English journalist William Thomas Stead took on the issue of ‘white slavery’, or enforced prostitution. Following an undercover mission to bring the issue out into the open, his success cost him a period in jail. Arranging to buy Eliza Armstrong, the 13-year-old daughter of a chimney sweep, not only helped supply evidence for the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, passed to protect women and minors, it also earned Stead three months in prison. MP Hemy Labouchere then pushed the bill further to hit hard against prostitution in general and homosexuality in particular, leading to homophobic witch-hunts and the detention of thousands of men, including Oscar Wilde, who served two years with hard labour from 1895. Anal sex had been illegal since the reign of Henry VIII, but Labouchere ensured sexual conduct ill-befitting a gentleman was a slur on Christianity and punishable as gross indecency.
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‘Sir Edward could contain himself no longer and, grasping Alice’s
head with both his hands, he pushed his weapon well into her mouth
and spent down her throat.’
Extract from TheYellow Room, anonymous volume of Victorian erotica, 1891