A study of alliances between prostitutes and femminists and their clashes with medical authorities and police.

Spongberg (women's history, Macqurie U., Australia) explores how the perceived source of disease contamination contracted from all women's bodies to those just of fallen women between the late 18th and 20th centuries. Drawing on modern AIDS-related cultural studies, she discusses such aspects as regulation, child prostitution, male sexuality and female degeneration, and the continuing persistence of feminine pathology in biomedical discourse. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

With the dawn of modern medicine there emerged a complex range of languages and methodologies for portraying the male body as prone to illness, injury and dysfunction. Using a variety of historical and literary approaches, this collection explores how medicine has interacted with key moments in literature and culture.