Prostitution has a history that goes back at least to the ancient Sumerians. I always wanted to summer in Sumeria and now I know why. The land of milk and honey dripping caverns to be spelunked and explored. Prostitution was not only an accepted practice, but in some instances considered sacred..I know I still consider it that. Also, not all prostitutes were female, as many a boy toy were also used as temple prostitutes so homosexual and bi-sexual prostitution was rampant and on a rampage...the lord and the gods do work in mysterious ways eh? I was raised a Catholic but am reformed and clean now like a 12 step program free from deformed dogma...If the Catholic church would only have hookers for nuns..I may go to high mass again..for "sacred" reasons of course and to cop a holy feel under the garments...I wonder if nuns wear underwear? I'd like to find out.
Prostitutes were honored in these ancient societies and in fact were worshipped in some cases along with the dieties that represented them. Even in ancient Israel, prostitution was common, although not legal..they turned the other cheek so to speak while someone was spreading the harlots cheeks to re-enact the parting of the Red Sea of Sex. A real come from behind oy vay victory for Moses! The heat of Jewish sexual activity is probably where the story of the burning "bush" originated!
The Babylonians considered prostitution sacred as well, and in the culture it thrived. Each woman had to go to the sanctuary of Aphrodite and have sex with a foreigner at least once her life. By doing this she was showing a sign of hospitality and welcome for a price. Now that is one Welcome Wagon that I would hitch my horse too..also...all you Chamber of Commerce directors..get on the band wagon and show some REAL hsopitality...Babylonian Style!
In Canaan, most of the temple prostitutes were male, as they were in Phoenecian culture to honor the Goddess Ashtart...c'mon...ash "Tart'..I guess that is where that phrase came from..and to come is a verb! The practice spread throughout the Mediterranean and as far as Asia. One biblical character said "Go and find the lay of the land..." now I know what he meant..he wanted hookers and plenty of them...boys, girls, camels..it didn't matter. In the Old Testament in the book of Testicles, the Male was on top...in the New Testament, the book of Vaginesse, the Female was on top. one turned the other cheek and the other was "a boink for a boink!"
Hookers would, as they do today in Spokane on Division Street as you begin to penetrate the city, stood by the side of the road with her face covered...that meant only one thing to the traveler or lecherous temple priest..SEX baby for a few drachma's you can get to heaven on earth and end the drought of temple worship and study! Of course if you travel to the Middle East today or see a Middle Eastern female in America with her face covered...don't touch her dials..it doesn't mean the same as it did...but you can still undress her in your mind, I don't think Mohammed would mind very much..just your little secret.
Most of these prostitutes we're paid in sheep and goats as they were expensive and were the currency of the realm in most cases. and a high price at that in an ag society. Wealthy herders could whoop it up all day long but a small shepard could only afford a hand job probably. If a traveller had no cattle he had to give some kind of deposit and return with a small herd animal. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts..especially a sheep!
Prostitutes were used as spies in biblical times as they were favorite pastimes of the military and an army can't live on food alone you know. She could go in, use her sexual prowess to gain a goat or two and obtain valuable information for the hapless commanders opponent on the field...so in effect..who really got fucked in this situation?
George Washington - Party Animal and America's First Pimp!
The British are Coming! The British are Coming! So were the Colonial forces under the command of Founding Father George Washington, America's first President and also the nations first pimp! It seems that Old George wanted to keep Old Glory fully erect while boosting morale among the troops at the same time. He promoted a program that allowed "camp followers" to spread their legs while spreading joy to the troops to keep their fighting spirit up, along with their Star Spangled Yankee Doodle Dandy Banner dangler! Nothing like a good romp under the Revolutionary covers the night before battle to fuel inject the troops as they hunkered down with a hooker before taking Bunker Hill! Of course, one of the by-products of these no taxation without represenation trysts was the spread of venereal disease! Give Me Liberty With A Hooker...or give me clap! We did win that one, and prostitutes have been part and parcel of Congress and the White House ever since! It's all spelled out in the Declaration of Decandent Independance and the Bawdy Bill of Rights!
During the Wild West it got even wilder by the six gun minute in saloons with a plethora of prostitution as the Soiled Doves plied their trade to cowboys and gamblers alike. The drinks flowed freely and the upstairs bordello's bloomed with the promise of promiscuity to overflowing where the cowboy could cowpoke to his hearts content and ramrod his way on a carnal cattle drive inside and along the vaginal Santa Fe Trail. Along with all the booze and sex, patrons would enjoy a good barroom brawl to add to the dusty trail ambiance where the buffalo roam. Now that's entertainment!
The saloons catered to what was called the "bawdy house" crowd but what about the genteel gents of society? Whats in a name, eh? Of course it is, so "brothels" blossomed in what were called "parlor houses". Brothels sprang up like a an errant erection in the urban and urbane east as well as the wild and wooly west. In New York city there were so many houses of ill repute, (well, one mans flower is another mans weed) that 75% of New York men had contracted some form of sexually transmitted disease!
Then along came Alexander Graham Bell, and history has proven that Ma Bell was in fact a Madam right up there with Heidi Fleiss. As the telephone made it's technological inroads in the early 20th Century, it spawned a new breed and generation of hooker..the Call Girl. This did have one benefit for prostitutes in that it took them off the streets for their own safety and allowed them to cruise the phone lines for customers by passing out business cards with their numbers on them. By WWII the bedroom blitzkreig was on and sex for money was at an all time high. While Rosie was riveting, Johnny came marching home and was banging her younger sister and had replaced his M-1 rifle for a condom.
By the 1960's the Women's Liberation movement was under with the burning of bra's and the demand to bare breasts...a practice of which I was and still am an ardent propopent of. Prostitution was growing even faster and further thanks to the approval of the first contraceptive pill which helped prevent prostitute pregnancies. Also, hooker literature was filling the best seller lists and the hit parade was led by none other than Xavier Hollander who write her autobiographical "The Happy Hooker"in 1971. Carol Leigh was a prostitute rights activist known as the Scarlot Harlot who coined the phrase "sex worker" to replace "whore" sort of like "domestic engineer" replacing "housewife"
By 1973 COYOTE was formed, a prostitutes rights group that was the foreplay forerunner of other similar groups and as I have written before, in Amsterdam, the hookers have a union for protection and working conditions. To think we have George Washington to thank for all of this and we celebrate him on the lowly one dollar bill. Sorry George but even in the worst drug infested Tenderloin in the country you still can't get a fuck for a buck! He started the trend and is as much a part of the American psyche as mom, apple pie, and protest. Today the legacy has left is with a history of many celebrated "Madams" in America and one is a true standout. Heidi Fleiss the Hollywood Madam who stirred the pot and made headlines world wide..she eventually formed a clothing company fo mens and womens bedwear...the slogan? "A Man Looks Good in Heidi Fleiss!" I would look good in Heidi Fleiss!