Portal:Prostitution
Introduction
Prostitution is the business or practice of 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 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, putana, or whore, are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those who work as prostitutes.
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), ranging from being an enforced or unenforced crime, to unregulated, to 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
The Recreation and Amusement Association (特殊慰安施設協会, Tokushu Ian Shisetsu Kyōkai) (Special Comfort Facility Association) (RAA) was the largest of the organizations established by Japanese authorities to provide organized prostitution to prevent rapes and sexual violence by Allied occupation troops on the general population, and to create other leisure facilities for occupying Allied troops immediately following World War II. The RAA "recruited" 55,000 women and was short-lived.
On August 21, 1945, Japanese authorities decided to set up a RAA for the benefit of Allied occupation troops. In fact at that time, the Home Ministry had already sent a directive to prefectural governors and police chiefs on August 18 ordering them to make preparations for "comfort facilities" in areas that the Allied occupation troops would be stationed. (read more...)
Selected biography
Aileen Carol Wuornos Pralle (/ˈwɔːrnoʊs/; born Aileen Carol Pittman; February 29, 1956 – October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer who murdered seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 by shooting them at point-blank range. Wuornos claimed that her victims had either raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute, and that all of the homicides were committed in self-defense. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
The 2003 film Monster starred Charlize Theron as Wuornos. It chronicles Wuornos' story from childhood until her first murder conviction. The film earned Theron an Academy Award for Best Actress. (read more...)
Did you know?
- ...that renowned brothel-keeper Elizabeth Needham, depicted in William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress (pictured), was pelted so severely in the pillory that she died 3 days later?
- ...that Tom Dennison got a mayor elected eight times, instigated a race riot and controlled all sale of liquor, gambling and prostitution during his 30+ year reign as Omaha's political boss?
- ...that the original name of Euphemia, empress consort of Justin I of the Byzantine Empire, was 'Lupicina', which led historian Alexander Vasiliev to associate her with she-wolves and prostitution?
- ...that in the days immediately following the revelation of her role in the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, the MySpace page of Ashley Alexandra Dupré was viewed over 9 million times?
Quotes
| “ | What is comes down to is this: the grocer, the butcher, the baker, the merchant, the landlord, the druggist, the liquor dealer, the policeman, the doctor, the city father and the politician – these are the people who make money out of prostitution, these are the real reapers of the wages of sin. | ” |
Anniversaries - June
- 1st
- 2015: Paying for sex in Northern Ireland became illegal by the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 coming into force.
- 2nd
- 1975: Occupation of Saint-Nizier church by Lyon prostitutes. The event is commemorated annually on 2 June as International Whores' Day.
- 4th
- 1998: The Swedish Riksdag passed The Kvinnofrid law, which criminalised the buying of sex.
- 9th
- 1849: Death of Phoebe Doty, an American prostitute and madam who owned several brothels in New York.
- 15th
- 1943: Birth of Xaviera Hollander, a Dutch call girl, madam, and author, best known for her best-selling memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story.
- 25th
- 1910: The United States introduced the Mann Act, which made it a felony to engage in interstate or foreign commerce transport of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose"
- 28th
Selected image
A group of filles de joie face the camera in front of the Mignon Bar on a street corner in old Marseilles. Lucien Lévy (1919)
Legality Map
Subcategories
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- Start a new article. Prostitution is a broad topic, so there will always be plenty of missing articles.
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- Improve main article prostitution to featured status.
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Recognised content
Featured (13)
Good (18)
- Mah Laqa Bai
- Butters' Bottom Bitch
- Child prostitution
- Elizabeth Cresswell
- Casey Donovan
- Dumas Brothel
- Andrea Dworkin
- Natasha Falle
- Kanhopatra
- Caroline Lacroix
- Ipswich serial murders
- National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
- Neaira (hetaera)
- Salon Kitty
- She Has a Name
- Soho
- Valerie Solanas
- Three Sisters Tavern
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