Portal:Prostitution

The word grisette (sometimes spelled grizette) has referred to a French working-class woman from the late 17th century and remained in common use through the Belle Époque era, albeit with some modifications to its meaning. It derives from gris (French for grey), and refers to the cheap grey fabric of the dresses these women originally wore. The 1694 edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française described a grisette as simply "a woman of lowly condition". By the 1835 edition of the dictionary, her status had risen somewhat. She was described as a young working woman who is coquettish and flirtatious.

The sexual connotations which had long accompanied the word are made explicit in Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1976) which lists one of its meanings as a young woman who combines part-time prostitution with another occupation.

Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro (born Ashley Youmans; April 30, 1985) better known by the stage name Ashley Alexandra Dupré, is a former call girl. She has worked as a sex columnist for the New York Post, and as a singer. She became a public figure when it was disclosed that she was the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. In that capacity, she was known as Kristen, the name she used as a call girl.

On February 13, 2008, Dupré travelled by Amtrak from New York's Pennsylvania Station to Washington, D.C., for an assignation at the Mayflower Hotel with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. The arrangements had been made by phone between Spitzer and a booker at Emperors Club VIP. (read more...)

• ... that between 1778 and 1801, Manor House, 21 Soho Square, London, (pictured) was a high-class magic brothel called The White House, described by Henry Mayhew as a "notorious place of ill-fame"?
• ... that the Admiral Apartments, built in 1909, had "sporting girls" (prostitutes) operating out of it by 1913?
• ... that at the town next to the Brazilian gold mine Serra Pelada, thousands of underage girls prostituted themselves for gold flakes while around 60–80 unsolved murders were registered every month?
• ... that the area around La Merced Market, Mexico City, is considered to be a "tolerance zone" for prostitution?

• 4th
  • 1972: Death of Shirley Brifman, an Australian prostitute and brothel madam who was known as a whistleblower on police corruption. She died at the age of 36 in suspicious circumstances, in what was ruled a suicide.
• 12th
  • 1975: Birth of Vanessa de Oliveira, a Brazilian writer and former call girl.
• 17th
  • 2008: Resignation of the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, following revelations of a prostitution scandal by the New York Times.
• 19th
  • 1944: Birth of Molly Luft (nee Edda Blanck), a German prostitute, noted for her obesity and lurid make-up.
• 27th
  • 2017: Paying for sex in Ireland became illegal by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 coming into force.

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