Sacrificing for My Loyal Reader
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 3:23 PM

Yes folks, Vice Squad felt required to go to Museum Erotica in Copenhagen this evening to see what could be learned about the regulation of prostitution and pornography. Two quick facts: the last legal brothel in Copenhagen (i.e., until the next one) was closed in 1901, and, there was an international meeting in Geneva in 1923 that produced a document calling for international cooperation to suppress the trade in pornography. Denmark attended the conference but the Swedes gave it a miss. I have the guidebook to the museum (tickets with a guidebook cost about 20 kroner more, but again, I sacrificed) so perhaps I will have more to say upon review.

[Update, December 26, 2003: Still on the road, so can't really give much of an update now, but did want to make one semi-correction. The guidebook referred to 1901 as the closing of the last legal brothel in Denmark, not necessarily in Copenhagen. My faulty memory could have invented the Copenhagen part. And as a bonus, let me mention that the guidebook referred to Denmark as the first country to legalize pornography (which at least accords with the old reputation.) It happened in the late 1960s, and took place first for "words," and a year or two later, for images.]

Labels: Europe, obscenity, pornography, prostitution