5 sentences with “prostitutes”

At the same time, prostitution was very common, with most prostitutes being slaves.

Elite prostitutes were known as hetairai, who served as companions for elite men and were supposed to be able to contribute to witty and erudite discussion.

An Athenian politician, Demosthenes, once said: "we have heirs for pleasure, regular prostitutes to attend to our physical needs, and wives to bear legitimate children and be faithful custodians of our homes".

Moreover, members of the bourgeoisie were supposed to live by certain codes of conduct. In contrast to the sexual licentiousness of the former nobility, bourgeois men and women were expected to avoid extramarital affairs (although, in practice, bourgeois men regularly took advantage of prostitutes).

In the 1870s and 1880s, British feminists led by Josephine Butler attacked the Contagious Diseases Act, which subjected prostitutes to compulsory gynaecological inspections (but did not require male clients of prostitutes to be examined), and came to the radical conclusion that prostitution was simply the most obvious example of a condition that applied to virtually all women.