Portal:Prostitution

Introduction

Femmes de Maison, painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, c. 1893–1895

Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penetrative sex, manual sex, oral sex, etc.) with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring infections. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is also described as gender-based violence. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in the field is usually called a prostitute or sex worker, but other words, such as hooker and whore, are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those who work in prostitution. The majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients.

Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within a given country). In most cases, it can be either an enforced crime, an unenforced crime, a decriminalized activity, a legal but unregulated activity, or a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry, along with pornography, stripping, and erotic dancing. Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the client's residence or hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's residence or a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (in-call). Another form is street prostitution.

According to a 2011 report by Fondation Scelles there are about 42 million prostitutes in the world, living all over the world (though most of Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa lack data, studied countries in that large region rank as top sex tourism destinations). Estimates place the annual revenue generated by prostitution worldwide to be over $100 billion. (Full article...)

Selected article

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.

The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. It became a parish in its own right in the late 17th century, when buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s. St Anne's Church was established during the late 17th century, and remains a significant local landmark; other churches are the Church of our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Gregory and St Patrick's Church in Soho Square. The aristocracy had mostly moved away by the mid-19th century, when Soho was particularly badly hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1854. For much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation as a base for the sex industry in addition to its night life and its location for the headquarters of leading film companies. (read more ...)

Wikipedia Good Article

Selected biography

Catherine "Kate" Eddowes (14 April 1842 – 30 September 1888) was one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders. She was the second person killed in the early hours of Sunday 30 September 1888, a night which already had seen the murder of Elizabeth Stride less than an hour earlier. These two murders are commonly referred to as the "double event" and have been attributed to an unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.

Eddowes, also known as "Kate Conway" and "Kate Kelly" after her two successive common-law husbands, was born in Graisley Green, Wolverhampton on 14 April 1842. Her parents, tinplate worker George Eddowes and his wife Catherine (née Evans), had 11 other children. The family moved to London a year after her birth, but she later returned to Wolverhampton to work as a tinplate stamper. (read more...)

Did you know?

A party of fashionably dressed young people is interrupted by intruders with masks and a lighted torch suggesting that these revels take place during Carnival. Well-bred young ladies did not join parties in public inns; these smiling women are prostitutes

... that art historians often find it difficult to judge whether 17th-century merry company paintings (example illustrated) show scenes of prostitution?
... that Peg Plunkett, brothel keeper, had the leader of the Pinking Dindies gang sent to jail after she lost her baby?
... that clam juice and aspirin were served at the Everleigh Club brothel as a starter for breakfast, which began at 2:00 in the afternoon?
... that taekwondo practitioner Logan Campbell has opened a brothel to fund his bid to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics?
... that the brothel Bon Ton is described by BBC as "an ideal showcase for New Zealand-style liberalisation"?

Quotes

“

A prostitute was forgiven by Allah, because, passing by a panting dog near a well and seeing that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her shoe, and tying it with her head-cover she drew out some water for it. So, Allah forgave her because of that.

”

Muhammad Bukhari 4:538

Anniversaries - August

11th
- 1929: Birth of Grisélidis Réal, a writer, sex worker and activist from Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1952: Birth of Lindi St Clair (Marian June Akin), a British author, leader of the Corrective Party, and campaigner for prostitutes' rights. She accused the Inland Revenue in the High Court of England of being "Her Majesty's pimps".
14th
- 1885: Brothels were outlawed in the United Kingdom by the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
15th
- 1889: Birth of Marthe Richard, a French prostitute and spy. She later became a politician and worked towards the closing of brothels in France in 1946.
16th
- 1959: Street prostitution was outlawed in England and Wales by the Street Offences Act 1959 coming into force.
17th
- 1888: Murder of Martha Tabram, an English prostitute killed in a spate of violent murders in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. She may have been the first victim of the still-unidentified Jack the Ripper.
31st
- 1888: Murder of Mary Ann Nichols. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Selected image

Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan

Legality Map

Legality of prostitution in Africa

Decriminalization – no criminal penalties for prostitution

Legalization – prostitution legal and regulated

Abolitionism – prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated

Neo-abolitionism – illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex

Prohibitionism – prostitution illegal

Legality varies with local laws

Subcategories

Category puzzle

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Prostitution

Prostitution by continent

Prostitution by country

Female prostitution

Male prostitution

Prostitutes

Works about prostitution

Anti-prostitution activism

Brothels

Feminism and prostitution

Forced prostitution

History of prostitution

Pimps

Violence against sex workers

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