The Big Book of Escort Trade-4.

kamadeva · · 0

Why did the trade disappear for a while?



The gradual development of the technology and the increasingly central role of religion in society meant the end of escort trade for a while. (We will later see how these processes have a drastic impact on the profession as well as on prostitution.)

The flourishing prostitution and the glory of the ancient escorts began to fade away with the end of the Greek culture. This began approx. in 800 BC when the most important civilizations (Greek, Egyptian) started to fall. A new social structure began to develop whose main reasons are the invasion of sea people with advanced weapons, the Persian conquests, and then, after the death of Alexander the Great, the collapse of the Hellenistic society, leaving way for the new great religious movement, Christianity. Continuous wars eradicated Greek literacy, destroyed most of the temples, and along with Greek culture, prostitution, brothels and escorts were pushed to the edge of society. It is true that however hard the new system tried to wipe out prostitution, it could not, though it made significant harm to escort trade. It is to be understood that escorts disappeared from the sex market completely for a while.

Over time, Christianity was gaining strength and it took over the whole world. It does not need to be stressed that at this time it was a major sin to be an escort or to offer any kind of sexual service or accept it. At this time escorts disappeared completely from the streets. Brothels and street prostitutes were able to survive until the inquisition, but they could operate only in the edge of cities. According to the records of the era, prostitution was one of the most immoral things to do. There was demand for it as wanderers, merchants, perverted priests, and young, virgin men often went to brothels, but it is fact that the social perception of both prostitutes and sex-buying clients became worse. That is why it was unthinkable that escort girls could exist (like in the Greek times) in this age.

In the course of time prostitutes were having harder and harder times: they had to wear distinctive dresses, because, according to the church, prostitutes had to be separated from fair and honourable women. During this hard time prostitution could not give women the opportunity to break out of poverty through sex work, and the nobles did not need intellectual escort girls.

In accordance with the spirit of the age it was believed that a prostitute would not only damage the client's wealth and body but also in his soul and faith. Kings, princes, and nobles no longer visited escort girls, but simply kept concubines living in palaces or castles. Being a concubine did not give much chance of having a happy life for women, their lives were practically restricted to satisfy superior men's sexual desires. Of course, in return, they were kept women and allowed to live within the walls of a noble estate.

Another reason to explain the disappearance of escort trade is that prostitution and the first public brothels got into the hands of the underworld, and then pimps turned up who completely took the sex industry under their control. Escorts simply had no opportunity to work at all. This can understood from both business and public morality approach (it was unthinkable that a client would turn up with an escort outside the tolerance zones).

And there was also the Inquisition that worked on religious and moral clarity. Those who were prostitutes were heretics as well, and those who were heretics had to be punished for their sins. Heretics were subjected to torture, forced confession, and then judgment was made, which in most cases was death penalty. From the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as well as health records of the age we can conclude that prostitution did not disappear entirely from the streets, even at the time of the Inquisition.


Recently viewed profiles (how does it work?)