Please see this previous entry for further explanation on this subject before reading: http://lalibertine.blogdrive.com/archive/24.html

You're always told that it is 'The World's Oldest Profession'. But you're often not told any more than that. Why is that? Is it because there is a history so potent that the present could change? Or maybe because certain words would no longer be able to be used to put certain women 'in their place'? The sexually knowledgeable and mature woman has always been a threat to the patriarchy. Let me explain what I mean by patriarchy and patriarchal in this essay. It is the male-dominated society that seeks to rigidly control and define everyone not within their ruling hierarchy. Not all men are part of that society, though a majority still clings to those ideals because it works for them. Several women are patriarchal (whether or not they define themselves as that) because they act like patriarchal males and judge fellow women just as harshly, oft times more so, than patriarchal men. Feminists who aim to 'rehabilitate' some women who fall out of the parameters of how women should act, dress, speak, etc. and put them in a place that is more 'suitable' or 'respectable' are also patriarchal. Compare and contrast how such feminists want their fellow women to think and act with the attitudes of the patriarchy. There's more similarity than not.

 

For thousands of years in almost every culture in the world, there have been women (and on occasion, men) who work as Sacred Prostitutes, priestesses to the Goddess. They alternately show up in texts as sacred whores, temple prostitutes, sacred slut, love priestesses, horae, prostitute-priestess, (k) qadesha, devadasi, hetairae, virgines and the like. Their work was a form of worship in dedication to Goddesses such as Aphrodite, Inanna-Ishtar, Ashera, Astarte, Oduda, Lakshmi, etc. or gods like Shiva. They were well versed in all the sexual arts not only bed craft, but also the art of seduction, which requires all five senses and even the sixth sense. In Babylon it was tradition for a young girl to spend a year at the temple and become initiated in sexual rites through an encounter with a worshipper or a temple priest. Money was placed on the priestess' lap as an offering before the sexual act occurred. After this initiation, the young woman often stayed in the temples until the birth of their first child, after which they entered married life. That child is known properly as 'virgin-born' or 'god-begotten' (sound familiar?). It wasn't unheard of to stay on as a Sacred Whore in the temple. Other traditions in these times included having a young man have his first sexual encounter at the temple and sending soldiers there after returning from war. The prostitutes were reputed to 'take the war out of a man'. These women are said to embody the goddess and give the worshippers a foretaste of the bliss enjoyed by the gods and the satisfied souls in the afterlife. It is from these ancient temples that sexual technique manuals such as the famous Kama Sutra were created.

 

They were revered instead of despised for their sexuality. In some feminist writings, the author will shy away from calling these priestesses prostitutes, whores, etc. These authors don't feel as though money or any exchange of items with monetary value was part of the worship. I disagree on a logical level. Considering these priestesses lived in the temple as well, they still needed food and clothing and cosmetic supplies (like perfumes and oils), all of which cost money of some sort. With that in mind, the worshippers, if they didn't give salt (which was as valuable as gold, maybe even more) or coin, they most likely would bring food, fabric, spices, cosmetic supplies, whatever was needed in order to have union with a priestess.

 

In Greece, the prostitutes were split into the following ranks: dicteria, auletrides, and finally the hetairae. The dicteria were controlled by the municipal government and charged very small fees. They were only trained in sexual technique, but that wasn't a constant. They paid taxes, brought in substantial amounts of money, enough to build a temple dedicated to Aphrodite. Auletrides, of which the most famous was Lamia, were dancers, strippers, flute-players (the literal definition of auletride) and prostitutes. They charged what would be the equivalent of several thousands of dollars for an appearance at a function. A temple was built in Athens for Lamia under the title 'Aphrodite Lamia'. Hetairae were very important women and some of their names are remarkably still known today. They enjoyed high status, wealth and respect. Some of the most famous hetairae were: Aspasia, Phyrne, Lais and possibly the poetess Sappho. These hetairae were not all Greek: Aspasia hailed from the area that is now Turkey and Lais was Sicilian. Both Aspasia and Sappho operated gymnaceum- a school for hetairae.

 

With the growing dominance of monotheistic, male-dominated, rigidly anti-sex religions that preached on the 'wickedness' of such women and their trade, prostitution began to hit very low points. In this new world, women were to be owned by one man her whole life and only submit to sex to satisfy the whims of her husband and nothing for herself. In a way of thinking that is only rational to the insane, women were seen by these new religions of Christianity and eventually Islam simultaneously as asexual and lusty. Old Testament patriarchs railed against Israel not to go 'a-whoring' and in Revelations, the Great Whore of Babylon (read: Ishtar) was portrayed as being bed buddies to the Christian devil. Temples were destroyed and adherents were either forcibly converted or tortured and killed. The world entered the Dark Ages. Despite all the anti-sex talk, in the intervening years, many churches ran brothels.

 

By the time of the Renaissance, progressive thinking came to the forefront. The learned, sexually mature women resurfaced and were called courtesans, the spiritual descendants of women like the hetaerae and sacred prostitutes. Hardly wallflowers or the eternally innocent and immature girl who needed a man to show her the sexual ropes, these courtesans had to be brave and smart to defy current social conventions. The Italian city-states of Venice and Florence competed on many levels, including who had the best and most celebrated courtesans. It was a time of great wealth for both, with new trade routes to India and the newly 'discovered' Americas. One of Florence's well-known courtesans was Tullia d'Aragona, daughter of a courtesan and a cardinal. Tullia was a published philosopher whose writings disseminated the academic circles of the time. Tullia was charged with violating Florentine sumptuary laws, which dictated that prostitutes and other 'public women' wear yellow cloaks. However, since d'Aragona was more poet than prostitute, the charges were dropped. There were similar laws in Venice and other places. Courtesans were able to avoid being charged with violating those laws by being more artist than prostitute, being a cortigiana oneste, an honored/honest courtesan.

 

No one can speak of Italian courtesans and not mention Veronica Franco. The Cortigiana Oneste had a passion for her arts that was unparalleled, which contributed to her success. Veronica, also the daughter of a courtesan, had hard times as well. She was twice called before the Inquisition, once on the charge of witchcraft, which carried the penalty of death. Each time the charges were dropped against Veronica because of her exquisite command of language. When a person stood before the Inquisition, they did so alone. No lawyers, usually no witnesses to your defense, nothing. Veronica was the lover and friend of many famous men including King Henry III, Domenico Venier, the artist Tintoretto and many others. The French king paid for the publishing of a book of Veronica's poems.

 

Venetian courtesans were famous for their beauty and grace and intelligence. So widespread was their reputation that English writer Thomas Coryat warned British men traveling to Italy in the 16th century that they could come under the 'spell' of a courtesan and be rendered insane. Wow, such awesome power from a sex that is supposed to be so weak by biological and divine standards. Or so the patriarchy would have you think.

 

Not to be outdone by the Italians, the French had their own celebrated courtesans. Ninon de Lenclos was a freethinker, irreligious, worldly and skeptical, all of which she inherited from her father. She hosted salons and talked shop with the foremost thinkers and artists of the day like Voltaire and MoliÀre. Like Tullia and Veronica before her, Ninon was scolded by 'proper' society for her views: in Ninon's case, it was her decidedly anti-marriage opinions and being a feminist by insisting that women have the same rights as men. An enemy of hers,  Compagnie G¾n¾rale du Saint-Sacrament requested the queen send Ninon away from court. De Lenclos was sent to a convent where she entertained a steady stream of visitors who missed her in Paris. Queen Christina of Sweden also visited Ninon and obtained her release commenting that 'the court lacked its greatest ornament' with Ninon's absence.

 

In Japan during the Edo era (1615-1868) the courtesans known as Tayu reigned supreme. These women were masters of sexual technique, pleasure, trend setting, and the refined arts of song, dance, music and conversation. They trained for years in the erotic and performance arts. Originally the geisha were evening entertainers for the tayu and their clients. The tayu wore intricate hairstyles and dress and were imitated by women all over the 'world of flowers and willows'. As the Edo period drew to a close, so did the reign of the tayu who were replaced by the geisha who previously were prohibited from competing with the tayu. The geisha continue this honored tradition to this day, though they are few in number.

 

The American west saw an explosion of bordellos along with the Gold Rush. Many of the prostitutes of the old west contributed greatly to the burgeoning society around them but as with other such women before them, their names were erased from mainstream, respectable history. Argentine prostitutes were the first to dance the tango. At its inception, the tango was deemed too risqué for polite society. Prostitutes, being naturally comfortable with their bodies, danced the sensual steps in the Latin bordellos. After traveling to France, the tango changed to the forms we know today.

 

The Grande Horizontales were around during the Belle Epoque. Their names were Caroline 'La Belle' Otero, Liane de Pougy, Emilienne d'Alen¸on and many more. They helped put Charles Worth, father of haute couture, on the map. Liane de Pougy was known by her fellow Frenchmen as 'Our National Courtesan'. Coco Chanel, yes the Coco Chanel, started out her career as a courtesan in order to get the funding needed to start her fashion house. Her friend Emilienne would wear Chanel's fashion creations to social venues such as the extremely popular Maxim's and the Bois du Boulogne, which helped Coco Chanel, known by her birth name then of Gabrielle, get the exposure she required. Otero, who was brutally raped at age eleven before leaving her hometown of Valga, Spain, was a famous dancer.

 

In art, prostitutes made several appearances, though it is rarely spoken of in the general public. The various nude sculptures of Aphrodite or Venus made my artists of old were modeled after prostitutes like the aforementioned Phyrne and Lais. Phyrne was known to have long, wavy red hair and supposedly served as inspiration for Sandro Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus', centuries after her death. Flora, the goddess of flowers, was actually a mortal woman who was a courtesan and deified after her death. Flora has many sculptures and paintings. Women who appeared in the nude for paintings like Manet's 'Olympia' were almost always prostitutes because no 'respectable' woman would pose nude and definitely not for a man they weren't married to. Pictures with women posing nude or with mirrors, peacocks or with their hair down (in certain eras) were nine times out of ten prostitutes. Probably, up until the first issue of Playboy, nude women in art or photographs were prostitutes. Marie Duplessis was the inspiration for characters in La Traviata and Camille.

And what might the future look like for prostitution? Do yourself a huge favor and buy, yes buy, the DVD set of the incredible and prematurally cancelled series Firefly created by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel). On there is a character named Inara Serra, a Companion. Companions are like a combination of tayu/geisha and courtesans. They enjoy very high status (equal to that of a diplomat or a head of state even) in the Firefly era, five hundred years in our future. There is a Companion Academy where a young woman can go for training as well as a Guild that she will belong to after her schooling is complete. Companions can work freelance or at a Temple. Clients belong to a database. From what I could gather from the less than twenty episodes that were able to be made before FOX lowered the boom, clients as well as Companions have to be hygienic. In one episode, a client of Inara's threatened her with making sure she'd never work again. Long story short, he thought she set him up for a humiliating loss in a duel for her honor (he had remarked in front of her friend, Mal, that no matter how you dress her up, she's still a ... and implied whore. Mal punched him before the client could finish). Inara informed her former client that it doesn't work that way and his behavior has earned him a black mark in the client database. That means, no other Companion will ever enter into an agreement with him. Nice! There are women who are not Academy-trained, nor belonging to the Companion Guild and are referred to as whores.

 

But this is information the average person has to track down but won't. Many are content with the old and inaccurate stereotype of the lowly, ignorant, drug-addled, disease-ridden prostitute who doesn't know any better and must have a man or religious organization 'save' her and give her a respectable life. Then there is the repentant whore who has seen the errors of her ways and wants to be a good girl with a husband and children and a house in the suburbs. I think we can see now why these stereotypes persist in this society and why other examples are repressed.

 

A personal note: Growing up, I couldn't understand why a woman would want to be a prostitute. My view wasn't totally negative though. A woman down the street from my house worked as a street prostitute to take care of her disabled mother. Her name was Darlene. By far, she was the nicest adult to us children on the block. Always friendly, she never yelled at us to move the way some other adults did. I remember the day I found out she had been raped. Expectedly, the other adults on the block tsk'd in a manner that said, "Well, she deserved that". I asked my mother what happened when someone was raped and she completely avoided it. Though I wasn't told I knew it wasn't a pleasant thing and I wondered why anyone would want to do that to such a nice woman. Not sure what ever happened to Darlene and her mother but they did eventually move away to another neighborhood.

 

My friend Amanda told me about this movie called 'Dangerous Beauty' years ago and how I should really see it. I resisted for about a year before finally giving in and watching it at a sleep over. I was surprised to see how scant the dictionary definition is of courtesan. That movie then prompted me to do more research on courtesans and prostitution in general. I must say that I'm angry at how biased the presentation of this profession is. And it is definitely that, a profession. While it doesn't work for everyone, it works for several and it's their voices most never hear. I suppose it's because those voices have far too much depth for our society to handle.

Sources:

The Book of the Courtesans by Susan Griffin
Firefly the Series by Joss Whedon