Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. Proverbs 7:8-27
A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.
For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,
To call passengers who go right on their ways:
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Proverbs 9:13-18
For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. Proverbs 23:27&28
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor. Hosea 9:1
This is Natalia – she is my sister. She is number four prostitute in all of Kazakhstan. Borat: Cultural Learnings 2006 starring Sacha Baron Cohen & Ken Davitian & Pamela Anderson & Bob Barr & Alan Keyes & Luenell et al, director Larry Charles
Old-school pimps used to run the streets. But the business is changing. And girls may not even need pimps any more. Underworld: Sex Trade
The Pimp used to be king; now the internet is ruling the sex trade. ibid.
I’m a motherfucking pimp. American Pimp 1999 starring Too Short & John S Dickson & Antonio Fargas & Hugh M Hefner et al, directors Albert & Allen Hughes, opening scene
Prostitute Key Witness in LAPD Scandal, Slain. ibid. Los Angeles Times article
I’ve never seen no white pimp. ibid. Bradley
I had twenty-two women at one time. ibid. pimp
There’s a whole language to it. ibid. Too Short
The pimp game is a lonely one. ibid. pimp
Jesus Christ has saved me from a life of drug addiction and prostitution ... You just feel a deep sense of shame and filthiness like you are being mauled by a dirty animal ... I was raped by a customer ... The heart of the Easter message is forgiveness. Fiona Roach 4thought.tv
As immigration laws have tightened many Chinese women have turned to sex work to support their families back home. Sex: My British Job, undercover Hsaio-Hung Pai, director Nick Broomfield, Channel 4 2013
The girls end up earning only £25 each after having to share 50%. They leave early and don’t ever come back. ibid.
It’s estimated there are over 2,000 brothels in London alone that employ 80% foreign nationals – most of whom are illegal. ibid.
‘A working girl needs to be sexy, elegant, but also slutty, because a man likes a slut.’ A Very British Brothel, Channel 4 2015, brothel worker
It is estimated that one in ten men in the UK regularly pay for sex. ibid.
Half the women we work with or more have experienced some sort of sexual assault or rape, and up to 75% talk about physical violence they’ve experienced at the hands of pimps or punters. Ruth Bresling
I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy. Steve Martin
Of the numerous regrettable elements that go to make up the unlawful carnal-knowledge industry, I should single out for distinction the look of undisguised contempt that is often worn on the faces of its female staff. Some of the working ‘hostesses’ may have to simulate delight or even interest – itself a pretty cock-shrivelling thought – but when these same ladies do the negotiating, they can shrug off the fake charm as a snake discards an unwanted skin. Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution. Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Marriage is for woman the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution. Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals
Prostitution will always lead into a moral quagmire in democratic societies with capitalist economies; it invades the terrain of intimate sexual relations yet beckons for regulation. A society’s response to prostitution goes to the core of how it chooses between the rights of some persons and the protection of others. Barbara Neil Hobson, Uneasy Virtue
Prostitution reinforces all the old dumb clichés about women’s sexuality; that they are not built to enjoy sex and are little more than walking masturbation aids, things to be DONE TO, things so sensually null and void that they have to be paid to indulge in fornication, that women can be had, bought, as often as not sold from one man to another. When the sex war is won prostitutes should be shot as collaborators for their terrible betrayal of all women. Julie Burchill
When prostitution is a crime, the message conveyed is that women who are sexual are bad, and therefore legitimate victims of sexual assault. Sex becomes a weapon to be used by men. Margo St James, San Francisco Examiner 29th April 1979
I had never been with a woman for longer than a night, and they had always been whores. And while throughout each of these speedy encounters I tried to maintain a friendliness with the women, I knew in my heart it was false, and afterward always felt remote and caved in. I had in the last year or so given up whores entirely, thinking it best to go without rather than pantomime human closeness. Patrick Dewitt, The Sisters Brothers
Every hooker I ever speak to tells me that it beats the hell out of waitressing. Woody Allen, Deconstructing Harry
In Anglo-Saxon countries the prostitutes look as if they purveyed, along with sin, the attendant pains of hell. Theodor W Adorno
Any argument against making [prostitution] legal is really a reaction to fear. It’s time that we got rid of some of our fears and thought about both the safety and well-being of everyone involved, and about the fact that taxing this profession would bring in substantial revenue that could be used for all sorts of positive social services. Jeannette Angell, ‘A Wellness Perspective on Prostitution, Freedom, Religion and More’, 2005
Prostitution requires for its diminution not only laws, well enforced, to abolish the traffic in womanhood; not only better social protection against harpies who seduce young girls seeking an honest livelihood; not only better chaperonage of young girls in exposed occupations; not only better opportunities for natural enjoyment of youthful pleasure under morally safe conditions; not only these – but most of all, greater power on the part of the average young girl to earn her own support under right conditions and for a living wage. Anna Garlin Spencer, Woman’s Share in Social Culture
Galvanised into action by the second trial, I was determined to change Britain’s archaic sex laws. Cynthia Payne
It’s important to embrace to the part of you that likes to embrace money and the part of you that doesn’t give a damn ... I’m happy to sell my services. Sasha, spokesperson Tantric Sex Centre
To make big money in the sex game, don’t sell sex but make like the mob and sell protection. Underworld Inc s1e2: Sex for Sale, National Geogrpahic 2015
Every job a potential ticket to the hospital or worse. ibid.
She wasn’t a young woman, by any means. She didn’t look much like my idea of a prostitute either, but that was because she hadn’t any make-up on. She had a longish, plain ace with a straight nose and almost no eyebrows; she must have plucked them away in order to repaint them in higher up. Her hair was in rollers in the front, and had a dull reddish look like old rust. She was wearing an old woollen dressing-gown and smoking a cigarette. Lynn Reid Banks, The L-Shaped Room
‘Now you’re going to ask if I hate all men. Well, I don’t. You can’t hate what you don’t respect. I’m sorry for them – I don’t suppose you believe that, but it’s true. Even the queer ones, the ones that want a bit off the other side of the cake, well, you can’t help but be sorry for ’em. And some you can only laugh at – only you mustn’t let ’em see it, of course.’ ibid.