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 this field is called a prostitute, and sometimes a sex worker, but the words hooker and whore are also sometimes used to describe 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 Dumas Brothel was a bordello in Butte, Montana. The brothel was founded by French Canadian brothers Joseph and Arthur Nadeau in 1890 and named after the nominal owner, Delia Nadeau, née Dumas, who was Joseph's wife. It grew considerably through the years, with the miners employed by the city's copper mines often patronizing the establishment. After several changes of the "madams" and continuing pressure from authorities, the brothel closed in 1982, described as "a rare, intact commentary on social history". At the time of its closure, it was the longest operating brothel in the United States, having operated years after prostitution was made illegal. After closing, the brothel changed hands several times, eventually becoming a tourist attraction owned and managed by a series of Butte residents. (read more ...)
Wikipedia Good Article
Selected biography
Esther Lachmann (French pronunciation: [ɛstɛʁ laʃman]; 7 May 1819 – 21 January 1884), generally known as La Païva (French: [la paiva]), was the most famous of 19th-century French courtesans. A notable investor and architecture patron, and a collector of jewels, she had a personality so hard-bitten that she was described as the "one great courtesan who appears to have had no redeeming feature". Count Horace de Viel-Castel, a society chronicler, called her "the queen of kept women, the sovereign of her race".
Rising from modest circumstances in her native Russia to becoming one of the most infamous women in mid-19th-century France to marrying one of Europe's richest men, Lachmann maintained a noted literary salon out of Hôtel de la Païva, her luxurious mansion at 25 avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris. (read more...)
Did you know?
- ... that San Antonio's Sporting District, (pictured) one of the largest red-light districts in the U.S. in the early 1900s, was so large that a tourist guide was published for visitors?
- ...that Matild Manukyan, a wealthy Turkish businesswoman of Armenian origin, made her fortune as a brothel owner?
- ...that loans made by Seattle brothel-owner Lou Graham saved some of the city's most prestigious families from bankruptcy after the Panic of 1893?
- ...that madame Anna Wilson, the "Queen of the Underworld" in early Omaha, Nebraska, bequeathed her 25-room brothel mansion to the city to use as an emergency hospital upon her death?
Quotes
| “ | The only way to prevent prostitution altogether would be to imprison one half of the human race. | ” |
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
_Au_Salon_de_la_rue_des_Moulins_-_Henri_de_Toulouse-Lautrec_1894_MTL.inv181.jpg)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Salon at the Rue des Moulins, 1894
Legality Map
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Get involved
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.
- Discuss. Get involved in discussions on prostitution related articles, a current listing is available here
- 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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