A courtesan is a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele. Historically, the term referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other powerful person.
A brothel, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution.
Betty Jean O'Hara was a famed prostitute in Honolulu's "vice district" during World War II.
A hetaira, Latinized as hetaera, was a type of courtesan or prostitute in ancient Greece, who served as an artist, entertainer, and conversationalist in addition to providing sexual service. Custom excluded the wives and daughters of Athenian citizens from the symposium, but this prohibition did not extend to hetairai, who were often foreign born and could be highly educated. Other female entertainers made appearances in the otherwise male domain, but hetairai joined the male guests in their sexual joking, sometimes evidencing a wide knowledge of literature in their contributions.
A tawaif was a highly successful courtesan singer‚ dancer‚ and poet who catered to the nobility of the Indian subcontinent, particularly during the Mughal era. Many tawaifs were forced to go into prostitution due to a lack of opportunities by the time of the British Raj.
The hooker with a heart of gold is a stock character involving a courtesan or prostitute who possesses virtues such as integrity, generosity and kindness.
Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated. Operating a brothel is also legal. De Wallen, the largest and best-known Red-light district in Amsterdam, is a destination for international sex tourism.
Umrao Jaan is a 1981 Indian period musical drama film directed by Muzaffar Ali and starring Rekha as the eponymous character. Based on the 1905 Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada, the film tells the story of a Lucknow tawaif and poet, and her rise to fame.
Prostitution is legal in India, but a number of related activities including soliciting, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are, however, many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, and Nagpur, among others. UNAIDS estimate there were 657,829 prostitutes in the country as of 2016. Other unofficial estimates have calculated India has roughly 3 million prostitutes. India is widely regarded as having one of the world's largest commercial sex industry. It has emerged as a global hub of sex tourism, attracting sex tourists from wealthy countries. The sex industry in India is a multi-billion dollar one, and one of the fastest growing.
Prostitution was a common aspect of ancient Greece. In the more important cities, and particularly the many ports, it employed a significant number of people and represented a notable part of economic activity. It was far from being clandestine; cities did not condemn brothels, but rather only instituted regulations on them.
Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp or a madam or a brothel keeper, is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing and possibly monopolizing a location where the prostitute may solicit clients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp vary from one region to the next.
Mujra is a dance performance by women in a format that emerged during Mughal rule in India, where the elite class and local rulers like the nawabs of the Indian society used to frequent tawaifs (courtesans) for their entertainment.
Carol Leigh, also known as The Scarlot Harlot, was an American artist, author, filmmaker, sex worker, and sex workers' rights activist. She is credited with coining the term sex work and founded the Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival and was the co-founder of BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network.
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 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 in ancient Rome was legal and licensed. Men of any social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sex without incurring moral disapproval, as long as they demonstrated self-control and moderation in the frequency and enjoyment of sex. Brothels were part of the culture of ancient Rome, as popular places of entertainment for Roman men.
Prostitution has been practiced throughout ancient and modern cultures. Prostitution has been described as "the world's oldest profession", though this is unverifiable, and most likely incorrect.
Umrao Jaan Ada is a 1972 Pakistani musical romantic drama film loosely based on the 1899 novel of the same name by Mirza Hadi Ruswa and directed by Hassan Tariq with lyrics and screenplay by Saifuddin Saif. Rani played the title role in the film opposite Shahid while Nayyar Sultana, Zmurrud, Aasia, Rangeela and Allauddin appeared in supporting roles. It revolves around the entire life journey of a tawaif from Lucknow and her tragic romance with a Nawab. The film was a golden jubilee hit at the box office. Lok Virsa Museum screened the film in 2017 as part of special showcase of the feature films in the country.
International Whores' Day or International Sex worker's Day is observed annually on June 2 of each year, honours sex workers and recognises their often exploited working conditions. The event commemorates the occupation of Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon by more than a hundred sex workers on June 2, 1975 to draw attention to their inhumane working conditions. It has been celebrated annually since 1976. In German, it is known as Hurentag. In Spanish-speaking countries, it is the Día Internacional de la Trabajadora Sexual, the International Day of the Sex Worker.
Justine Paris, real name Bienfait, was a French courtesan and madam. She hosted several of the most famous brothels in mid-18th-century Paris and was one of the most known and successful of her trade. She and her brothel are portrayed in the memoirs of Casanova. She has been suggested to be the role model for the title character in Juliette by the Marquis de Sade.
Priss Fotheringham was an English sex worker and madam from London who was described in a number of publications from the 1660s. One publication, The Wandering Whore, described her as the 'second best whore in the city'. An unofficial blue plaque commemorating her was installed in 2012 at the corner of Whitecross Street and Old Street in East London, but was reported in January 2023 to have "recently been obscured by a new artwork". As of 26 July 2023 the artwork had been changed and the unofficial blue plaque moved, so it is visible below the new artwork.
