Prostitution : One Of The Oldest Professions

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.

Prostitution is a subject whom many people today have vocal opinions about if it should be legalized and is it moral? Can you imagine how people felt about prostitutes in the 19th century? Today people think the worst possible things of a woman who prostitutes herself and a less rigid view of women’s sexuality exists now almost two centuries later than there was then. In 2011 men and women can have a different view of prostitution and distinctive ways to correct the problem. Men today as they did almost 200 years ago would like to see prostitution legalized and regulated. Women still see prostitution as they did a moral issue that needs reformed. The data suggests that few things have changed when it comes to the punishment and

Historians argue that prostitution was a form of negotiation on the part of the women involved and it allowed them to seek out alternatives to poor working conditions and low pay (Laite 734). According to Elliot West, “the oldest profession should be considered an aspect such as serious subjects as western communities, their changes, economic development and attitudes of their people,” (West 18). Prostitution was an alternative business opportunity that allowed women monetary freedom and independence. It was an economic necessity and a lucrative business model and many women chose to participate because they believed it offered them a higher standard of life than working in factories or

“Prostitution, often known as the world’s oldest profession, can be traced throughout recorded history,” (Lerner, 236). Prostitution has been a part of history since the beginning of human civilization. One of the first recorded mentions of prostitution was found in ancient Sumerian records from 2400BC listed among other professions such as doctor, scribe, etc. Many countries are in a constant debate over whether or not it is unconstitutional to make prostitution illegal. Currently there are around 80 countries in the world that have legalized prostitution and around 100 countries that have declared it illegal. Germany is one of the countries with the most widespread prostitution industry. Prostitution was declared legal in Germany as of 2002 and since

Sexual services have been part of societies for millennia. They date back to as early as ancient Mesopotamia, in which females were spiritually obligated to demonstrate Babylonian hospitality by engaging foreigner in sexual intercourse. Over time, the subject of prostitution has surfaced in spiritual and social discussion, and more recently into legal and moral discourses with an emphasis on the rights of sex workers. Since the recent phenomenon of advanced women’s rights through rigorous activist groups in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, propelling the advancement of women’s rights movements began to immerge in the first world. At its core, prostitution is not an individual issue, but rather, a societal issue, and

Prostitutes were seen as both useful and unsavory at the same time (Flemming, 44). Men's nature required a setting aside of a class of degraded women to service them (McGinn, 214). The Augustan Laws regarding prostitution are a good illustration of the sheer hypocrisy men displayed with regard to the women in their society. For example, the Tax legitimized prostitution as a legal entity, while the Registration stigmatized women, making them ineligible for respectable work and isolating them to the lower class of society (McGinn, 212 & 287). The authoritarian elite of the Roman Empire regarded prostitution as an institution through which women were made and marketed as sexual objects of a certain, approved type for the general populace (Flemming, 56). In general, prostitution was seen like everything else, to be enjoyed in moderation (Flemming, 44). Pimps and procuresses were seen as even more disagreeable because of the widespread belief that they exploited the weak, and were merchants of dishonor (McGinn, 136). Basically, laws were established to make prostitution legal but

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.

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 has frequently been touted as the world's oldest profession, for the simple fact that it has been prevalent in society for quite some time. In order to properly discuss the many social ramifications of this particular crime and possible ways for dealing with them, it is first necessary to define prostitution and to explore the reason why it is a crime. Prostitution is the exchange of money or monetary assets for sexual favors and pleasure. It is the paying for sex in all of its myriad facets, from conventional coitus to a number of lewd and arcane acts from which people derive pleasure. Prostitution is part of the sex industry, which includes legal business such as strip clubs (Weitzer 7). There are a couple of different reasons as to why exchanging money for sex is deemed illegal. One principle reason is that if it were legalized, it would be exceedingly difficult for the government to tax and to capitalize off it, which is one of the reasons in which marijuana is widely considered illegal. More importantly, however, prostitution is illegal because it promotes the objectification of women and their bodies, and inherently reduces the degree of parity between men and women in which the latter are viewed as things simply for the fulfillment of men's sexual desires. Additionally, there are a variety of noxious activities that accompany prostitution such as trafficking in which the will of another is subjected to someone else's.