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- Title
Whores Aboard and Laws Abroad: English Women and Sexual Slander in Early Colonial New South Wales.
- Authors
Lake, Jessica
- Abstract
In the nineteenth century, a gendered reform movement – the Slander of Women Acts – swept through the British common law world, making it easier for women to sue for defamatory allegations of sexual immorality. By examining two slander cases brought by women in early New South Wales and radical reforms passed in 1847, this article locates the Australian colonies within this global campaign. Arguing that slander worked to reinscribe a woman's colonial category, police 'savage' speech and rectify respectability for economic purposes, it shows how ideas of reputation and its protection diverged across the UK, USA and Australia at this time.
- Subjects
NEW South Wales; LIBEL &; slander; SEX workers; HUMAN sexuality &; law; SOCIAL problems; COMMON law; HISTORY &; gender
- Publication
Gender & History, 2023, Vol 35, Issue 3, p916
- ISSN
0953-5233
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1468-0424.12632