STD's and Who's to Blame

 Sexually transmitted diseases are a very serious health problem. They can lead to permanent physical and emotional damage, social problems, and very annoying.. complications... for all affected. So in Boswell's London Journal we get a slight inside glance at the problems that they can cause. We read of Boswell's various encounters with women while on his travels and we see the slights based on gender throughout this. It was not much of a problem for women to sell their bodies, but then they are considered to be women of low class. It is extremely common for men to want to go to these women because its such a male urge. It is often normalized for men to have sexual relations, but demeaning for women to. 

The scenes where Boswell contracts a disease after having relations with Louisa is problematic for many reasons. Lets start with the first error. Boswell was having known relations with multiple women (most of them being prostitutes with a higher chance of illnesses) mere days before having any interaction with Louisa. For the reader, it seems to be clear that the sexually transmitted disease shared between them came from Boswell. The next error here was his blaming of Louisa. Totally understandable for both parties to be upset, but lashing out on the girl who's going through the same thing is NOT the way to go about it. Boswell should have been calm and collected while talking to Louisa about their shared problem. To accuse a girl who, from what we know, is not of low morals, is very shallow on his part. Lets get to the third problem. He asks Louisa for the money he gave her back so he can pay for treatment. It is pretty apparent that she struggles financially if she asked him for a small sum of money earlier. Boswell was originally happy to give her the money because it was less than what he would have to pay for a whore. (I mean whore in the nicest way possible, I promise). He gave her the money so he would look like a good person and he hoped it would eventually get him on good enough terms with her to lay with her. He WANTED to sleep with her, and once he contracted a disease, he blames her and forces her to pay for his treatment while she also has to pay for her own. 

The double standards for gender have always been apparent, and Boswell proves that. Women owning their sexuality is dangerous and frightening, while for men it is courageous and normal. Boswell's treatment of women is still pretty accurate to how women are treated today. This story is a piece that shows the gender problems and differences that are experienced.