Prostitution is a purchase by a man of a woman's body for rape. The most important condition for the existence of prostitution is male power over a woman. Prostitution appeared and was strengthened as a social institution with the emergence of patriarchy. According to some scientists, patriarchy began to develop about 6000 years ago, when the institution of paternity appeared (1) (2). According to another concept, primitive societies were egalitarian structures, and patriarchy began to emerge along with the domestication of animals and the occurrence of agriculture (3). Just as the domestication and the emergence of agriculture in different regions had their own chronological frameworks, so the origin of patriarchy took place in different regions at different times. There is also a theory that patriarchy originated in the Middle East around 3100 BC (4). According to G. Lerner, patriarchy began to form in the era of the archaic state (5). Prostitution is a consequence of patriarchy, and outside of patriarchy there can be no reification as well as making a woman's body marketable by a man. Chronologically, the origin of prostitution depends on the emergence of patriarchy, so for different regions, the origin of prostitution took place at different times.
In the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the existence of prostituted women is confirmed by the Code of Hammurabi (18th century BC). Involving of women in prostitution is mentioned in the Old Testament: according to these data, prostitution was widespread in ancient Israel (approximately the 2nd millennium BC). In ancient Greece, mostly slaves were made prostituted. The men set up brothels. Besides the "lower prostitutes", there was a special stratum of "elite" prostituted women - hetaerae. These were the women who could not only be raped, but also talk about culture, politics, art. In ancient Rome, prostitution was also common. Men created brothels, sex-byers wrote the names of "beloved" prostituted women on the walls. A prostituted woman could not legally dispose of her property, being in a position of an incapacitated person.
During the Christian Middle Ages, prostitution did not disappear. Religion forbade prostitution, however, it was no use. Other mechanisms are needed to eliminate prostitution. Brothels were located in special places reserved for this. After the spread of syphilis, brothels became hotbeds of the epidemic. In modern era, prostitution began to flourish. In the era of the great geographical discoveries, men had a “necessity” to involve women into prostitution for soldiers and sailors. With the advent of mercenary armies, women began to be sold for rape more and more. In the Russian Empire, men would give their daughter or wife to a tenant to raise rents; in Siberia, men would prostitute female relatives, selling them to workers returning from the mines. In the 20th century, male organized crime took over the business of selling women's bodies. Currently, prostituted women are tortured and killed by men, but prostitution is referred to as "ordinary work". Involving of women into prostitution has experienced a new birth with globalization and the development of technology and science.

Today it is possible to buy any woman (and even an animal) for rape. For the paid time with the victim, anything can be done. The development of technology has led to a boom in the porn industry. Women are being raped on camera and watched online on internet platforms. Business brings enormous income to men around the world.
Remarkably, men have maintained and continue to assert that a prostituted woman is “the scum of society”, “impure”, “not a woman”. Even at the level of official scientific knowledge. In Russian psychology, a prostituted woman is defined as a creature of deviant behavior, while the sex-byer himself goes beyond the scope of prostitution, becomes whitewashed, and he is cleared of guilt for raping or (and) selling the female body. Traditionally, the social sciences have viewed the victim of prostitution in terms of pathology.
An especially popular justification for prostitution existed in the late 19th and early 20th century: a man is naturally more sexually active, and a woman is asexual, therefore, a man dominates a woman in every way (6). Therefore, prostitution is the natural subordination of a woman to a man. There is also a theory that “special women” are to blame for the existence of prostitution, women with sexual deviations who want to sleep with men.
Of course, none of these justifications reveal the true cause of prostitution, which is only one: patriarchy, where a man has a right to a woman's body. Prostitution will exist in any type of states formed within the male civilizations familiar to us. Each state is a male union, a male grouping where collectively men have rights to women's bodies. To eliminate prostitution, a radical restructuring of the entire existing system is necessary. Legislation in developed countries aimed at criminalizing prostitutes is a temporary measure that does not fully protect a woman's rights to her own body. Only the feminist movement has the potential to liberate women from male domination, which is neither normal nor natural.


Author: Shveia Krovavaia
Translation: Julie Vengeful

Sources:

1. Kraemer, Sebastian. The Origins of Fatherhood: An Ancient Family Process (en) // Family Process[en] : journal. — 1991. — Vol. 30, no. 4. — P. 377—392.
2. Ehrenberg, 1989; Harris, M. (1993) The Evolution of Human Gender Hierarchies; Leibowitz, 1983; Lerner, 1986; Sanday, 1981
3. Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History. Michael Adas for the American Historical Association. https://books.google.ru/books?id=qcSsoJ0IXawC&pg=PA118&hl=ru#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. Foucault, Subjectivity, and Identity: Historical Constructions of Subject and Self. Robert M. Strozier. https://books.google.ru/books?id=fuDdNSLXPI8C&red
5. Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. http://womenation.org/gerda-lerner-the-creation-of-patriarchy-1/
6. Yakovleva, Anna. Globalization of sexual violence. https://netovar.org/2008/08/14/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d1%8f%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%b0-%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b1%d0%b0%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b7%d0%b0%d1%86%d0%b8%d1%8f-%d1%81%d0%b5%d0%ba%d1%81%d1%83%d0%b0%d0%bb%d1%8c/#more-27