ABSTRACT
The great economic changes of modernity shaped sexual economies as well, as wage labor began to supplant the household as an economic unit. During the Industrial Revolution, new work opportunities drew young women and men away from the countryside to the cities, disrupting traditional courtship patterns of sex after a solemn promise of marriage. Men who had sex with men found each other in the burgeoning cities. Authorities tried new forms of sexual management to cope with what they saw as sexual disorder, pwart of the great carceral regime defined by Foucault – the growth of large institutions such as prisons, hospitals, schools, and asylums, which identified, categorized, separated, and defined their subjects. Authorities forced unmarried mothers into the workhouse or reformatories, compelled prostitutes to register with the police and endure gynecological exams, and imprisoned men who had sex with other men. Although these new institutions made the lives of many women and men quite miserable, authorities could never totally succeed in controlling sexual behavior.
