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What role did the figure of the prostitute play in wider discussions of sexuality and gender? According to Trumbach the role of the prostitute, between 1650 and 1850, was to provide an escape from the intimacy of marriage, to guarantee that men would never be transformed into women and that the male was not a sodomite.1 This role would seem to echo changing definitions of masculinity that increasingly promoted heterosexual, penetrative sex and denounced homosexuality. This somewhat limited view, however, only associates the prostitute with definitions of masculinity and does not consider her role in defining femininity and female sexuality. Attitudes towards prostitution and legislation regarding its control are therefore good indicators of how sexual relations between men and women were perceived. It is important to note that, within such a broad time period, views of the prostitute and therefore feminine and masculine roles did not remain monolithic. In this way...

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