by Jane
Tolerton - Penguin Books - $35.00
With the New Zealand Sexual Health Society
Publication supported by the Lottery World War One Commemorations funding
Ettie Rout: New Zealand’s safer sex pioneer details the
achievements of a daring and adventurous woman who pioneered safer sex
initiatives for our troops in World War One.
She designed a safer sex
kit which was adopted by the New Zealand army – and at her insistence it was
compulsory: soldiers had to take one when going on leave. In Paris she set up
safer sex brothel – and ran a total social and sexual welfare service for New
Zealand troops.
In this book published as
part of the centennial commemorations, author Jane Tolerton masterfully
presents an unlikely World War One heroine. A shorthand typist, journalist and
public health activist, Ettie approached her mission with a wicked sense of
humour, an intolerance of hypocrisy and boundless energy.
She saw the high venereal
disease rate among New Zealand soldiers as a medical problem, not a moral one.
Telling the men not to take the risk of having sex clearly didn’t work. She was
accused of ‘trying to make vice safe’. She answered, ‘Why should it be left
dangerous?’ – as she developed methods that worked.
‘We shall never conquer
this greatest of national perils simply by spreading pious fluff over the
landscape. Cannot we simply take our courage in our hands and face the facts of
life as they really are?’ —Ettie Rout
Having persuaded ‘Madame Yvonne’ to turn her licenced house into a
safer sex brothel and let her supervise its operation, Ettie then made it her
business to persuade the men to go there rather than having sex with women they
met in Paris. All other brothels were dangerous; under the French system they
were inspected, but any client could introduce disease, so this was no
guarantee of safety.
H.G. Wells dubbed her ‘that unforgettable
heroine’; a French VD specialist called her ‘a real guardian angel of the
Anzacs’; and an English bishop called her ‘the wickedest woman in Britain’.
Meanwhile the New Zealand Government banned all mention of soldier VD from the
newspapers. In 1918 Prime Minister William Massey was still opposed to kits
because they would lead to “an orgy of immorality” and would be “the downfall
of the Empire but was too phobic about the subject to learn that they had
already been introduced and were lowering the VD rate.
This book celebrates a brave woman of the
First World War who is now internationally recognised for waging a successful
public health crusade. A woman way ahead of her time.
Ettie Rout passport photo_credit Jane Tolerton collection.jpg
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