அந்த காலங்களில் பாலியல் தொழில் என்பது பணம் ஈட்டும் சந்தையாகவே கருதப்பட்டது, அதில் ஈடுபடும் பெண்களும் தங்களுக்கு நேரும் பிரச்சனைகளை கருதாமல், அதனை ஒரு தொழிலாகவே கருதி வந்தனர்.
உலகளவில் ஒவ்வொரு நாடுகளிலும் பாலியல் தொழிலானது பல்வேறான முறையில் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டது.
Ironically, Mesopotamian religious practices gave birth to the prostitution trade, as 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 I,shtar temples became knowledge centers concerning birth, birth control, and sexuality. Priestesses became the nurses and sacred sex therapists of these early societies. Men of all rank could hire these women and, in turn, make an offering to the goddess from whose temple the prostitute came. The king would also take part in certain sacred sex rituals with the high priestesses in conjunction with grain harvests: the fertility of the earth was secured through a ritual that celebrated the fertility of the womb. The king, regent of the earth, and priestess, regent of the goddess, coupled in this highly symbolic manner celebrates the sexual process that brought both grain and people into being. Thus Ishtar became known as the protector of all prostitutes. Prostitution, or at least the religious prostitution involved in these sacred sex rituals, existed without taboo or prohibition, as evidenced in some of our species’ earliest literary works.In one such work, The Epic of Gilgamesh, we are introduced to a nameless Harimtu woman – a term used by famed lawgiver Hammurabi which denoted lower-class prostitutes – who lavishes Gilgamesh’s rival Enkidu with many variations of love, from the maternal and mystical to the sexual and orgiastic. The prostitute emerges not just as a purveyor of sex but as a force of civilization: the harlot literally educates the savage in love and care of the body. This is certainly antithetical to the stigma prostitution harbors today, where the trade itself is seen as sexually primitive, an unfortunate remnant of a less civilized and more phallocentric past. The goddess of love was also seen as being connected to the prostitutes – including males – that operated beyond the temples, often under the supervision of a madam. Theologically, all were seen as being in service to the goddess of love, but in Babylonian law there remained legal distinctions between the priestesses and the roadside/inn prostitutes.
ஒட்டோமன் பேரரசு
ஒட்டோமன் பேரரசில் இளம் வயது சிறுவர்கள் கூட பாலியல் தொழிலில் களம் இறங்கினார்கள், ஒட்டோமான் சாம்ராஜ்யத்தில் இளைஞர்களிடம் ஈர்ப்பு கொண்டிருப்பது பொதுவானதாக கருதப்பட்டு வந்த நிலைலயில், அநேக பெண்கள் தங்களை கவர்ச்சிகரமானவர்களாக ஆக்கிக்கொள்ள இந்த நடவடிக்கை வழிவகுத்தது.
துரதிர்ஷ்டவசமாக, அந்த தொழிலில் உள்ள பெண்கள் தங்கள் வீடுகளை இழக்க வேண்டிய கட்டாயத்திற்கு ஆளானதால், பார்களில் வேலை செய்வதற்கு ஏலத்தில் விடப்பட்டனர்.
மெக்ஸிகோ
மெக்ஸிகோவில் சில குறிப்பிட்ட கட்டிடங்களில் மட்டுமே பாலியல் தொழில் நடைபெறும். இவ்வாறு நடைபெறும் இடங்கள் Cihuacallis என்று அழைக்கப்பட்டது. Mesoamerican இன பெண்கள் மட்டுமே இங்கு பாலியல் தொழிலில் ஈடுபடுத்தப்பட்டனர். மேலும், ஓரினச்சேர்க்கை முறையில் இங்கு ஈடுபட்டால் கடுமையான தண்டனைக்கு ஆளாவார்கள்.
இத்தாலி
இத்தாலியில் பாலியல் தொழிலில் சாதகமானதாக இருந்தது. ஒரு ஆண் மற்றொரு ஆணால் ஈர்க்கப்படுவதை தவிர்க்க பாலியல் தொழில் சாதகமாக்கப்பட்டது, மேலும் இதுபோன்ற செயல்களில் ஈடுபடுபவர்கள் பாவப்பட்டவர்கள் என அழைக்கப்பட்டனர்.
ஜப்பான்
ஜப்பானில் பாலியல் தொழிலாளிகள் "ஓரன்" என்று அழைக்கப்படுகின்றனர், இவர்கள் நடனமாடி, பாடல்கள் பாடி மற்றும் தங்கள் வாடிக்கையாளர்களுக்கு கவிதை வாசித்து மிகவும் மகிழ்ச்சியோடு கவனித்துக்கொள்வார்கள்.
சமூக நிலைமை அடிப்படையில் இப்பகுதியில் பாலியல் தொழில்கள் பல்வேறு நிலைகளில் வகைப்படுத்தப்பட்டனர். இதில் டாயு என்ற மக்களே வாடிக்கையாளர்களை கவனிப்பதில் உயர்ந்த மட்டம் உள்ளவர்களாக கருதப்பட்டனர்.
அமெரிக்கா
ஐக்கிய மாகாணங்களில் பாலியல் தொழில் அமெரிக்க புரட்சிக்கான முதுகெலும்பாக இருந்தது.
பல பெண்கள் தங்களை துணிச்சலுடன் பலப்படுத்திக் கொள்ளும் விதமாக இராணுவ வீரர்களை பயன்படுத்திக்கொண்டார்கள்.
நியூயோர்க் நகரை சுற்றி பாலியல் தொழிலுக்காக பல்வேறு கட்டிடங்கள் கட்டப்பட்டன. மேலும், இந்த கட்டிடங்களில், சீட்டாடம் உட்பட பல்வேறு வேடிக்கை விளையாட்டுக்கள் இருந்ததால் பல்வேறு ஆண்கள் இங்கு குவிந்தன. இதன் மூலம் அதிக வருவாய் கிடைத்தது.
If prostitution is the oldest profession, the brothel must be the oldest public institution. The Government's plan to legal brothels - albeit only small ones, with a maximum of two prostitutes and a receptionist - may sound bold to those in Middle England who fear the woman next door may turn to a bit of home working. But the debate on whether prostitutes are best confined to brothels or allowed to walk the streets is hardly new.
The "oldest profession" tag is, of course, almost certainly wrong. Not just because, as some feminists have pointed out, it is probably the profession of midwife that qualifies for the label.
Anthropologists suggest prostitution did not actually seem to exist at all in what were once called primitive societies. There was no sex for sale among the Aborigines of Australia before the white man arrived. Nor, apparently, were there brothels in societies ranging from the ancient Cymri people in Wales to recently discovered tribes in the jungles of Burma. Prostitution seems to be something to do with what we call civilisation.
The first recorded instances of women selling themselves for sex seem to be not in brothels but in temples. In Sumaria, Babylonia and among the Phoenicians, prostitutes had sex, not for gain, but as a religious ritual. Sex in the temple was supposed to confer special blessings on men and women alike. But that was very different to just doing it for money.
There's plenty of that in the Bible. However, prostitutes in the Jewish scriptures seemed to ply their trade from home, such as Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho who aided the spies of Joshua and identified her house with a scarlet rope - the origin, some say, of the "red light" (though that may, more prosaically, come from the red lanterns carried by railroad workers left outside brothels while they were inside).
The first brothels proper seem to have been in ancient Egypt. Some historians suggest prostitution was not common until the influence of Greek and Mesopotamian travellers took hold. But, in the times of the later Pharaohs, dancing women and musicians were used to recruit men into brothels. Herodotus said a Greek prostitute called Rhopopis was so successful in Egypt she built a pyramid from her takings.
But certainly it was the Greeks who first put the brothel on an official footing. The celebrated Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon founded state brothels and taxed prostitutes on their earnings in the 5th century BC. They were staffed by hetaerae (companions) who ranged from slaves and other lowclass women to those of the upper ranks. The cost of sex was one obole, a sixth of a drachma and the equivalent of an ordinary worker's day salary. For that you got intercourse but nothing oral, which Greek women had a distaste for, although hetaerae were commonly beaten for refusing.
The Romans were keen on sex. There can be few languages richer than Latin in the pornographic, with dozens of terms for prostitutes and different sexual acts. Waitresses in taverns usually sold sexual services. Prostitutes set themselves up at the circus, under the arches (fornices - hence fornication). Official prostitutes were registered by the police and their activities were regulated. Rent from a brothel was a legitimate source of income for a respectable man.
Not all brothels were the same. Those in the Second District of the City were very dirty but the brothels of the Peace ward, were sumptuously fitted. Hairdressers stood by to repair the ravages of amorous combats. Aquarioli, or water boys, waited by the door with bidets for ablution. The superior prostitutes had immense influence on Roman fashions in hair, dress and jewellery.
To attract trade, the houses had an emblem of Priapus in wood or stone above the door "frequently painted to resemble nature more closely" as one ancient historian delicately put it.
Several such advertising standards have been recovered from the ruins of Pompeii where a large brothel was found called the Lupanar - lupae (she-wolves) were a particular kind of sex worker known to be skilled with their tongues.
Among the fossilised ruins were what our delicate historian called "instruments used in gratifying unnatural lusts" which "in praise of our modern standards of morality, it should be said that it required some study and thought to penetrate the secret of the proper use of several of these instruments".
The ambivalence towards the brothel - the simultaneous urge to license and to regulation - continued into medieval times. Prostitution was tolerated because it was held to prevent the greater evils of rape and sodomy. No lesser figures than St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas argued that prostitution was a necessary evil: a well-ordered city needed brothels just as it needed good sewers. The medieval brothels were under the authority of the state, city or prince.
Rules were set in place. Brothels were situated in special streets. Ecclesiastics and married men weren't allowed to visit. Prostitutes, who had to wear distinctive dress, were allowed to ply their trade just outside the town walls but not within. Special houses were built for repenting prostitutes.
Places as varied as the town of Sandwich and foreign municipalities such as Hamburg, Vienna and Augsburg, built public brothels. Such systems of regulation continued in many places for three centuries - until a great epidemic of syphillis swept over Europe in the 16th century and these official medieval brothels were closed.
By Elizabethan times, the sale of sex was more diverse. In London, Southwark was the red-light district. Brothels, usually whitewashed, were called "stews" because of their origins as steambath houses. But prostitutes were active in the theatres. Celebrated theatrical impresarios and actors, such as Philip Henslowe and his son-in-law, Edward Alleyn, owned a profitable brothel.
Henry VIII, in 1546, tried to close the bawdy houses but without much success; some were moated and had high walls to repel attackers. And again the Tudor whorehouse catered for both poor and rich - one 1584 account records that a young man might have to part with 40 shillings or more in a brothel for "a bottle or two of wine, the embracement of a painted strumpet and the French welcome [syphilis]".
But in Paris, the French were, by the end of the 17th century, demanding a medical examination of prostitutes who also had to wear a distinct dress with a badge, and live in a licensed brothel. Many approved. Bernard Mandeville, a Dutch doctor in London in 1724 wrote a defence of public stews, "for the encouraging of public whoring will not only prevent most of the mischievous effects of the vice," he said, "but even lessen the quantity of whoring in general and reduce it to the narrowest bounds which it can possibly be contained in".
But others disapproved. In Vienna in 1751, the Empress Maria Theresa outlawed prostitution and imposed fines, imprisonment, whipping and torture for violations. She even banned female servants from taverns and forbade all women from wearing short dresses.
Throughout the ages, there have been plenty of folk determined to outlaw the trade. In France in 1254, Louis IX ordered all courtesans to be driven out of the country and deprived of their money, goods and - a bit dodgy this one - even their clothes.
When he set out for the Crusades, he destroyed all brothels, with the result that prostitutes mixed more freely than ever with the general population.
In Russia, not long after Marie Therese's purge, the Czarina Elizaveta Petrovna ordered a "find and catch" of all prostitutes both Russian and foreign. And her successor, Tsar Paul I ordered all those caught in Moscow and St. Petersburg to be exiled to Siberia.
In 1860, the Mayor of Portsmouth tried the same thing, turning all the city's prostitutes on to the streets but, at the end of three days, the condition of the place was so bad that he allowed them to return to their former premises. Practically the same episodes were repeated in Pittsburgh and New York in 1891.
Originally legal in the United States, prostitution was outlawed in almost all states between 1910 and 1915 largely due to the influence of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union which was influential in the banning of drug use and was a major force in the prohibition of alcohol. But whoring survived just as boozing did, with brothels opening and closing with regularity, and women switching between prostitution and working as chorus girls in the brothels that lined West 39th and 40th streets in New York alone.
The intervening years have only told the same story, with many countries oscillating between phases in which the sex industry was tolerated or cracked down upon. In 1885, Rotterdam, with regulation, had more prostitution and venereal disease than Amsterdam, a city without regulation. In 1906, Denmark abandoned regulation. Amsterdam adopted it in 1911. The brothels of Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy were banned in the 1920s. In 1949, Paris abandoned its brothels after two centuries.
Neither the permissive nor the prohibitive approach is successful because the problems they try to address - protecting public morals, controlling sexually transmitted disease, improving health and working conditions for the prostitutes, reducing the exploitation of women and the sex-slave trade are not amenable to common solutions.
What assists the one, detracts from another. Yet still we try, changing policy here, shifting it there. The only true lesson of history, it seems, is that we never learn from history.
Ten Types Of Prostitutes In History
Ying-chi
The ying-chi are arguably the first official, independent prostitutes in Chinese history. Their acknowledged existence is credited to Emperor Wu, who was said to recruit female camp followers for the sole purpose of escorting his armies and keeping them entertained on long marches. Ying-chi literally means “camp harlot,” a title that was no doubt a flattering one in 100 BC.
Some sources question these girls’ claim as the first Chinese prostitutes, though. It’s said that the King of Yue set up the first prostitution camps, made up of the widows of fallen soldiers. These women were quite different from the later, upstanding courtesans that were so popular, whose role was to give a man “friendship.” The ying-chi are also different from the women who worked in government-run brothels—these much older institutions date back to somewhere in the seventhth century BC.
Temple Prostitutes
Just how much of a religious service these temple prostitutes were carrying out isn’t known. Some scholars argue that they were simply slaves whose services were sold as a way to earn money for the temple. Others believe that they had a much more respected role in the temple and in the worship of their deity, and believe that visiting a temple prostitute and hiring her (or his) services was a form of worship. This theory is especially popular in conjunction with fertility cults and goddesses like Aphrodite.
The idea of a temple prostitute is a general one and there are different tiers in the temple hierarchy. Many of all types were brought to the temple as virgins to dedicate their lives and their bodies to the worship of their god or goddess. Some sources suggest that it was only girls younger than 14 who served as temple prostitutes in ancient Greece. There’s a huge amount of contradicting evidence available as to what roles these figures served, but without a doubt they were an important part of temple life.
Devadasis
A devadasi is a woman who has been forced into a life of prostitution in the service of the Hindu goddess of fertility, Yellamma. When girls reach the age of puberty, their parents auction their virginity to the highest bidder. Once that is taken from them, they are dedicated to the goddess and spend the rest of their lives as prostitutes in the name of Yellamma. Every night, their lot is the same—sold to whoever pays the most. For parents, it’s not a bad deal. Not only do they not have to raise a dowry to give to someone to marry their daughters, but many keep the money that the girls earn.
The practice has been a regular part of Yellamma’s religion for centuries. Even though it was outlawed in India in 1988, the practice still continues today. The stigma attached to the devadasi is heavy—even if the women decide to give up the lifestyle, they will never be married. Once they’re dedicated to their goddess, there’s no turning back. Most devadasis are cast out of the temple in their mid-40s, when they are no longer considered young and attractive enough to bring honor to their goddess, and most turn to begging in order to support themselves for the remainder of their lives.
Comfort Women
The so-called “comfort women” of World War II are a dark and often overlooked footnote in history. Beginning in 1932, the Japanese military began recruiting women—mostly Korean—for work in newly established “comfort stations”. The women were promised jobs, but what they weren’t told was that these stations were brothels for use by the men of the Japanese military.
In the end, somewhere around 200,000 women were shipped off to become comfort women, and it’s estimated that only between 25–30 percent of these women survived their ordeal. Girls as young as 11 were forced to service anywhere from 50–100 different men each day and were subjected to beatings if they refused. While the Japanese government has issued verbal apologies, they have largely refused monetary compensation to the surviving comfort women and their families. As of 2014, there are only 55 known surviving comfort women.Auletrides
The auletrides were a class of Greek prostitute that enjoyed a unique position in society. Far from shunned, these women were skilled in more than just sexual encounters. They were flute players and trained dancers. Some of them had other talents that made them entrancing public performers, such as juggling, fencing, and acrobatics. Many took to the streets in public performances that were included in religious ceremonies and festivals, and some sources say that they were also popular entertainment for children.
The auletrides could be reserved for private parties as well, when the more sexual of their talents were utilized. Other, similar types of entertainers were the psaltriai, or harp players, and the kitharistriai, or lyre players. These girls—and occasionally boys—often reported to a poroboskos, who essentially acted as a madam to hire them out for private parties.Ganika
The Ganika was the Indian version of Japan’s geisha. These women enjoyed high standing in society and having one around meant that good luck and prosperity were to follow. As a Ganika would never marry and never be widowed, they escaped the social stigma of widowhood. Widows were considered to be extremely bad omens and were, at one point, forbidden to appear in public.
Indian society recognizes nine types of prostitutes and the Ganika was the elite tier in this hierarchy. In addition to sexual talents, these Indian prostitutes were expected to learn a variety of other skills in the field of the performing arts. Once all 64 were mastered, the woman was raised to the position of Ganika.While other types of prostitutes were typically housewives making extra money for the husbands that controlled them or servants that were expected to provide their masters with sexual as well as domestic services, the Ganika would be given a place of honor in royal courts and have songs and poems written about her beauty and skills. As they typically served the nobility, they were protected by state laws. They were also subject to them, too, and could be beaten or fined for refusing a noble customer.
Zonah
The zonah is the female prostitute of the Hebrew Bible. Unlike other women, she was not owned by a man and was not responsible for producing children to carry on a family line. The zonah existed outside the laws of the Bible, with only a small number of rules included in the book for dictating behavior of and towards these women.
One very specific rule is that a father is forbidden from selling his daughter into prostitution, and if the daughter of a priest becomes a zonah, then she is condemned to be burned to death. Priests were forbidden to marry a zonah, but other men were equally able to marry and to enjoy them. Other types of prostitutes were attached to the temples of pagan deities—it was said to be forbidden for an Israelite woman to become a qedeshab, sometimes interpreted as a temple prostitute.Hetaira
Unlike porne,women that practiced their profession behind closed doors, the hetaira were often seen working the crowds at symposiums. They were forbidden to marry a citizen, but could be bought and freed by one, although the practice was frowned upon. Their status as a hetaira would never be erased, and if they were caught pretending to be a full citizen, they could be taken to court. Those found guilty could be returned to a life of slavery. Hetaira were frequently made the mistresses of the most powerful of people and have been known to sit as models for statues of Aphrodite, so great was their elegance and beauty.
Tawaif
The tawaifs were known as performing artists in North India during the 18th to early 20th centuries. Much like the geisha, they were dancers and musicians, thought of not as prostitutes in the usual sense but as performers with a circle of patrons rather than clients. Many were wealthy, especially those that chose their patrons wisely.
Those that had daughters could pass their wealth—and often their profession—on to them. In fact, coming from a long line of tawaifs increased social standing. They were forbidden from marrying, but could enter into a different sort of formal relationship with their patrons that made them wives in everything but name. Interestingly, they were seen as existing alongside traditional wives as two sides to the same coin. Where the wife was the respectable way to continue a family line, the tawaif was the beautiful, sensual creature that only a powerful man could attract.
Mut’ah
The subject of mut’ah (or mut’a) is a tricky one. It’s an Islamic temporary marriage in which two parties enter into an agreement to be married for a set amount of time. The contract can be written or verbal, and all parts of the marriage are agreed upon beforehand, including how much of a “dowry” the woman will receive, what kind of physical contact will be involved, and how long the marriage will last.
On the one hand, proponents say that it’s a way for two people to live together before getting a full marriage to see if they’re right for each other without breaking any Islamic laws. Some contracts can stipulate that there will be no physical contact, and some are done under the watchful eyes of the parties’ parents. Other arrangements can stipulate that the marriage is only going to last a few hours and that the woman is going to get paid for it.So clear-cut is the fact that it can be used as a way around the taboo of prostitution that some Muslims, such as the Sunni, staunchly oppose it. Because of the time restraint and payment options, they say it’s a loophole for young men and women to have infinite partners without religious guilt.
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