LECTURE TEN
Lecture 10
Terms
Prostitution is difficult to define, and definitions vary (as does its legality) from state to state and country to country. The basic underlying idea is sex for money. The general feeling by many people is that prostitutes are women and their clients (called "Johns") are men. However this is not necessarily the case. The are males who are involved in sex for money and their cilents may be female of male. The term gigolo usually refers to a man in a continuing sexual relationship with a woman for some financial compensation. It is also used sometimes for men who work as escorts or dancing partners for women.
Hustler is a term also generally used for a man who has sex with someone without any long time involvment.
There are a number of films with deal with prostitution among which are included Irma La Douce, Never on Sunday, Butterfield 8, American Gigolo and Midnight Cowboy.
Although sometimes seen as a "victimless crime" in places where it is illegal, there are those who feel that public prostitution (people walking the street) make victims of the businesses in the area since many people do not want to go to areas where they may be approached. Others feel that the person working as a prostitute is being victimized.
In some parts of the world prostitution is something that people do because the money is good and it allows for some upward mobility and the ability to buy business which will employ family members. Even in the US some prostitutes have reported that they are plying their trade only until they can get enough money to open a "legitimate" business where they can make money, and that prostitution pays well.
Since for many sex is pleasurable, the idea that one can make money by having sex seems remarkably obviouly a good idea, although sex without emotional attachment is often seen as less satisfying and sex with people who are having problems finding sex partners because of a relationship may have personality "defects" that makes them hard to deal with.
SOme prostitutes specialize in specific kinds of sex acts and those who handle clients with the more bizarre taste often get paid much more.
Prostitution, when carried out in areas where it is illegal, may carry the real danger of the spead of disease such as AIDS first identified by the Center for Disease Control in 1981. Films made in pre AIDS days have a generally more permissive attitude to casual sex since virtually any disease that could be contracted was curable. By the mid-1980's the spread of AIDS had become sufficient widespread that it was virtually impossible to talk about sex in a film in which the topic did not some up.
In places where prostitution is legal there is generally a requirement for people to be tested regularly for venereal disease, but AIDS is such a slow developing disease that it is hard to detect early enough to prevent possible spread unless some sort fo prtection is used.
Notes on Midnight Cowboy