By Blue Rose on Monday, 17 of August , 2009 at 5:32 pm
Though widely regarded as immoral and illegal, it’s the world’s oldest profession, and shows no sign of ever becoming obsolete. A comprehensive look at the psychology of prostitution
Webster defines the word prostitute as simply a woman “given to indiscriminate lewdness.” But to encapsulate the person, the profession, and the legal and moral implications in one perfunctory phrase is like looking at just the tip of the iceberg.
The origin of prostitution can be traced back to the Hetaerae, or a lady companion prevalent to Athens. These women were different from out currently regarded stereotype of the “buyable” woman; they were accomplished courtesans and sometimes, surprisingly even more educated than the “respectable” wives and daughters of the society. The role of these women in Athenian society seemed to be inevitable, given the tendencies of men to marry late, or to get trapped in arranged unions. The difference between these women and the common streetwalker we are familiar with is striking, “she dresses attractively and looks neat…smiles in a bewitching way…never cheats a visitor or as escort, and never throws herself at the men…” however, the basic purpose of such woman is clear: but her only aim is to attract the man and him love her.”
Other historical records show that the acceptance of a reward in money or in kind was not always considered the characteristics of prostitutions. According to ancient Roman law, a prostitute was a woman who wantonly offered herself passim et sine delecto (everywhere and without pleasure).
However the mental picture of a prostitute may have evolved, the basic idea of her practice stresses the lack of emotional participation, which lowers the sexual act to a mechanical function. Julia Roberts said it best in the movie Pretty Woman: “No kissing on the lips. It’s too personal.”
Desperate times, desperate measures
The majority of prostitutes enter their “occupation” for economic reasons; not because they were captured by “white slavers” or motivated by pathological sexual needs. The primary reason for the existence and extraordinary persistence of female prostitution is that it is an easy solution to the problems of poor women. Many girls (yes, some as young as 13) come from impoverished families, a journey to the big city seeking work they probably will not find.
“We don’t work there because we like the job or because we like American men,” said Alma, 36-year-old former bar worker from Olongapo, former bastion of the Subic US naval bas. “We go there because we need the money. We need to support the family.” These women are concerned with how to fill their stomachs on a day-to-day basis. They need money in hurry, and often times, the most feasible solution is to sleep with a man for an amount they can’t possibly earn through other means.
These girls pick their ways through several landmines: the threat of violence with the client or their pimp, the constant fear of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and the danger of being arrested. This economic disadvantage is aggravated by the inadequate wages paid to women and their dependence upon men to pr5ovide support after marriage and childbearing.
Yet to write of prostitution as just another kind of career is also unjust. This is a part of a speech delivered in the symposium “Prostitution: from Academia to Activism”, “if you have been in prostitution, you do not have tomorrow in your mind, because tomorrow is a very long time away. You cannot assume that you will live from minute to minute. If you do, then you are stupid, and to be stupid in the world of prostitution is to be hurt, is to be dead… in prostitution, no woman stays whole. It is impossible to use a human body in the way women’s bodies are used in prostitution and to have a whole human being at the end of it, or in the middle of it, or close to the beginning of it. It’s impossible. And no woman gets whole again later, after.”
Thus, a prostitute becomes more of a receptacle for sex than anything else. It gets even worse – she is seen as the source of STD, such as AIDS. The speech puts it bluntly: “…the prostituted woman is seeing as the generative source of everything that is bad and wrong and rotten with sex, with the man, with the woman.”
What the heck, don’t they have the right to defend themselves? Even if they are prostitutes, are they the only cause of these diseases? They have the right to live, to fight the poverty, to help their family, to feed their own stomach, to be part of the society. If they are educated, do you think they will do this type of job? Even some of the educated people are doing this kind of thing; the only difference is that they are not in the street, but why? Because of our economic situation, can you assured that all the men and women who graduate will have the better job?
It’s up for you to judge them or see them as a human being who just wants to live.
By Blue Rose on Sunday, 5 of April , 2009 at 6:18 pm
How and where can I get AIDS?
All is not bleak, however. Even though there’s still no vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, and no cure for the disease itself, it’s not that hard to completely shield yourself from the risk of becoming infected. HIV is actually quite difficult to catch.
Just to clarify: There are only four basic ways you can get AIDS:
- - by using needles tainted with HIV-infected blood;
- - through transfusions or other exposure to tainted blood or blood products;
- - by fetal transmission, from a mother to a baby;
- - through unprotected sex.
By far the most common mode of transmission is sex – AIDS is primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD). And you are the one who controls your sexual behavior.
You simply cannot get it from casual, nonsexual contact. There’s no evidence HIV has ever been transmitted by shaking hands, hugging, kissing on the cheek, crying, coughing or sneezing. You can’t get by donating blood. You can’t get it from mosquitoes, dogs, cats, toilet seats, office furniture, pools or hot tubs. And in studies of families in which one member had AIDS, there’s no evidence of transmission even though family members shared foods, utensils, towels, cups, razors, and toothbrushes and even kissed each other, according to the Surgeon General’s Office.
How can I know that I’m infected of AIDS? What are the symptoms?
Very briefly, though, once person is infected, the virus enters the white blood cells, mainly those called T4 cells or T-helper cells (are a sub-group of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell or leukocyte) that play an important role in establishing and maximizing the capabilities of the immune system), “rewrites” the cells genetic blue print and changes it to its own blueprint. In a deadly turn about, the virus transforms this cells that were meant to protect the body into a factory for manufacturing more HIV. In this way, it can over-whelm the body’s defenses with amazing speed.
This is the Kaposi’s sarcoma (skin cancer)
Shortly after the initial infection, a person may experience a flulike illness (fever, swollen lymph nodes, aching joints or muscles, diarrhea). This is followed by a period in which they feel quite healthy but probably contagious. During this period – usually from 2 to 12 weeks after infection – they will test positive for HIV antibodies in their blood. Often there’s a period of latency, also during which the individual is contagious but shows no symptoms. This period sometimes lasts nine or ten years. Ten the virus begins spreading like mad, and when it does, the immune system is rapidly devastated, laying the individual open to attack by conditions such as Kaposi’s sarcoma (a rare skin cancer) or a certain type of pneumonia, Pneumocystis carinii, that has become one of the calling cards of AIDS.
Suffice it to say that everyone – especially people who are sexually active outside of stable, long-term relationship – needs to know the meaning of “safer sex.”
this is the Pneumocystis carinii (a form of pneumonia caused by the yeast-like fungus, Pneumocystis jirovecii)
Our world today is very much advance and it will be advance also for you if you know the safer sex guidelines. I will bring it up on my next issue, it’s very important so you must wait for it.
By Blue Rose on Thursday, 2 of April , 2009 at 1:39 pm
In response to Mr. Muscle’s question:
Is it safe to do sexual intercourse with my girlfriend when she’s having her menstruation?
Surely menstrual blood is no more magic than any other kind of blood. But there may actually be a bit of wisdom behind these ancient taboos. Normally, as a protective mechanism against bacterial invasion, the vagina stays fairly acidic (pH of 3.5 to 4.0). But during menstruation, blood’s higher alkalinity slightly reduces the vagina’s acidity (to a pH of 5.0 or so), making it more susceptible to vaginal infections. Menstrual blood flow also flushes away some of the mucus that normally plugs the cervix, making it easier for microbes to invade the uterus and the deeper reproductive regions.
If neither partner is infected with anything, there’s no reason to worry that making love during her period will increase the risk of infection. But if he already has an infection, the couple should abstain from sex during her period. (Serious vaginal infections generally make themselves known by itching, burning, an unpleasant odor or vaginal discharge; they should be seen by a doctor right away.)
If the woman is carrying around some minor-league vaginal infection, her mate also runs a small risk of picking up urethritis – a painful, although usually not serious, infection of the urethra, or urinary drainpipe. The most serious worry of all, though, is AIDS. Since having sex during menstruation directly exposes the male to potentially infected blood, if she is a carrier of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) she must not have sex during her period.
I hope i did help you. thank you.
Post your questions and i am willing to answer it all.
