The social hygiene movement was an attempt
by Progressive-era reformers to control venereal
disease, regulate prostitution and vice, and
disseminate sexual education through the use
of scientific research methods and modern
media techniques.
Social hygiene as a profession grew alongside
social work and other public health movements
of the era.
Social hygienists emphasized sexual continence
and strict self-discipline as a solution to
societal ills, tracing prostitution, drug
use and illegitimacy to rapid urbanization.
The movement remained alive throughout much
of the 20th century and found its way into
American schools, where it was transmitted
in the form of classroom films about menstruation,
sexually transmitted disease, drug abuse and
acceptable sexual behavior in addition to
an array of pamphlets, posters, textbooks
and films.
== History ==
The social hygiene movement of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries was an attempt by
Progressive-era reformers to control venereal
disease, regulate prostitution and vice, and
disseminate sexual education through the use
of scientific research methods and modern
media techniques.
A mental hygiene movement also developed,
partly separately and now generally known
as mental health, although the older term
is still in use, e.g. in New York state's
law.
The social hygiene movement represented a
rationalized, professionalized version of
the earlier social purity movement.
Many reformers, such as Marie Stopes, were
also proponents of eugenics.
Inspired by Charles Darwin's theory of natural
selection, they argued for the sterilisation
of certain groups, even racial groups, in
society.
Indeed, by the 1930s thousands of forced sterilizations
of people deemed undesirable took place in
America and other countries each year.
This continued for several more decades in
some countries, though after 1945, the movement
was largely discredited.
=== Social Hygiene Movement ===
Social hygiene as a profession grew alongside
social work and other public health movements
of the era.
Social hygienists emphasized sexual continence
and strict self-discipline as a solution to
societal ills, tracing prostitution, drug
use and illegitimacy to rapid urbanization.
The social hygiene movement began to gain
momentum and in 1913 making the movement part
of publishings such as the American Journal
of Public Health.
The American Social Hygiene Association was
officially formed in 1913.
It was later renamed to the American Social
Health Association and, in 2012, the American
Sexual Health Association.
The Social hygiene approach was adopted in
medical schools in Russia in the 1920s and
supported by the Commissariat of Public Health.
The definition adopted by Commissar Nikolai
Semashko was less focussed on eugenics and
more in line with what is now regarded as
public health: “study of the influence of
economic and social factors on the incidence
of disease and on the ways to make the population
healthy”.
The State Institute for Social Hygiene opened
in 1923.
This approach was not popular with educators
or with medical students.
In 1930 the institute was renamed the Institute
of Organisation of Health Care and Hygiene.The
movement remained alive throughout much of
the 20th century and found its way into American
schools, where it was transmitted in the form
of classroom films about menstruation, sexually
transmitted disease, drug abuse and acceptable
sexual behavior in addition to an array of
pamphlets, posters, textbooks and films.
=== American Social Hygiene Association ===
The American Social Hygiene Association partnered
with the government during The Great War.
The American Social Hygiene Association provided
social hygiene health and sexual health information
to the soldiers in hopes that this education
would help take fewer soldiers out of action
from venereal diseases.The idea of prostitution
was considered a “necessary evil” in light
of an artificial demand that had been created
through various forms including political
corruption and advertising.
With further investigation into the business
of prostitution cities that did not contain
commercialized prostitution had less crime
and appeared to be in better shape than those
who contained such.
Most prostitutes that had been examined were
found to have venereal diseases, but with
that included a negative social stigma which
stopped people from getting examined and so
there became a campaign involving several
organizations to suppress prostitution and
begin educating people about sex and venereal
diseases.
The two organizations that had developed were
the American Vigilance Association, fighting
prostitution, and the American Federation
for Sex Hygiene.
Finally, the two organizations had realized
their mutual interest and called a meeting
in Buffalo, New York which the term “social
hygiene” was coined.
By 1914 the organizations formed into one,
calling themselves, “The American Social
Hygiene Association”.
=== Progressive Era ===
The social hygiene movement helped with the
development of the management of prostitution
in the Progressive Era.
The Progressive Era was the turning point
in the state's regulations of sexuality.
It was said that the Progressive Era had physicians
and women moral reformers working together
to help manage prostitution and educate the
people on social hygiene.
=== Racial Hygiene Association ===
This link between racial hygiene and social
hygiene movements can be seen in Australia,
where the Racial Hygiene Association of New
South Wales is now named The Family Planning
Association.
=== Negro Project ===
In the 1940’s during World War II, ASHA
(American Social Hygiene Association) launched
a new project called The Negro Project, also
known as the Negro Venereal Disease Education
Project.
The aim of this project was to address the
widespread presence of venereal diseases among
African Americans.
In the early 1940’s, ASHA drafted a grant
proposal and in 1942 it was sent to prospective
funding agencies.
The proposal emphasized two main aspects of
the Negro Project, “that the higher rate
of prevalence of venereal diseases among the
black population was alarming; and two, that
this higher prevalence rate was not the fault
of the black community.”
(A. Sharma) The main purpose of the Negro
Project was to provide educational materials
and methods for instruction regarding syphilis.
Some of the intended materials to be produced
were pamphlets, posters, and motion pictures
specifically aimed at the African American
community.
After being rejected by private funding organizations,
the project found support from the Social
Protection Division of the Federal Security
Agency.
In November 1943 in New York City, the Negro
Project held its first major activity which
was the National Conference on Wartime Problems
in Venereal Disease Control.
This conference was held so that they could
form a committee and create an action plan
for the Negro Project.
After the national conference in 1943, project
officials held meetings at regional level,
predominantly in Southern states.
However, in 1945 the records of the project
suddenly go silent and no further activity
for this project was documented in ASHA records.
It has been speculated that due to the Social
Protection Division of the Federal Security
Agency being dissolved in the 1940’s, the
funds for the project dried up causing the
project to end.
=== Mental Hygiene Movement ===
In regards to the mental hygiene movement,
it helped providers realize that the problems
of mental health and prevention of disease
goes beyond providers in hospitals.
The movement helped healthcare train their
providers properly.
It also helped with studies of more sympathetic
treatment for mental health patients.
== Helpful Definitions ==
Social Hygiene is "the practice of measures
designed to protect and improve the family
as a social institution.
Specially the practice of measures aiming
at the elimination of venereal disease and
prostitution" according to the Merriam-Webster
dictionary.Mental Hygiene is "the science
of maintaining mental health and preventing
the development of mental illness" according
to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
== See also ==
Comstock laws
History of condoms
La Follette-Bulwinkle Act
Mann Act
Mental health
Racial hygiene
Timeline of reproductive rights legislation
United States obscenity law
