Prostitution is something I’ve always been curious about. I don’t know why. I guess I’ve always wonder why would someone want to be a prostitute. I’ve actually never known any in my life time. I’ve only ever seen them on the street. I mean, I could understand why someone would love to have sex, but I didn’t understand why someone would want to have sex with just random people where you don’t even know if the name they are giving you are their real names. I’ve always wanted to ask someone why they would WANT to be a prostitute. I did some looking around and found a little information on the subject. I learned they there are many different types of prostitutes.

One late night I came across a TV show called “The Bunny Ranch” or something like that, and it was actually a pretty good show. After my boyfriend and I started talking about it we found we were both at opposite ends of the spectrum. The show is about a legal brothel in Las Vegas. He thought it was wrong, and that it shouldn’t be allowed. I, on the other hand, don’t feel that way. I wish that all prostitutes were able to be in a safe and clean environment like those women were. When he thinks one-way he feels everyone should think like him. So I just ignored him. I don’t know much about prostitution, other than the basics and the point of it. Like anything else that comes into my head, I Google it.

I’ve always been curious about who came up with prostitution, and why would they want to become a prostitute. The most famous prostitute was Jezebel. She was the original working women; she was a prostitute in Jesus’ days. From my knowledge, she was the first ever prostitute. But I was way off, prostitution happened even before her. And I soon learned that prostitution wasn’t always a bad thing. In fact, women loved it because they were offered more than women who weren’t prostitutes.

I soon learned that there are different kinds of prostitutes. There are, in fact, three different types of prostitutes. The first were called pornai. These were slave prostitutes. The second were called “freeborn” prostitutes. The last were called hetaera prostitutes, these were highly educated prostitutes. In all, you had your women that were forced into prostitution, and were slaves. Then you have your average prostitute who was middle to lower class and did this to support herself. Last but not least was your educated prostitutes, these were women who came from good wealthy families, and could appeal to other higher class customers. Now in today’s society, there isn’t really a difference. When you think of a women who has sex for money she is automatically just a simple prostitute. She has no classification to separate her from the next prostitute.

Since I’ve never actually met a prostitute, all I can go on are shows I’ve seen and information on the internet. I had my many questions and these were some of the answers that I found.

My number one question was: do women who prostitute actually enjoy sex, or are they just going through the motions. From most of the information that I’ve come across, not all prostitutes enjoy sex. Just a small amount of them can actually say they love what they do, and those are mostly the ones that are in a safe environment, those who are in other countries. Here in America, most of them hate sexual activity. They feel it’s something THEY HAVE TO DO in order to get paid.

My second question was: do all prostitutes have a history of sexual abuse? With most jobs, whether it’s legal or not, that have to do with sex, other people mostly assume that they have had some type of abuse in their past. I later learned that it’s furthest from the truth. Thirty five percent of prostitutes do have a history of sexual assault before becoming a prostitute. Most prostitutes don’t encounter any type of sexual assault after they have become prostitutes. It’s said that 73 percent reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.

Why stay in prostitution when the risk of being in danger is so high? Honestly it’s the addiction problems. A lot of prostitutes are women who are either on some type of drug, or have some other type of addiction. Some are forced into it, but the number that is forced into it is just a little lower than the ones who are choosing to be in it.

My last huge question was why have a pimp? Why work so hard for something and give it to someone else? I’ve learned that most of them have a pimp because they are scared. Some are beaten to believe that they need a pimp, that they would end up dead without a pimp. I don’t think I’d fully understand the mind of a prostitute unless I’d talked to one. I wish I could understand why they would do this to themselves. I mean, it is the oldest profession so that has to mean something right?

I personally wish that prostitution was legal. I’m not going to say it’s a victimless crime, but there would be less people getting sick or dying from a sexually transmitted diseases if they were forced to have testing done, and more were pushed into using condoms.

I’ve also been curious to what is keeping prostitution a booming business. It has to do with marriage problems. The majority of costumers that meet with prostitutes are men who have marriage problems. Men whose women keep refusing them in bed for whatever reason. I’m not saying that it’s the women’s fault, but it does take two. You have the men who are having problems, and the women who are willing to please them without saying “NO”.

I personally don’t fully support prostitution, but I do wish it was a little safer. I’ve asked my boyfriend if he would ever visit a prostitute. His first words were, I don’t want to get aids. I’m not going to lie, I did laugh, but that made me think why anyone would want to take that risk. I’m not saying that non-prostitutes don’t have aids, but your likelihood of getting an STD is much higher when sleeping with prostitutes than it is with a random woman you meet at the bar. I’m just putting my personal thoughts out in the open, and I do hope to learn more about prostitution, only because I’m so damn curious about this subject. I don’t think women who choose to be in the line of prostitution should be looked at as different, or down on because of their line of work. I sometimes think you do have to be a strong woman to deal with the everyday life of being a prostitute. I choose to think women who are prostitutes have been dealt a bad hand in life and are doing what they feel they need to do to survive, although we as outsiders may not think the same way.