Prostitution in Modern Europe - Essay Example

Prostitution in Modern Europe Women are always the integral part of European society. Their role in the economic life of the every family is very important for evaluation to understand the actual grip they had on the modern European society. On the way to establish them as earning members of the European families, some of them opted even for prostitution. There is no doubt about the strength of compulsion that pushed them towards this most controversial profession. A true picture of women in the early modern European society should therefore be judged in order to understand what the strong requirements were to demean women from a social perspective. In order to make the picture more prominent, it is better to look into a case of prostitution in early modern London. This instance will be able to present a true picture of how important prostitution became in modern Europe. Margaret Huberty, a woman aged 46 years was prosecuted for keeping a brothel in London in the year 1905. According to many of the witnesses, they saw unknown people going in and coming out of the house on 49, Whitfield Street, which was owned by Mrs. Huberty. When reported to London police, they kept a vigil on the house and found the report to be true. While investigating the house, they found it out to be a brothel run by Mrs. Huberty. The prostitutes were caught red handed when some disturbance caused them to shout from the windows. According to the court paper, it was the lady herself who owned the business. She used to employ prostitutes and keep them in the house. The prostitutes were also seen to accompany the men on the streets. These men were the customers and all of them were from high society. Margaret Huberty, a middle aged woman with the possession of a house does not present a picture of poverty hovering over her life. It becomes, therefore, a question of great importance, what compelled women like Mrs. Huberty to choose this profession as the means of earning. (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 2003) Keeping a brothel was nothing new in London from the second half of the 19th century. A Bailey Court case in the year 1869 tells about three London women prosecuted with this charge. They were Mary Ann Clark, Christiana Clark and Jane Roberts. Three of them compelled a girl under the age of twenty to take up the profession of a prostitute. Apart from that, they were also involved in the business of running a bawdy house. This incident clearly indicates that prostitution was quite prominently taken as a profession since that age in early modern Europe. To these women, marriage and security did not appear to be good options in life. Prostitution and its business could give them huge amount of money and this shows that these modern women in Europe understood the value of wealth very well, although social rules were ignorable to them. Another session held in the London's Central Criminal Court in the year 1889 shows an evidence of late 19th century prostitution in this city. Here, a 23 year old lady named Annie Gough was prosecuted with the charge of counterfeiting coins. Although the charge was very far from prostitution, the accused person clearly declared in the court that her main means of earning was through prostitution. She confessed before the Magistrate that her prostitution was the main profession on which her husband depended, too. This presents a picture that looks quite bleak from any social perspective. This also refers to the irresponsibility of the husband and his indifference about his wife's profession. Unlike the case of Mrs. Huberty, Gough's case had a ground of poverty. (The Proceedings of Old Bailey, 2003) According to many of the social critics, prostitution in modern Europe was a result of poverty in the families. It is also stated that in many cases, this was a temporary alternative for the women to survive. Still, this will be very unjustified to say that it was only poverty that compelled the modern European women to choose this profession. The historical survey suggests that 30% of the whole number of prostitutes in pre-industrial areas belonged to the class below poverty line. This means that a lion's share of the prostitute population did not come from poverty ridden background. Some of the European cities became synonymous with this business and among them the mentionable ones are London, Paris, Nuremberg, and Venice - all of them being quite reputed. Prostitutes were seen on the open roads in these cities during the early part of the modern age. (Jutte, Page: 156) Prostitution, according to some critics like Paula Bartley was never a good option for women to live their life and earn money for the other family members. She writes: "Poverty and inequality may have been the overwhelming reason for prostitution but inadequate wages did not necessarily drive women onto the streets." (Bartley, Page: 09) According to the history of England, elderly women were seen to be working for very low wages but they hardly opted for prostitution. The social protocols were quite prominent and strongly followed in the poverty ridden classes of the English society. Some of the women even suffered from starvation but they were never ready to give up their personal respect. This shows that poverty in modern Europe was a very minor reason for a woman to become a prostitute. Prostitution was an option for the poor women in the early 18th century, but modern women were very conscious about their social respect. This profession was actually taken up by some of the rich women who had become power and wealth mongers. According to the records, prostitutes found in that time in London were never married. This shows that those women never had respect for the social systems in their mind. On the other hand, married women were protected by their husbands; although there were exceptions like Mrs. Huberty and Ann Gough. (Bartley, Page: 09) However, very poor women were sometimes drawn towards this profession in case they were completely helpless and surviving on their own. In the early half of the modern period in Europe, marriage was always taken seriously by the fair sex, no matter to which economic class they belonged. Marriage was avoided by the women who had intensions to live their lives by other means. Parental care was something which never allowed the daughters to become prostitutes and this is why most of the prostitutes found in the cities were orphans. This parental care was also the reason why these women were paid low salaries as the authorities were aware that the former would be satisfied with that amount of money. Hence, one thing becomes clear out of these elements and that is money earned by women was always looked down upon. Probably, this was the reason why some of them were disenchanted with the focus they got and demeaned themselves out of frustration. Prostitutes who were not orphans lived with parents who were not caring or frequent in lechery. Families that did not show respect towards the dignified European social rules gave birth to many of the prostitutes. Excessive wealth had blinded these families and derailed them from the social track. (Bartley, Page: 10) The examples from Bailey Court cases make clear that the reason compelling women towards prostitution did not change much over the time. Ann Gough was a woman who went down this path as her husband's income was not enough for their survival. But the much earlier example of the three women Mary Ann Clark, Christiana Clark and Jane Roberts in 1869 reveals the social decadence being the main reason of this taking up this profession. Keeping a brothel and compelling other girls to take up this profession was not done out of poverty by Mrs. Huberty or the three women. It was a kind of venturing against the social norms and thought to be a part of liberating themselves by those women. They were proud of the fact that they had demeaned themselves and doing something that was not accepted by the society. This was a part of venting out their grudge on the same society, which always tried to bind them with limitations and did not give importance to the money earned by them. No matter whether they demeaned themselves, it was the money that mattered to these women. It was the wealth of which they were deprived throughout the European history. Paula Bartley also suggests that the city life was one of the major reasons for women to take up prostitution as their profession. The rural life was full of innocence and restrictions, whereas the cities were the places where women could become totally free and "middle class inspired tautology" (Bartley, Page: 10) opened the way to the young girls to go down the wrong way. Bartley contradicts her theory that poverty was not always the reason for women to become prostitutes. On the contrary, she shows how poverty could also drive the young girls to take it up as their profession. Poor families had to share one room in most of the cases. There are many cases in the modern European history where daughters were forced to have sexual relationship with their fathers and uncles. They were even forced to sleep with the owners of the houses in order to avoid rents. According to some rescue workers who tried to make these girls free from their bleak present, they found that many mothers in the lowest strata of the European society had intensions to send their daughters to this profession. Homelessness also caused the women to take up prostitution in order to find a shelter for them. Until the later part of the 20th century refugee problems were huge in modern Europe. Prostitution as a profession came up as a good option for the women who did not have any place to stay. Many refugees were pushed into the same house irrespective of the fact that there were young girls, women as well as men. This built up unhealthy relations among them which ultimately found its way in prostitution. Thus the working class society had many families who opened up the way for the city girls to involve themselves in prostitution. (Bartkey, Page: 11) Prostitution in Germany on the verge of the modern age was nothing new. The hypocritical idea of ignoring prostitution as an ongoing element in the German society was on. However, the German literature was never that weak to shirk the mention of this part of their society. The hush about things going underneath the apparent outward look was mainly because of the bourgeois mentality of the people of this country in that particular age. Art is one of the spheres where references of prostitution have come prominently during the early modern period in Europe. As for example one can mention the name of French Salon art. Nude figures of prostitutes are frequently presented in this art, which was quite acceptable at that time. With the passage of time, however, the acceptance diminished and women had to think twice before mentioning anything regarding prostitution. Some of the German social critics like Gertrud Guillaume-Schack criticized the practice of prostitution, which had been almost regulated in the society of this country. She upheld many elements about the hypocritical situation in Germany regarding this demeaning business in which women had no other value than to become just 'commodities of desire'. Urban Germany suffered from the problem of prostitution for a long period between 1880's and 1930's. The figure of a streetwalker was quite common in literature of this period (Schonfeld, Page: 11). The relation between sex and money as it was perceived by the modern European women must be understood in this discussion. This relationship was never a clear one and was full of ambiguities. These ambiguities took place as women of different moral values and social understandings differed from each other. Early modern English literature was frequented by the idea of a poor girl becoming prostitute out of the compulsion in her life. It was also a common idea that girls from poor background wanted to have connections with the wealthy men of the prominent European cities. This idea was popular with the name of 'unfortunate woman' and there was a tendency for sympathizing for any such woman. But, the reality was somewhat different. It is true that there were many poor women who were compelled to take prostitution as their profession, but there were some faces from the richest families too. Sex was indeed an effective means of incoming money and this idea was taken seriously by many of the so called aristocratic modern European women. The wealthy city men were taken as 'fancy men' and sex was the best way to keep connection with them and their possessions. It was not uncommon, on the other hand, to keep mistresses for the rich men despite being married. However, as far as the ideas of client or customer, product are concerned - women were not much clear about the facts. They were all subjects of desire and for during the first phase, these women did not have anything in their protection. They learned the necessary things later on. Bertrand Taithe writes in his essay "Regulationism in the Making": "Prostitutes negotiated with this sexual demand by developing survival strategies in which they were simultaneously producers, products and retailers." (Arnot, Usborne, Page: 154) Pornography was the ultimate model discovered by the society which made the utilitarian perspective of the modern European women clearer. With the passage of time, prostitutes understood the importance of having an administrative body in order to establish their business further strongly. This gave birth to the idea of brothels where some of the women from rich family backgrounds showed their interests. They understood that this was a good way for them to look out for extra money. It is true that the scenario has changed today from what it was in the early modern period in Europe. But this hardly means that the profession has been obliterated. Women are still becoming prostitutes in many parts of the continent. The difference lies in the fact that now, brothels have given birth to industries. They have completely separate arrangements from the society. Some of the most prominent brothels are situated in major European cities. Today, many of them have been recognized by the governments as sex-workers along with the legal permission to run the business. However, despite the presence of this apparently clean picture in present Europe, examples of oppressions on women and compelling them to become prostitutes have not been entirely wiped away. As a secondary source one can take a look at the Bulgarian cases. Incidents of forcing women to become prostitutes are still heard from the eastern European countries like Bulgaria, Greece and some others. In most of these cases, underage girls are kidnapped by some underworld people and they are physically as well as mentally tormented until they agree to take up prostitution as their profession. The ever increasing number of human trafficking in countries like Greece and Bulgaria, especially in the Balkan Mountain region, has become a great threat in this century. The picture, in a way, has become bleaker than what it was in the early modern period in Europe. According to the reports, violation of human rights has increased by an alarming number in this part of the world. Cases of rape in Greece and Bulgaria have created deep worries for the socialists. Compelling a woman of a free country is going against her personal freedom and therefore this can be taken as the worst example of human rights irreverence. Prostitutes from the Asian countries are also available in the European countries now and this has been possible for the huge advancement of transportation system. There are cases in which the Bulgarian prostitutes have been arrested with the charge of illegal deportation. One can take the example of Nadia. She was a dancer in Soviet Russia before the country broke into pieces. During the tough years, Nadia visited Greece with a tourist visa actually to work as a dancer. She soon found out the harsh truth that had crept into her life. She was a prostitute in Greece already as her employer had already bought her. Lately, she succeeded in absconding from the underworld trap and to reach Ukraine, but the incident gave her a deep trauma. The situation can be compared to that of the slave trade where freedom of the individuals is entirely tormented by their owners. (Kathimerini, 2001) However, it is indeed a matter of peace that recent reports have showed the decrease in the number of child prostitutions in Bulgaria. Surveys done in 2005 and 2006 reveal the 40% decrease in the number indicating the rise of awareness regarding this concern. (CANEE, 2007) Spread of education and increase in job opportunities has made way for the women to become more stable in their lives in the present days. This is why women are now much more aware of their dignity in the society. Apart from the few restricted areas in the European cities, prostitutes are not seen in the streets as it was common in the early days. Still, with the advent of Internet technology, prostitution has been made a profitable business through the help of the pornographic websites. Sex is no more a taboo in the society and women have thus become more open to the subject. Governments of various European countries have been able to bring down the number of rapes and cases of forcing women to prostitution. With proper awareness and guiding the new generation how to shirk the situation, this evil from the society can be curbed. Numerous non-governmental organizations are today working for the betterment of the sex-workers in different places throughout the world. The future, as hoped, will surely present a completely different picture. References 1. "Margaret Huberty, Sexual Offences". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jspid=t19051211-105&div=t19051211-105&terms=prostitution#highlight on November 28, 2008 2. "Annie Gough, Royal Offences". The Proceedings of Old Bailey. 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jspid=t18890729-608&div=t18890729-608&terms=prostitution#highlight on November 28, 2008 3. "Mary Ann Clark, Christiana Clark, Jane Roberts, Sexual Offences". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. 2003. 4. Jutte, Robert. Poverty and Deviance in Early Modern Europe. 1994. Cambridge University Press. 5. Schonfeld, Christiane. Commodities of Desire: The Prostitute in Modern German Literature. 2000. Boydell & Brewer. 6. Bartley, Paula. Prostitution: Prevention and Reform in England, 1860-1914. 2000. Routledge. 7. Arnot, Margaret L; Cornelie Usborne. Gender and Crime in Modern Europe. 1999. Taylor & Francis. 8. "The Modern Slave Trade: Forced Prostitution". Kathimerini. 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.aspaid=11774 on November 28, 2008 9. "Child Prostitution Decreasing in Bulgaria". Child Abuse and Neglect in Eastern Europe. 2007. Retrieved from: http://www.canee.net/bulgaria/child_prostitution_decreasing_in_bulgaria on November 28, 2008 Read More