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.