The Menace of Prostitution--By Valentine Obienyem

Prostitution, most times, is used restrictively to mean the act of offering oneself for sexual intercourse for money. But this is only one side to the meaning; it has other sides. Generally, prostitution involves giving something; often what one has, to get what one does not have. A poet, who, instead of devoting his talents to poetry, resorts to writing jingles for advertisement is prostituting his talents. A person who leaves his church for other churches is a religious prostitute. I think it was Socrates who defined sophists as a peculiar tribe of men who prostitute for wisdom. That is, those who received money in exchange of wisdom which they professed to teach their clients. But in our world of today, prostitution is commonly understood in the realm of sex, the crave by man to satisfy his passion.
In many instances, when you consider what man does, even the unthinkable, to satisfy his passion, you will be inclined to believe that man is a slave to passion. Diogene, a renowned Cynic philosopher, we are told, performed the rites of love in the sight of all. Generally the cynics, though they despised ease and comfort, accepted sexual desire as normal and natural, like hunger. They professed themselves unable to understand why men should be ashamed to satisfy the one appetite, like the other, in public.
The Epicureans who believed that pleasure was the goal of philosophy accepted all forms of pleasure, perhaps including sexual pleasure, once it was not, in their own estimation, injurious to one. The younger brother of Epicureanism, utilitarianism, promoted the love of pleasure once it was capable of satisfying the greatest number. Their crowned king, Jeremy Bentham, even handed over to us the means of calculating pleasure.
Lest we think Diogene, the epicureans, or the utilitarian strange, let us be assured that others, from time immemorial till our present age, have their own sexual attitudes. Suleiman the magnificent, one of the greatest Islamic warriors, we are told, had about 300 concubines. When they expected a visit from him they attired themselves in their finest robes, and stood in line to greet him, he saluted courteously as many as time allowed, and placed his handkerchief on the shoulder of one who especially pleased him. That evening, on retiring, he asked that the recipient should return his handkerchief. Whatever he did with the "returnee", I now grant your imagination a free rein in its interpretation.

The fact to note from the foregoing is that man has done everything, mostly undignifying - homosexualism, lesbianism, pederasty, paedrophilianism, masturbation et cetra to satisfy his sexual urge. But by far, the most used outlet for passion is the visit to prostitutes. Prostitution, in terms of the act or practice of a woman who permits a man who will pay her price to have sexual intercourse with her, as often written, is the oldest surviving profession on earth. Those who studied biblical exegesis explained that St. Paul's frequent warning against immoral acts in his letters to the Corinthians was due to the fact that as a confluence town, Corinth was full of brothels that any man who slept in his house in those days was considered a saint. Biblical books as well as other historical books are full of prostitutes who plied their profession with all the specialties of the prostitutes of today.
We must not be too haughtily shocked by the tale of prostitution of old. Our own age has its own liaisons. Was General Abacha not reported to have died on top of Indian prostitutes? We are daily fed with the stories of Edo girls who were deported en masse from the world major cities. Implicit in this is the fact that prostitution has become an international trade. Whether internationally or locally, prostitution, like other professions, has grades.
We have a class of prostitutes known as 'call girls.' They live in the exclusive parts of the cities. They are rich and accessible to all the comforts that development could provide. Talk of telephone, exotic cars, telecommunication gadgets et cetra. They fix appointment with their prospective customers on telephones. They travel abroad on occasions as they charge substantial fees for their services. Those in this class are mostly the ones that are somewhat exposed to the public through activities like broadcasting, film acting, beauty pageants, and campus exposure.
After the 'call girls' in status are the 'house girls'. Peripatetic in their operation, they solicit their customers in exclusive night clubs and strategic locations, even in hotels that do not allow such base activities, this girls go there every now and then under the pretence of genuine businesses. When you meet such girls on the road, especially if you are perceived as rich, at first, they will try to inspire "love" by judicious display, when the man shows interest, they will tactfully withhold by coy refusal, and making it pay. Most of the girls in this grade are not fully independent; they go about it without the knowledge of their parents. Here we have some students that leave their hostels at night for the streets, or go to men's houses for weekend.
We have the lowest type of prostitutes, those that leave in common brothels and entertain men in their rooms. Their abode is usually distinguished by red lights. These girls market themselves by standing in front of their houses and brandish their ogles at passers-by. They are lightly clad, having concealed their blemishes by the use of red lights, they allow their prospective customers to examine them like dogs in a kennel. Most prostitutes of this category are wild and always ready to confront their non-corporating customers.

In general, prostitutes are the derelicts of female society - empty, bewildered misfits that society has helped to create. Many are drug addicts. Their orgins are mostly in families that are inadequate, materially, emotionally, spiritually, and otherwise; so the roots of prostitution lie deep in the fabric of society.
It is true that women contribute to prostitution, but it is unfair to blame them solely for that. We ask, why do women prostitute? Prostitution is a function of demand. Men are equally as responsible for prostitution because by their demand, they create the supply and by the virtue of their position, they turn round, hypocritically, to blame women who meet the demand.
This male omnipotence ensures that recognised women prostitutes are cajoled, refused marriage, and made objects of contumely. But for men that patronize them, their mates do not treat them with disgrace than that which would in any case attach to immoderation. Some cultures even advise itching youths, sometimes, rather than misbehave, to appease the flesh with calm promiscuity. Some men convince themselves that to visit prostitutes is necessary to mitigate monotonous monogamy.
Whether a female or a male prostitute, it is a clear evidence of the poverty of the spirit. It is the mark of lack of self-control. It is degrading, as it is dirty. The menace of AIDS and other venereal diseases is not enough to stop prostitution. Evidently, it is mostly poverty that force people to prostitute. The only way of curtailing it is by government improving on our standards of living by expanding employment opportunities.