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21^st century Americans live with the hopes of being a  tolerant society.  Modern American culture attempts to teach diversity and acceptance.  However there is uncertainty about subjects associated with immoral behavior and sexuality.  Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of prostitution as a legal institution.  Hence, it remains illegal throughout the United States in all but a few counties in one state, Nevada.  People have questioned the moral and legal issues of this career choice throughout much of written history, especially since the beginnings of Judeo-Christianity.

         Many modern views stem from the development of Christianity and its articulation in the Middle Ages.  Throughout the Middle Ages, Christians, priests, scholars, and civil governments were all trying to understand where and even if prostitution fit into society.  Prostitution during the Middle Ages was seen by the church as immoral, but was tolerated “…to protect respectable townswomen from seduction and even rape.” [1]   It was a legal institution in most of Europe during the Middle Ages and was in obvious demand.  Most attempts to abolish prostitution failed.  Prostitutes were protected by laws and were safer in brothels than on the streets.  They were protected in brothels, but were also regulated.

Compared to modern views on prostitution people during the Middle Ages had a more rational outlook.  By this I mean that the medieval period was more consistent when it came to a belief system that corresponded to actual practice.  It is very clear that prostitution was viewed as immoral and wrong but also necessary.  It was because of this understanding of human nature that logic rather than morals dominated the decision making in regards to prostitution as a legal institution.

I will begin by talking about the philosophy of medieval Europe and then relate that to their actual practice.  This will show the consistency between philosophy and practice.  Then a comparison between philosophy and practice within the contemporary United States will be made, which unlike the medieval period do not match up.  When philosophy and practice do not match, hypocrisy follows.

In the later medieval period, after about 1000, the church had a larger audience than any government of the Middle Ages.  It attempted to understand human behavior and explain disorder by placing blame on different aspects of society that did not follow its moral norm.  So to understand government one must understand the views of the church, since governments adopted much of what church figures preached.

Early on, from its beginning until about 1000, Christianity was not yet organized and was unable to hold a clear view on all aspects of the road to salvation.  Without set rules, it was open to individual communities, each with its own bishop, to decide what was appropriate.  Views varied and were easily confused.  Interpretations of the circulating Gospels were open to whomever read and taught them.  Traveling prophets and philosophers rendered their own ideas rather than a unified Christian ideal.  But even with the confusion, a unified philosophy on prostitution arose and remained constant throughout the Middle Ages.

St. Augustine, who was one of the most frequently read and cited theologians of the medieval period, did not believe prostitution to be right or moral in any way.  He said that

. . . unnatural sex is atrocious if committed with a prostitute, even more atrocious if committed with a wife . . . If a man wishes to use part of the body of a woman which it is forbidden to use for that, it is more shameful for the wife to allow for such crime to be performed on her body than to let it be done on another woman. [2]

 

By “unnatural sex”, he meant sex that was not meant to procreate.  Augustine did not condone “unnatural sex,” but he understood human nature in that there would always be a demand for sex, “Banish prostitutes…and you reduce society to chaos through unsatisfied lust.” [3]   In other words society must have prostitution as an outlet for human nature.

Augustine’s views were widely read and accepted.  His philosophy named men as having immoral needs that required an outlet.  The wife is meant to be chaste and virtuous, so a man should not corrupt his wife.  It seems in this last paragraph, that because a man cannot pollute his wife, that it would be less evil for him to practice certain carnal acts with another woman.  Adultery was a sin, but Augustine seems to say that rather than pollute your wife with unnatural acts, use another woman (a prostitute), which would constitute adultery.  This meant that adultery was the lesser of the two evils, according to Augustine.

There were many philosophies about sex and sin during the Middle Ages.  They have the same message about sex and sin.   Men of the cloth were particularly intent on understanding and explaining the ideas of lust as part of nature, since sex was forbidden to them.  Women were the objects of lust and, according to many theologians, in order to maintain their dedication to God they must keep themselves away from women.  In order to understand the necessity of prostitution it is necessary to understand the uncontrollable aspect of lust.

One of these theologians was Theodore of Studium (d. 826), “the major monastic figure of early ninth century Byzantium,” [4] and his Reform Rules.  They were not formal rules, but were the contents of a letter sent by Theodore to Nicolas, who had just become abbot of a monastery.  Theodore expressed an extreme dislike and mistrust of the female, even as far as female animals, “Have no animal of the female sex in domestic use, seeing that you have renounced the female sex altogether, whether in house or fields, since none of the Holy Fathers had such, no(r)-does nature require them.” [5]   His fear seems to mistrust females of any species, but could also be interpreted as a mistrust of the men within the monastery.  “Do not go out often, nor range around, leaving your fold without necessity.  For even if you remain always there, it is hard to keep safe your human sheep, so apt are they to stray and wander.” [6]   This is different from many that blame the women as lustful creatures that men must avoid.  It brings some responsibility to men as creatures that “stray.”  So men create a demand for prostitution and it is in their nature, as Augustine would say, to look for outlets for their unsatisfied lust.  Theodore seems to suggest that men are unable to control these lusts without removing what it is they lust for, women.

A later theologian, Thomas Aquinas (1224-1275), “commonly regarded as the greatest Western philosopher of the thirteenth century,” [7] discusses sex and sexuality in his Summa Theologiae.  It is the basic discussion that seems to plague Christianity throughout the medieval period and even up to the modern.  When and how is sex appropriate and when is it a sin?  He discusses “unnatural sex” as well.  Aquinas follows the reasoning of Augustine.

Wherefore it is now sin if one, by the dictate of reason, makes use of certain things in a fitting manner and order for the end to which they are adapted, provided this end be something truly good.  Now just as the preservation of the bodily nature of one individual is a true good, so, too, is the preservation of the nature of the human species a very great good.  And just as the use of food is directed to the preservation of life in the individual, so is the use of venereal acts directed to the preservation of the whole human race.  Hence Augustine says (De Bono Conjug. xvi).  ‘What food is to a man’s well being, such is sexual intercourse to the welfare of the whole human race.’  Wherefore just as the use of food can be without sin, if it be taken in due manner and order, as required for the welfare of the body, so also the use of venereal acts can be without sin, provided they be performed in due manner and order, in keeping with the end of human procreation. [8]  

 

In his later replies he also specifies that “…without any doubt lust is a sin.” [9]

The issue is clear that the church feels sex should only be used for procreation within a marriage.  And yet it seems understood that prostitution does and should exist for reasons of safety for the chaste and an outlet for the lusts of men.  This was the common philosophy that flourished during this time period.

The discussions of medieval philosophy on the subjects of prostitution and lust lead us into the next section that will help put together philosophy with practice.  Immoral yet necessary plays a key role.  The medieval philosophy coincides with the medieval practice.

Ruth Karras, author of Common Women: prostitution and sexuality in medieval England, discusses how some bishops ran and owned brothels in England during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  “Ecclesiastical institutions and individuals owned brothels . . . Several individual clerics also managed brothels in London and Westminster.” [10]   She mentions also that they were not only owners, but many were clients as well. [11]   Karras is not the only one to show that the clergy were clients of prostitutes.  “. . . in the cases of procuration and brawling in the brothel or the bathhouse, members of the clergy are listed as present, named and given as residents of the city . . . clergy still made up twenty per cent of the clientele of the bathhouses and the private bordellos of Dijon.” [12]

Not only was the Church involved in ownership, but in France during the mid thirteenth century, they accepted alms from prostitutes. [13]   “In accepting the prostitute’s alms, the Church recognized that she had acted out of necessity.” [14]   The Church supported this institution because they believed it to be a necessity.  They owned and ran brothels, accepted money from prostitutes, and used Mary Magdalene as an example of a prostitute who redeemed herself by repenting.  Many were tolerant of prostitutes by acknowledging them as a future Mary Magdalene. [15]

The church followed the philosophy regarding prostitution as a “necessary evil” and often participated in it, since it had been justified.  The medieval public followed the same philosophy.  They kept and welcomed prostitution into their communities.

During the Middle Ages legal regulation varied and was controlled by individual jurisdictions.  “The French king, Louis IX, made attempts to eliminate prostitution.  In 1254, Louis decreed that all prostitutes, as well as all persons making a living from prostitution, be regarded as outlaws . . . denied protection of the king’s law, and that all their personal goods, clothing, furs, tunics, and linen chemises, be seized.” [16]   However, complaints from the community that wives and daughters were unsafe from attacks changed elimination to regulation. [17]   This outcry and general disregard for the decree itself showed the public’s desire and power in its ability to keep prostitution legal.

Regulations pertained to areas of residence, clothing restrictions, and behavior.  Louis’ son, Philip III, following his father’s wishes, made prostitution a legal misdemeanor after he assumed power.  “The program was soon abandoned, and secular officials were put in charge of regulating it.  Each municipality was given the right to control prostitution.” [18]

Regulations were not necessarily a bad thing for prostitutes.  Rossiaud suggests that the ‘sign’ that prostitutes wore was not only a mark of infamy, but also a guarantee against possible violence. [19]   He talks of male protectorates that were not pimps and the church’s acceptance of confessions.  Open prostitution was safer for women, since the streets brought little to no protection.

Alfonso IX of Castile (1188-1230) created some of the earliest regulations about prostitution in Europe.  His regulations were unique, in that he focused not on the prostitutes, but instead on those who profited from them.  Punishments ranged from exile, for those involved in selling prostitutes, to fines and loss of property, for those renting rooms to prostitutes, to the most severe, death, for husbands prostituting their wives. [20]

Prostitutes were not necessarily an unwelcome aspect to a city.  Many communities fought to keep them there.

In 1387 in Paris (where areas reserved for public prostitution were scattered throughout the city), the burghers in the neighbourhood protested when the cure of St Merri persuaded the Provost to move to expel the harlots from the rue Baille-Hoe, arguing that their business would suffer.  The burghers appealed to Parlement, won their case, and the ladies were reinstated. [21]

 

This demonstrates that prostitution, at this point, was regulated and prostitutes registered.  If that were not the case they would not need to be reinstated.  Regulation and registration assume legalization and an acceptance of prostitution as an institution.

In Ales in 1454 the viguier decreed by proclamation, ‘Let no woman dare to keep a brothel, public or private, except in the accustomed places, and let no inhabitant dare to give lodging to a concubine, married or unmarried.’  There was an immediate hue and cry from the citizenry, and the proclamation was rescinded. [22]

 

All attempts to abolish prostitution failed because the community saw the brothels and/or prostitutes as necessary.  These specific cases show attempts by the governmental powers to control or abolish prostitution failed because community uproar and the overall philosophy of prostitution as a “necessary evil” ruled.  Although at times law attempted to rid their society of prostitution, it was never able to maintain this position.  For one reason or another, either safety or money, the people protested laws and proclamations, which violated the accepted philosophical position on prostitution.

It is obvious from these cases that regardless of the overlying Christian moral beliefs, prostitution flourished with permission from the community, most civil governments, and the church.  The medieval period had a strong sense of Christian morality, but understood the philosophy of prostitution as an institution that was deemed necessary.  This philosophy fit with the actual practice of allowing and accepting prostitution in the society.  The modern U.S. does not have this consistency.

The contemporary U.S. views prostitution with ambivalence.  There are discussions of the crimes associated with prostitution.  Prostitutes are associated with such words as whores, drug addicts, disease carriers, and criminals.  Many are afraid of the crimes that surround illegal prostitution.  Some just see the women as victims forced into a degrading and evil institution. [23]   It is illegal and therefore most accept it as wrong.

There are many who are happy about the progress of sexual freedom since the 1950’s. [24]   Women in the U.S. have benefited in many respects.  The legalization of abortion and birth control has given women the right to choose when or if they want to have children.  Regardless of the legality of both abortion and birth control, there are still contentious discussions on those subjects, especially abortion, and whether or not they are moral.  But even the courts of the U.S. have established the right of a woman to control her body.  In the 1972 court case of Eisenstadt vs. Baird, which

. . . challenged the constitutionality of Massachusett’s ‘crimes against chastity’ law that prohibited the distribution of birth control information or supplies to unmarried persons. . . The Supreme Court’s 1972 decision upheld the appellant’s claim by articulating freedom from government intervention in matters pertaining to sexuality and reproduction as a quintessentially individual right. [25]

 

It was the “Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause” [26] appellants used in these abortion cases and others involving “personal, marital, familial, and sexual privacy said to be protected by the Bill of Rights.” [27]

The Supreme Court seems to uphold the idea of sexual freedom, and the public accepts these rights, yet prostitution, which involved “a male or female person who for a fee engages in sexual intercourse, oral-genital contact or any touching of the sexual organs or other intimate parts of a person for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of either person” [28] , is illegal (in all of the U.S. except 14 out of 17 counties in Nevada).  The U.S. ideologies and beliefs do not match up with practice.

Americans know prostitution exists, whether or not it is legal, but choose not to get involved unless it is publicly noticeable or directly affects them.  Illegal prostitution created a secret and poorly understood sub-culture that has prompted secrecy and hiding.  Many people judge the women harshly for their choice of profession, and yet say nothing of the men that create the demand for it.  Americans live in a society that believes itself to be tolerant, open-minded, and accepting of women’s rights to their bodies and yet most refuse to seek an understanding of one of the world’s oldest professions.

The United States today still carries remnants of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, which expressed its ideals in the phrase “free love.”  The U.S. has undergone women’s liberation and her control over decisions involving her body.  The court system of the United States feels that a woman has a right to make decisions concerning her body since it has eliminated many laws relating to governmental control of birth control and abortion.  Church has been separated from state and morals are no longer legislated through law, or are they?

Many people believe that the law is there to protect.  The question is then whom does it protect?  It is meant to protect the rights of citizens, or so goes the philosophy of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  “Many believe that official action may legitimately be taken against a behavior if some substantial harm to others can be demonstrated to result from it.” [29]   Then we must ask who the victims are in the crime of prostitution.

Prostitution is a victimless crime, neither person involved is considered a victim who is harmed.  “On the roster of victimless crimes, only the laws against prostitution have resisted change in the United States during recent decades.” [30]   Those that have been repealed are those concerning other aspects of sexual freedom, birth control, abortion, and even homosexuality.

Meier and Geis, authors of Victimless Crimes explain possible reasons why our philosophy of sexual freedom does not seem to fit with the actual practice of prostitution. 

It largely involves dispossessed and politically weak persons.  There will be no prominent authors . . . nor any sports celebrities or famous Hollywood actresses . . . who will announce that they once had been a practicing whore . . . There will be no parades of artists and successful people fighting for the legalization of prostitution as they did for gay rights.  Prostitutes may proclaim that their way of life is a choice and not a sickness . . . But American lawmakers . . . remain unimpressed.  Prostitutes themselves have little or no political clout. [31]

 

The philosophy does not match the practice when it comes to prostitution.  Another example exists in the business of pornography.

Women and men are allowed to film sexual acts and receive payment for it.  By the legal definition this is prostitution, and yet there is no prosecution of these men and women; they even hold a yearly award ceremony similar to the Academy Awards for movies.  This is seen as freedom of expression perhaps even an art-form.  “William Buckley, a prominent columnist on the right side of the political spectrum…noted, ‘Fornication is okay in a hotel, in front of a movie camera, but not in a car, certainly not in a car in Los Angeles.’” [32]   This was in response to an actor, Hugh Grant, being caught with a prostitute and both were charged.  There seems to be such confusion about where sexual freedom lies, and there are definite inconsistencies between the practice and modern U.S. philosophy on prostitution.

Unlike the Middle Ages prostitution in much of the United States is illegal, but where it is legal the government has regulated it and taken over what the church of the medieval period used to control.  Today, prostitutes are branded.  The law punishes them and marks them “legally” for life.  The punishments may not seem brutal and yet society makes it practically impossible for those who wish to, to leave it behind.  Looking more closely at the results of having prostitution as an illegal business there are obviously worse brutalities than having a legal record.

Part of American philosophy regarding prostitution is the protection of the individual from harm, as I stated earlier.  Violence that surrounds prostitution exists because of its illegality.  Our philosophy for protection does not coincide with the results that have occurred.

There are ramifications for having an illegal system.  There is a dark underworld of violence, drugs, and disease, which we try to clear from the streets and yet we feed this by isolating those that need protection, and this protection could be in publicly organized brothels.  It is easy to see that prostitution exists all over the United States because there are laws that make it illegal and because of frequent arrests and police stings.

“According to the FBI, there were 88,819 prostitution arrests in the US in 1995.” [33]   85-90% of those arrested work on the streets. [34]   The statistics of women arrested for selling sex, rather than giving it for free, is more staggering when how much it costs taxpayers is calculated.  “Average arrest, court and incarceration costs amount to nearly $2,000 per arrest.  Cities spend an average of $7.5 million dollars on prostitution control every year, ranging from $1 million (Memphis) to $23 million (New York).” [35]   So in 1995 with 88,819 arrests for prostitution a total of $177,638,000 was spent arresting, fining, and releasing prostitutes back on the streets.

Prostitutes on the street are much more visible to the public and the police.  They are the women subject to violence from pimps and Johns (customers).  Sarah McNaught, author of an article in the Boston Phoenix discussing legalization of prostitution, talks about an interview with a street prostitute.

“Gina” knows what the black market can do.  The 33 year-old single mother of two sits in her modest one-bedroom apartment in Roslindale.  Her jaw seems slightly off, jutting just a little too far to the right.  Her left eyeball wavers—almost as if it isn’t properly attached—and rolls uncontrollably in its socket.  The disfigurements represent eight years on the streets of Boston with abusive pimps, violent johns, and nowhere to turn…”I have been beaten with shovels, kicked in the head, set on fire, raped, and then raped again with things like car jacks, crowbars, and even beer bottles,” she says. [36]

 

This kind of tragic story is not unusual for a prostitute working the streets.  The women have little to no protection from such violence.  They have nowhere to turn.  They are rejected by friends, family, society, and the law.

Of the more than 30 prostitutes interviewed by the Phoenix, almost every one of them said that she had been physically and verbally abused by her pimp.  More than half the women said that their pimps got them hooked on drugs.  And all of them said that their pimps order them to commit other crimes. [37]

 

Prostitutes on the streets have very few places to turn.  They struggle with violence, drug addiction, and disease.  They can not turn to the authorities for help.  McNaught mentions an interesting argument as to why condoms may be so infrequently used by street prostitutes.

Even carrying condoms can get women into trouble.  According to a 1996 study James Geffert presented at the 1996 Nevada HIV/AIDS Surveillance Conference in Mesquite, Nevada, it is common practice in most states for police to use condoms as the basis for making an arrest.  This is what happens in Boston. [38]

 

For this reason many prostitutes do not carry condoms.  And according to the same article these women avoided going to a physician for fear of being turned over to the police.  It is difficult to understand why society would attempt to abolish something that would be more beneficial to regulate.  There is so much fear on the streets that, as a prostitute, a woman is unable to protect herself from violence, drugs, or disease and fears the institutions that, as a child, she had been encouraged to entrust her safety to, the doctors and the police.

In modern society prostitution is illegal in most of the United States because of the belief that prostitution brings about other evils and is a factor in the breakdown of society.  But from what is seen above it is the very fact that it has been made an illegal practice that it has many of these problems.  Society seems to have created exactly what it was attempting to prevent.

The government has allowed communities in Nevada to decide for themselves whether or not they wish prostitution to exist there.  The fact that brothels are successfully run there proves that some communities want it, perhaps for some of the same reasons some medieval societies decided upon.

The famous Mustang Ranch brought people from all around.  It was one of the United States’ most famous brothels.  Men visiting the place needed food and lodging while there and found them in these isolated desert communities.  Because of the isolation of the brothels, there were no neighbors to complain of the decay of their communities.

There is an aspect of sexual freedom here, but it is one that is highly regulated.  Even though prostitution is legal, prostitutes are kept in isolated areas away from society and are branded by being forced to register with the state with the occupation label of prostitute.

In Nevada, prostitutes are required to register with the state and go through health screening, done by the state, and health training, done by the brothels.  They are required to use condoms at all times for health purposes and the client goes through a quick inspection by the prostitute before any money changes hands. [39]

Much of the ideas U.S. society has about prostitution comes from what has been portrayed on television or newspaper, which is predominately dramatic stories regarding illegal prostitution.  The view of prostitution as unsafe and unclean has not been looked at through the legal side.  Information exists, but is not as highly publicized.  It would seem from U.S. philosophy that they would choose the path that would cause the least amount of people harm.  If protection is the philosophy then the practice of this philosophy has failed.

The following information about brothels and what a man should expect upon entering one was given by a man that began a website using his experiences as information for those unfamiliar with the process. [40]   This is a look at the legal practice from a personal observer.   

Upon entering a brothel the customer is confronted with a line-up of girls.  The man is able to look through and make his selection.  The girls in the line-up, unbeknownst to the man, are there by choice decided by a system.  One particular brothel has a buzzer system that buzzes when a customer arrives.  There are specific codes buzzed back to the girls that distinguish different types of customers, specifically by ethnicity.  The girls can listen to the code given and then decide whether or not they wish to go to the line-up.

After a woman is chosen she may choose to sit at the bar for a couple of drinks or go straight to the room where discussions about money and sexual desires are held.  Time is money for the girls, so the usual decision is to take a direct route for the room.  When an agreement is made and money changes hands, the prostitute inspects her customer and cleans him and herself.  After the safety issues have been covered they are now ready for the acts agreed upon.

Regulations are strict and are made for the safety of both the customers and the girls.  This shows the importance of how legal prostitution may work.  When compared to the hazardous and potentially life threatening aspects of illegal prostitution, it becomes easy to see why this system associates better with the U.S. philosophy.  Regardless of its illegality in the rest of the U.S., the long list of arrests for prostitution proves that it will continue whether or not the law allows.

Observing successful legal brothels in and outside of the United States may help U.S. society make a decision regarding prostitution.  Modern U.S. society has definite contradictions between philosophy and practice.  The system of law has the potential to allow the sexual freedom of prostitution and see it as a business, and yet it remains illegal nevertheless.  Society believes itself to be rational and liberated about sex, and concerned about the protection of its citizens, but it is proved otherwise.  It has failed to maintain consistency and has faltered on its own philosophies.

Medieval society had some of the same questions about prostitution as we do today.  Unlike the United States today, medieval society was consistent about the philosophies they had and the implementation of those philosophies.  It is clear that the medieval society was much more rational in regards to prostitution.