The history of prostitution is one that presents with many discrepancies, and despair. However, as Christians, we know the bible speaks of prostitution and even mentions the story of Rahab a prostitute who was guilty of sexual sin. Deuteronomy 23:17-18 states, “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God (ESV). This is only one of many verses that speak of prostitution. This may in fact be the reason that prostitution is considered one of the “oldest profession” to date. The oldest human records that are known to reference acts of prostitution occur around 4000 B.C. (Clarkson, 1939). During this period, selling sex was described as evil and the possible downfall of the social order within civilization. However, prostitution continued to gain acceptance and popularity throughout the world. Brothels or better known as “whore houses” were built that housed and employed women known as the “common woman.” These women were expected to offer themselves (sex acts) to strangers and travelers in a form of being hospitable (Clarkson, 1939). Sadly, during times of slavery the women slaves were forced to sell themselves for profit of their master. In some civilizations, the Monarch was found to be the vendor of
Earlier in civilization we would refers to prostitution as a sex trade. Sex trades, trace back all the way up to the third millennium. The first major inhabitants of Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, who are known as the founders of prostitution. Ironically, their religious practices are what gave birth to prostitution. The Sumerians worship the goddess Ishtar, a deity that would remain constant throughout Mesopotamia’s Babylonian and Assyrian empires. Ishtar was the goddess of love and war, symbolized by the planet Venus, and was born anew as a maiden every morning only to become a ‘whore’ every evening. The etymology of the word lying in the Indo-European root meaning ‘desire’. (Fanni, 2014) Women in Ishtar’s service would help men who offered money to her temples with the ‘sacred’ powers of their bodies. Achieving a priority of communication with the goddess from their fertility, only women enjoyed this religious position. Thus Ishtar temples became knowledge centers concerning birth, birth control, and sexuality. Throughout the world prostitution was viewed as a religious act almost, a sacrifice. As time progression people swayed away from this idea and it became sometime that was no longer done for religious purposes but simply for money in a hard economic
Prostitution, sometimes referred to as “the world’s oldest profession” (Henslin, pg. 54), is defined by James M. Henslin as “the renting of one’s body for sexual purposes” (pg. 54). This arrangement, though illegal and socially deviant in most parts of the world, exists universally in many different forms (pg. 54). As a matter of fact, types of prostitutes range greatly in variety from call girls – who are said to be “the elite of prostitutes” (pg. 58), to streetwalkers – “who have the lowest status among prostitutes” (pg. 58), to sugar babies -young, physically attractive women who provide “rich, older men” (Kitchener, par.4) “…with attention (and sex) in exchange for the finer things in life” (par. 4).
In some form or other, prostitution has been recognized throughout history and all over the world. There
Prostitution, also referred to as “the oldest profession,” has always been a controversial and challenging social issue. It is practiced in many different forms including: call girls, convention prostitutes, apartment prostitutes, hotel prostitutes, house prostitutes, bar girls, streetwalkers, and parking lot lizards (). Civilizations such as the Samarians, and countries including Morocco and parts of India engaged in a form of prostitution known as temple prostitution. Temple prostitution is based on the belief that “generative activity of human beings possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the fertility of nature” (Clarkson). In other civilizations, such as the Roman and Byzantine Empires, prostitution was looked upon as less of a religious ceremony, and more of a sin practiced by “women of evil life” (ProCon.org). Today those differentiating view are still present in modern society, but there are also new ideologies surrounding the everlasting presence of prostitution. This Essay will use the Symbolic Interactionism Theory to identify those new ideologies, and evaluate the meaning of prostitution within three relationship: the husband and wife, the Call girl and client, and the Pimp and the sex trafficking victim.
In order to answer this question, it is important to first understand the histories of both prostitution and human trafficking. Often dubbed “the world’s oldest profession”, prostitution can be found in the records of most major civilizations throughout human history. The first known reference to
“Prostitution isn 't inherently immoral, any more than running a company like Enron is inherently immoral. It 's how you do it that counts. And the reality is that it will happen anyway. It 's not called the world 's oldest profession for nothing. Why not make it, at the least, safe and productive?” -JEANNETTE ANGELL of A Wellness Perspective on Prostitution, Freedom, Religion, and More", Seek Wellness, Apr. 30, 2005. Prostitution, known as the world 's oldest profession, and it exists everywhere. In the event you leave the country, and go to a whole new country, there is a guarantee you would find prostitutes. People say that prostitution is wicked because it is a disgrace to society, and no one should go into that profession, because it can get the prostitutes into dangerous situations. One instance of this that no one takes into consideration, that the girls or guys are making money off of this. If they are making money, then they help the economy the same way anyone is at their job. Prostitution should be more considered as a legalized job. People will not stop, so why not take advantage, and make laws to help protect the men and women.
Often times referred to as the “World’s Oldest Profession”, prostitution can be dated back to the Sumerian records which displayed it as a typical woman's profession. Up until the nineteenth century any woman who stepped outside of social boundaries, such as owning property or walking alone in public was basically considered a whore. Though originally the act of prostitution was legal in the United States, the main influence that drove it down was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union which later led to the White-Slave Traffic Act. The Act, passed on June 25, 1910, made it a crime to transport a woman across state lines for "immoral" purposes. Today each state has it’s own penalties for the prostitute, the customer, the pimp, and the brothel
Throughout history, many nations have flipped back and forth with how to handle this issue of prostitution. Again, prostitution was either tolerated or directly enabled through temples or state-sponsored brothels in early societies. However, that changed dramatically in the 6th Century AD when prostitution was formally banned by the Visigoths’ King (modern day Spain). These women were punished with 300 strikes from a stick and deported from the city. If they were caught reentering the city, they again received 300 strikes and were forced into community service.
Prostitution is defined as the act of “providing or receiving sexual acts, between a prostitute and a client, in exchange for money or some other form of remuneration” (Hock 557). The idea of exchanging sex for valuables has been around since the beginning of human society. The first reported data about prostitution was reported around 3000 B.C.E in one of the first known civilizations, Mesopotamia (Caraboi and Fierbinteanu 362). It is often referred to as “the world’s oldest profession.” Today, even though prostitution is illegal in most parts of the world, it is still prevalent worldwide with different ways to exchange sexual services for payment and many different types of prostitutes. One of these types of prostitutes are brothel workers; brothel workers work in “a house of prostitution,” a brothel, which are normally in areas where prostitution is not criminalized or is legalized (Hock 560). Like prostitution, human trafficking has been around for thousands of years and is still present today.
Prostitution, the act of “providing or receiving sexual acts, between a prostitute and a client, in exchange for money or some other form of remuneration” (Hock 557). The idea of exchanging sex for valuables has been seen since the beginning of human society; the first reported data about prostitution was reported around 3000 B.C.E in one of the first known civilizations, Mesopotamia (Caraboi and Fierbinteanu 362). Also, prostitution is often referred to as “the world’s oldest profession.” Today, even though prostitution is illegal in most parts of the world, it is still prevalent worldwide with many different types of prostitutes and different ways to exchange sexual services for payment. An example of a type of prostitute is brothel workers; brothel workers work in “a house of prostitution,” a brothel, which are normally in areas where prostitution is not criminalized (Hock 560). Like prostitution, human trafficking has been around for thousands of years and is still present today.
Prostitution is the act of engaging in sexual activity for financial gain. It is described as one of the oldest profession and one of the most controversial issues in the modern society. In the ancient world, prostitution was allowed as part of religious traditions in some cultures such as Greek where prostitutes were dedicated to gods. Today prostitution has become more open, and some countries such as Bulgaria and Netherlands have legalized the practice. In the recent past, ethics of prostitution have been debated with many people claiming that it is morally wrong. However, like all other controversial practices, prostitution has continued to thrive in the society as evidenced by recent headlines. In this paper, I will argue that prostitution is not morally permissible despite being around for thousands of years. Prostitution is an immoral transaction that has brought many negative impacts such as community policy issues, health issues, and religious issues.
In terms of sociology, Prostitution is a way for an individual to maximize their monetary intake or in other words “benefits” by selling the thing that they have readily, their bodies. In other words, it is the act or practice of participating in promiscuous sexual activity especially for money. Prostitution has been in existence for ages, going back to the Byzantine, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian Empires. Ironically, the ancient religions of those eras dealt with the needs of the group and consequently developed protocols for dealing with sexual relations that have propagated throughout time to the modern era. As a result, prostitution is not about to disappear anytime soon, despite relatively recent local laws. Also throughout centuries,
Prostitution is often called "the oldest profession in the world". One of the First forms is scared prostitution supposedly practiced among Sumerians. In ancient sources (Herodotus, Thucydides) there are many traces of scared prostitution, starting perhaps with Babylon where each women had to reach once a year the sanctuary of Militia and have sex with a foreigner as a sign of hospitality for a symbolic price.
Casual sex for currency has been a major part of history that many upstanding citizens frown upon or overlook completely. ?Wherever we find evidence of human culture, we find evidence of prostitution.? (Fanni) Prostitution may in fact be the world?s oldest profession; as early as the third millennium B.C. In ancient times, prostitution was a way of worshipping and honoring the gods.
Even-though prostitution was considered to be a bad and terrible thing to the other women and men in the higher class, it was also a fun thing for women because they got to explore and increase their sexual experience and pleasure by sleeping with different men and got to explore their sexual desires. Unlike the women who were priestess, wives, and servants/slaves who could only sleep with their husbands and no one else. So, that’s one benefit of being a prostitute, being able to explore your sexual desires and don’t have to worry about any of the consequences that a housewife had to worry about but just like everything else there is also a bad side to it. The bad side about prostitution is that you are more likely to catch diseases, end up being rape or worse and thanks to patriarchy system back then you would not get justice for it because sex is your profession and you’re paid to sleep with different men; which means that no one in a jury or court system would believe you about being raped because of your job. Now in the modern day of prostitution it pretty much the same but different because in certain states and countries prostitution is illegal and there are few places that are authorized to serve as a brothel or whorehouse.