Cannabis Ruderalis

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...)

More about prostitution - its laws, history & statistics

Selected article

The Dumas Brothel.

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

Portrait of Andrêsa do Nascimento from her 1912 book

Andrêsa do Nascimento (1859–1927) was a courtesan and celebrated society figure in fin de siècle Lisbon. She was better known as Preta Fernanda (literally: Black Fernanda) and Fernanda do Vale (her nom de plume). She was, perhaps, the best known black citizen of the city in that period.

Nascimento was born to poor parents in a small village near Ribeira da Barca on the island of Santiago in Cape Verde, probably in 1859. Cape Verde, a volcanic archipelago off the west coast of Africa, was a Portuguese colony and a nexus for the Atlantic slave trade. Although slavery was abolished in Portugal, it was only selectively abolished in Cape Verde in 1857 with complete abolition in 1878. It is possible, therefore, that one or both of Nascimento's parents were enslaved when she was born or had been enslaved. (read more...)

Did you know?

The tavern when it was first built in the 1640s
The tavern when it was first built in the 1640s
  • ... that the Dog and Duck (pictured) lost its licence after becoming "a house in which gangs of both whores and rogues were constantly associated"?
  • ... that Gertrude Guillaume-Schack founded the German Cultural Association in 1880 to fight state-regulated prostitution?
  • ... that the U.S. Travel Act prohibits interstate or foreign travel to promote, manage or commit extortion, bribery, prostitution and other crimes?
  • ... that the children of Vietnamese prostitutes and American servicemembers from the Vietnam War were often forced into prostitution themselves?

Quotes

Anniversaries - April

Selected image

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Salon at the Rue des Moulins, 1894

Legality Map

Legality of prostitution in Asia



  Decriminalization – no criminal penalties for prostitution
  Legalization – prostitution legal and regulated
  Abolitionism – prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated
  Neo-abolitionism – illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex
  Prohibitionism – prostitution illegal
  Legality varies with local laws

Subcategories

Related portals

Need help?

WikiProjects
WikiProjects

Do you have a question about Portal:Prostitution to which you can't find the answer?

Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

Get involved

WikiProjects
WikiProjects

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

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

  • Commons
    Free media repository
  • Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
  • Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
  • Wikinews
    Free-content news
  • Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
  • Wikisource
    Free-content library
  • Wikiversity
    Free learning tools
  • Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus
Discover Wikipedia using portals

Leave a Reply