The London Lock Hospital And The Middle Class Gender Concept In 19th Century Britain

As the first modern venereal disease hospital,the London Lock Hospital can be said to be Britain's outstanding contribution to European medical advancement.However,the establishment and development of the hospital was not only the result of medical specialization,but also its historical evolution profoundly reflected the changes in gender concept prevailing at that time.At the beginning of the 18th century,modern hospitals began to emerge.With the development of medical specialization,specialist hospitals had rapidly proliferated.In 1746,William Bromfeild established the London Lock Hospital in the West End of London,where received both male and female patients for isolation.As the Evangelicals had gradually taken control of the institution,the hospital decided to establish the London Lock Asylum and to accept female patients who had been discharged from the hospital.Therefore,the London Lock Hospital became an institution that combined the functions of medical control and moral reform.In the 19th century,fallen women in the society became the main objects of reform in the asylum.The implementation of the Contagious Diseases Acts in the 1960s even made this behavior compulsory.With the state funding,the London Lock reached its peak during this period.In the history of the London Lock,the gender concept of middle class had always played an important role.The middle class regarded the London Lock as a place where to enforce their values and to reform the rebels.Therefore,the London Lock was loaded with the cultural characteristics and moral values of the middle class.This paper focuses on the establishment and development of the London Lock Hospital and Asylum in the 19th century,contacting with social and cultural backgrounds,it seeks to reveal the gender concept of middle class hidden in the development of the London Lock,and to explore the relationship between culture and power.My dissertation consists of four parts:introduction,main body,conclusion and references.The text of main body is divided into four chapters.The first chapter introduces the history of the London Lock,including the origin of the London Lock Hospital and Asylum,and analyzes the social background of the rise of venereal disease hospitals in the 18th century.The development of modern medicine,the transformation of hospital functions and the wave of public hospital movements had provided opportunities for the spread of specialist hospitals.With the influx of rural population after the industrial revolution,the former lock hospitals and lock wards had been unable to meet the medical needs of the lower classes.With the assistance of nobles and wealthy individuals,the London Lock Hospital had been established.Chapter Two and Chapter Three deals with the development of the London Lock in the 19th century,which involves the main targets of the institution,the management of the hospital and the asylum,the expansion of the hospital during the Contagious Diseases Acts and the Repeal Campaign,as well as analyzes the cultural connotation behind the institution.The London Lock reformed fallen women through disciplinary measures,labor training and religious instruction,trying to turn them into pure and self-reliant women workers.In 1960s,in order to curb the occurrence of venereal disease in the army and navy,the British government enacted the Contagious Disease Acts.However,the Repealers,mainly consisting of middle-class women,condemned the acts from the perspective of gender discrimination,double standards and medical reality,they launched the Repeal Movement.Chapter Four is the summary of the proceeding chapters,mainly discusses about the ideology and social foundation of the institution.As a kind of public institution created by the middle class,The London Lock Hospital and Asylum interpret cultural characteristics and moral values as texts.The establishment and development of the London Lock is closely linked to the gender concept of the middle class.The middle class had set different gender temperaments and social division of labor for men and women.They tried to reform fallen women by improving hospital management and implementing class legislation,so that they could strengthen the cultural hegemony of their own.Finally,my conclusion is that as a charitable organization which controlled by the middle class,the London Lock Hospital not only provided medical assistance to venereal patients,it had also become the body for the middle class to delivery their culture and power.The mechanism of the London Lock Hospital reflects the cultural hegemony of the middle class in the 19th century.They tried to exert their ideology on the lower class through a series of institutions.However,with the awakening of women's subjective consciousness,more and more middle-and lower-level females united together and struggled to the dual gender concept of the middle class.The rise and fall of the London Lock Hospital reflects the shaping and recession of the gender concept of the middle class in the 19th century.