Prostitution today is always referred in the most negative and demeaning connotation, widely viewed as a profession that deserves no respect. But Prostitution in the US is a $14.5 billion a year business, wonder how? Because the same people, especially men who are condemning prostitution, are also the same ones giving money to prostitutes.
Even though on a rise today, prostitution as an industry goes centuries back, and was also referred to with different names. Let’s get into more details.
What is Prostitution?
Prostitution is widely known as a sexual engagement of one gender with another in exchange for money. Historically, the gender ratio has been the same; with women as prostitutes and men as clients. Prositution is the sexual intimacy practised between two ‘strangers’- not friends, not spouses- in exchange of immediate payment.
The rate of prostitutes depends on the agency and on the girl herself, as to what she’s offering in what amount of money. The prostitutes can be male, female and even transgenders, thus the act can be both heterosexual and homosexual.
Brief History of Prostitution
Referred to as the world’s oldest profession, prostitution was a common practice, recorded as early as 2400 BCE by Sumerian priests in the city of Uruk.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, church pioneers endeavored to accommodate prostitutes to fund their dowry. Thus, prostitution thrived: it was not only endured yet ensured, authorized, and legalized by law, and it comprised an impressive share of public income. Public brothels were built up in huge urban areas all through Europe. At Toulouse, in France, the benefits were shared between the city and the university; in England, bordellos were initially authorized by the priests of Winchester and along these lines by Parliament.
Stricter controls were forced during the 16th century, to some extent as a result of the new sexual morality that went with the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. And this act also invited sexually transmitted diseases. Measures were taken to regulate the functioning of brothels and even to present medical tests, however such measures were not very helpful.
In the late 19th century an assortment of changes in Western social orders resuscitated endeavors to stifle prostitution. With the ascent of feminism, many came to see male libertinism as a danger to women’s status and physical health. Likewise religion was another strict based moralism in Protestant nations. Antiprostitution crusades thrived from the 1860s, frequently in relationship with restraint and women’s rights movement. Global collaboration to end the traffic in women with the end goal of prostitution started in 1899. In 1921 the League of Nations built up the Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children, and in 1949 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a convention for the concealment of prostitution.
In generally Asian and Middle Eastern nations, prostitution is unlawful however broadly endured. Among prevalently Muslim nations, Turkey has legalized prostitution and made it subject to an arrangement of health checks for sex laborers, and in Bangladesh prostitution is notionally lawful however related practices, for example, soliciting are disallowed.
Types of Prostitution
Prostitution takes up many forms and happens in various ways- but the end goal is always the same: charging money for sex. Basically, there are six types of prostitutes.
Call Girl/Escort
These girls work privately by engaging clients online, and escort their services in private hotel rooms or guest houses. They charge a very high rate and keep all of it to themselves because there is no third party involved.
Escort Agency Employee
Like independent call girls, employees of escort agencies work in private locations or hotels and charge relatively high prices. This is because they are employees of an agency and are therefore sharing their profits with them.
Brothel Employee
Brothels are dedicated locations where people pay for sex and can include saunas and massage parlors. Since these are proper brothels, charges are often moderate. Brothels are legal in the state of Nevada.
Window Worker
This type of prostitution is prevalent in Amsterdam, enticing passersby to enter houses of prostitution by prominently displaying the women in windows. The women are displayed in single windows of each room, and when a client catches their eye, they can come and meet with the window worker.
Bar or Casino Worker
These sex workers make initial contact with men at a bar or casino and then have sex at a separate location. Usually in some bars in Thailand, men pay a bar fee if they’re leaving with a woman. They can also have a couple of days with her, but of course all expenses of the girl are paid by the client.
Streetwalker
Streetwalkers earn relatively little money and are vulnerable to exploitation, because they don’t have an agency or an organization backing them or providing them security. Streetwalking is also notoriously dangerous. One study found prostitutes in Colorado Springs were 18 times more likely to be murdered than other women of a similar age. They also don’t earn a lot as compared to brother workers or private escorts.
Legalizing Prostitution
Legalizing prostitution has its own sets of pros and cons; and many people engage in a heated debate on this topic. Legalizing prostitution means normalizing it, and when something is normalized, it is easily accessible. This creates a fake image of what an intimate moment looks like, thus creating rifts between normal relationships of husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend.
Moreover, this also means promoting the abuse and control over women and children, and prostitution has also been linked with child sex trafficking and pedophilia. Even though one of the oldest professions of the world, prostitution heavily reflects on the concept of female objectification- being treated and ‘sold’ as mere objects to men for money. If the women who sell their bodies are immoral, then the men who engage with them are equally immoral too.
Legalizing prostitution will also create a widespread in sexually transmitted diseases as well as AIDS, which will burden the country’s healthcare system and endanger lives of young men and women. Even though today, in a few states and few countries today, prostitution is deemed legal, however, there are lots of cultural, social and feminist values that are being targetted.
Conclusion
Prostitution started centuries ago, and though in a different shape than today, it has gained its popularity over time. Many prostitutes today are offended when being called that, and prefer to be called ‘sex workers’ instead, because this is also their profession. There will always be a debate whether it is right to legalize prostitution or not, and there will always be a backlash to this profession.
