntary and forced prostitution: the ‘realistic approach’ of the Netherlands
- 11 State feminism and central state debates on prostitution in post-authoritarian Spain
- 12 Criminalising the john – a Swedish gender model?
- 13 The invisible issue: prostitution and trafficking of women and girls in the United States
- 14 Comparative prostitution politics and the case for state feminism
- Appendix 1 Independent variable indicators
- Appendix 2 Worksheets
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In 1958, a new law regulating prostitution, the Merlin law (L. 75/58), fought for by the socialist MP Lina Merlin, abolished the previous system of regulation that had been established in 1861, the year of Italy's unification (Gibson 1995). Since then the law has been only slightly modified. It is a classic abolitionist law, prohibiting not only trafficking and the exploitation of prostitution, but all forms of aiding and abetting with or without the intent of financial gain. Therefore it allows only street prostitution or prostitution by a woman in her own house or apartment. The decision to close the brothels and liberate the 2,500 women deprived of many of their civil rights by being obliged to reside in brothels was greeted as a liberation in the spirit of equality.
The Merlin law, which took ten years to be passed, never ceased to be an object of public debate, periodically emerging in the national media with articles, books, campaigns for the gathering of signatures to repeal and proposals for new laws. Defence of the law against repeated attacks by a very mixed public (though commonly composed of the right wing) who demanded the re-opening of the ‘case chiuse’ (closed houses, i.e. brothels), has always been acknowledged as a feminist issue. Yet support for the ‘Merlin’ is much broader: it is also backed by the Catholic church and the majority of the Marxist (now post-communist) parties. Many Catholic volunteer associations, although they are hostile to feminism, work on prostitution.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of ProstitutionWomen's Movements, Democratic States and the Globalisation of Sex Commerce, pp. 165 - 184Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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