Portal:Prostitution
Introduction
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 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
The word grisette (sometimes spelled grizette) has referred to a French working-class woman from the late 17th century and remained in common use through the Belle Époque era, albeit with some modifications to its meaning. It derives from gris (French for grey), and refers to the cheap grey fabric of the dresses these women originally wore. The 1694 edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française described a grisette as simply "a woman of lowly condition". By the 1835 edition of the dictionary, her status had risen somewhat. She was described as a young working woman who is coquettish and flirtatious.
The sexual connotations which had long accompanied the word are made explicit in Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1976) which lists one of its meanings as a young woman who combines part-time prostitution with another occupation.
Selected biography
Nellie Cameron (1910–1953), known as "The Kiss of Death Girl", was a notorious Sydney prostitute in the 1920s and 1930s, who was featured extensively in the 2011 Australian television mini-series Underbelly: Razor. Cameron was associated with the cocaine-fuelled ravages of the razor gang violence of that era, commonly associated with her contemporaries, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, both criminal entrepreneurs who controlled much of Sydney's illegal sex industry and Sly-grog distribution during that period. Nellie Cameron received 73 criminal convictions during her life of crime, mainly for soliciting and vagrancy, and had the distinction of becoming the first woman in Australia to be convicted of consorting with criminals.
Ellen (Nellie) Katherine Kelly was born in the inner city Sydney suburb of Waterloo in 1910, the youngest child of Colin Kelly and Lillian Kelly (née Ruddock). (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
| “ | Egyptian law states that a man who is caught with a prostitute is not imprisoned; instead, his testimony is used to convict and imprison the prostitute. | ” |
Anniversaries - April
- 1st
- 1957: The Prostitution Prevention Law, which outlawed Prostitution in Japan, came into force.
- 4th
- 1888: Murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith. Her killing was the first of the Whitechapel murders.
- 10th
- 1836: Murder of Helen Jewett, a New York prostitute, whose alleged murderer, Richard P. Robinson, was tried and sensationally acquitted.
- 13th
- 1946: Brothels were outlawed in France by the passing of the Loi Marthe Richard.
- 2016: Paying for sex in France became illegal by Law 444 (2016) coming into force.
- 17th
- 2009: Iceland enacted legislation to adopt the Nordic model of prostitution which criminalises the buying of sex.
- 24th
- 1891: Murder of Carrie Brown, a New York prostitute who was murdered and mutilated. She is occasionally mentioned as an alleged victim of Jack the Ripper.
Selected image
Red light district in Frankfurt am Main, with several eros centers
Legality Map
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For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Portal:Prostitution-related articles, see WikiProject Sexology and sexuality/Sex work task force.
Here are some tasks you can do:
- Start a new article. Prostitution is a broad topic, so there will always be plenty of missing articles.
- Clean up existing articles. A lists of articles needing cleanup is available here.
- Expand an existing article. Existing articles are often incomplete and missing information on key aspects of the topic. Stubs can be found in Category:Stub-Class Sex work articles.
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- Improve main article prostitution to featured status.
- Suggest improvements to this portal here
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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