Debunking the "Brothel Law" Myth

[Corsulian]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Undoubtedly, Puritanism influenced the founding of the American Republic, but America is not "Puritan-founded."

I misspoke when I suggested that actual Puritans founded the whole of America. America was founded by many distinct groups, sects, organizations, corporations, and more. We're a great big ridiculous melting pot.

Nevertheless, I do not believe so many brothels were appearing that every township/county (and generally only those containing or that would one day contain a college or university) felt that anti-brothel laws were necessary but that instead of saying 'no brothels' they referred to it vaguely in terms of number of women in a household.

Given that this is a "stickied" thread regarding the brothel law, try and focus on that rather than the philosophical reasoning behind the founding of the country which is extremely loosely tied to local zoning laws. The only thing relevant about the influence of religion or whether many aspects of our society are too conservative is that these are probably the reasons (or perceptions) that lead to people believing in a stupid reason for the lack of Greek Housing.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Corsulian

Given that this is a "stickied" thread regarding the brothel law, try and focus on that rather than the philosophical reasoning behind the founding of the country which is extremely loosely tied to local zoning laws. The only thing relevant about the influence of religion or whether many aspects of our society are too conservative is that these are probably the reasons (or perceptions) that lead to people believing in a stupid reason for the lack of Greek Housing.

Hey, you're the one who brought the Puritan influence up.

But you're right in that in the 1800s, unless one was going to school in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington or New Orleans, keeping brothels from being established near campuses probably wasn't high on any municipality's list of things to worry about. (And I'm doubting that they worried in New Orleans.)

[Tom Earp]

Why isn't this dead yet like the law?

[puddintane]

I came across this thread and found it interesting. Apparently this myth has been circulating for so long even LAWMAKERS don't even question it.

Here is an article from Wikipedia.com...where even the Tennessee Legislature had to address this very issue, on a law that evidently never existed to start with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_...ate_University