Editing Victorian era (section)

===Sexual behaviour===
Contrary to popular belief, Victorian society understood that both men and women enjoyed [[Sexual intercourse|copulation]].<ref name="draznin2001">{{cite book |author=Draznin, Yaffa Claire |title=Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day (#179) |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-313-31399-8 |series=Contributions in Women's Studies |location=Westport, Connecticut |pages=95–96}}</ref> Chastity was expected of women, whilst attitudes to male sexual behaviour were more relaxed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Ruth |title=How to be a Victorian |publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-241-95834-6 |chapter=Chapter 15: Behind the bedroom door}}</ref> The development of police forces led to a rise in prosecutions for illegal [[sodomy]] in the middle of the 19th century.<ref>Sean Brady, ''Masculinity and Male Homosexuality in Britain, 1861–1913'' (2005).</ref> Male sexuality became a favourite subject of medical researchers' study.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crozier |first=I. |date=2007-08-05 |title=Nineteenth-Century British Psychiatric Writing about Homosexuality before Havelock Ellis: The Missing Story |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrm046 |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=65–102 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/jrm046 |pmid=18184695 |issn=0022-5045}}</ref> For the first time, all male homosexual acts were outlawed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=F. B. |date=1976 |title=Labouchere's amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment bill |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10314617608595545 |journal=Historical Studies |volume=17 |issue=67 |pages=165–173 |doi=10.1080/10314617608595545 |issn=0018-2559}}</ref> Concern about sexual exploitation of adolescent girls increased during the period, especially following the [[The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon|white slavery scandal]], which contributed to the increasing of the age of consent [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885|from 13 to 16]].<ref name="Clark-2011">{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Anna |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=642–645 |chapter=Prostitution}}</ref>  

At a time when job options for women were limited and generally low-paying, some women, particularly those without familial support, took to prostitution to support themselves. Attitudes in public life and among the general population to prostitution varied. Evidence about prostitutes' situation also varies. One contemporary study argues that the trade was a short-term stepping stone to a different lifestyle for many women, while another, more recent study argues they were subject to physical abuse, financial exploitation, state persecution, and difficult working conditions. Due to worries about [[venereal disease]], especially among soldiers, women suspected of prostitution were for a period between the 1860s and 1880s subject to spot compulsory examinations for [[sexually transmitted infections]], and detainment if they were found to be infected. This caused a great deal of resentment among women in general due to the principle underlying the checks, that women had to be controlled in order to be safe for sexual use by men, and the checks were opposed by some of the earliest feminist campaigning.<ref name="Clark-2011" />