6 Reasons Why Harlots/Prostitutes Lack Character

 

Do you know a harlot or prostitute? Chances are your answer would be No. It's true. Nobody wants the bad label of a harlot or prostitute. Yet these undesirable elements are everywhere in the society. Why do I call them undesirable elements? I don't know about your society but many societies even in Africa frowned upon the practice of prostitution, which is called the oldest profession. A prostitute, according to the dictionary, is a person, especially a woman, who engages in sexual activity for payment. I have never been paid for sex. I have never lived on sex as a means of getting my needs met, including when I was a student, in Nigeria and abroad. I've received gifts from men mostly letters and cards but never anything to make me hooked on anybody for payment.

In old Israel, women who played the harlot were stoned to death. As recorded in the Bible in Genesis 38, that would have been the fate of Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah who disguised and got pregnant by him. It was for his staff, ring and bracelet that she was set free. She wanted payment for the sexual intercourse. That payment was to be a kid, a young goat. But the absence of the preferred choice of payment got Judah into trouble. He gave away his personal items, which were to be redeemed in the morning with the kid. Unfortunately, when his work men returned with Tamar's payment, she had left with his personal belongings. What's my point? Harlots get paid for sex. Prostitutes get money or any other kind of aggrandizement for their relation with their clients. 

Prostitutes. Picture credit: vanguard.ng

In Nigeria, there were parlours where women sat and spoke to men. Beer parlours provided men the opportunity to relax after the day. Some women chose to live in those beer parlours and provide small talk to those women. This has led to the glorification or glamourization of idle talk as we have on many gossip blogs and magazines. I worked close to one to discover that sex did happen there with the condom left in the backyard, close to a gutter. This incident happened shortly after I had left secondary school in 1997. Whether the men came with the condom or the women kept them, I wouldn't know as I was merely an attached casual worker with the Nigerian Breweries PLC at Aba, Abia State, Nigeria, redeeming corks not cocks. 

There were also brothels that had no beer parlour for men to sit and chat with some of those women of easy access (who were called women of easy virtue). Payment is important to harlots and prostitutes. It could be in kind or cash, but mostly by the latter means. Nowadays, there aren't beer parlours and brothels for harlots to live and practicse their trade. Today, many practise prostitution out of their normal home. They, like Tamar, would carry on like your neighbours while they did their deed and often cause trouble in the society. Universities and other tertiary institutions now form base for prostitution and harlotry. Those places are occupied by adults who try to fend for themselves without working out of an office. Those who aren't in school are working out of private and even public offices. There are other instances of harlotry in the Bible.

Remember Rahab? The story is told of a harlot in Joshua Chapter 2 who lives by the village wall of Jericho. She hides two spies sent by Joshua to find out how to overthrow Jericho. Having successfully negotiated her own price and freedom, she hides them on the roof of her building, covering them with flax left out to dry. She gives them insider information on how to avert being caught. Anyway, you know how the walls of Jericho came down? Read more of the story for yourself.

There is that story crediting King Solomon with wisdom. Two women lived together and both had a baby. One of the children dies and the two women quarrel over maternity. The king decides that it better for the child to die to end the problem. One woman agrees to kill the baby while the other refuses, preferring it to be in foster care than being killed to settle quarrels. Eventually, the king decides to hand the baby to the one who wants the baby alive Hmm.... I think the king in the story didn't decided on biological maternity but on kindness. Some biological mothers kill their own children. It wasn't enough for the baby to belong to her for her to let it live. Love and kindness (or even wisdom in being sensitive to the common sense) shown by the other harlot may have given the baby to her. There's the other story of a woman caught in adultery (or was it harlotry) whom the Jews brought to Jesus Christ to judge. He asks them to cast the first stone if they were without sin and none does that to free the woman. Many forget that he asked her not to sin anymore. While sin is man's greatest enemy and weakness, it's supplanted with discipline. Harlots don't like discipline except to achieve an end. Like witches, harlots cause insecurity, poverty and corruption. Beware of harlotry and prostitution.

Harlotry is a practice most men use or abuse. Many harlots are killed in their line of work. They are often victims of blackmail from hypocrites, many of whom were their clients or customers. Harlots harbour and infect the society with sexually transmitted diseases. There are many reasons why people don't like them besides the health hazard that they pose to mankind. They are spiteful and many like Tamar are evil choosing often to beguile in order to make ends meet. Today, that everybody is almost the same. How can you tell that someone could be a harlot or prostitute?

Here are 6 reasons why harlots/prostitutes do not have character:

1. Anything you achieve or secure would threaten their existence. Harlots don't like to see you happy and well dressed. They compete with others for any reason. They are very covetous and vile in their attitude towards other people.
2. They want to be good people when they cannot be, easily beguiling you for any good deed done for you. They are never kind. They hate you for your own kindness. They make people pay for every little act of kindness provided them. Family members aren't even spared.
   
3. With any achievement, the idea that it's stolen is all that makes it golden. Harlots love to snatch everything from other women. They want your husband, your job, your car, your jewellery, your boyfriend, just about everything that you've got. And when they have it clinched, they'd treasure it forever until there's something else to steal. They're always on the goose chase and never satiated. Too bad.
4. They are successful because the devil looks after his own. Harlots and prostitutes thrive in most governments. They are good with civilian leaders (as we have a democracy now) and good with military officers during military regime. They use bottom power (power for sexual clout), which allows them access to many resources that you can only imagine.
   
5. They live their wonderful lives of lies, coveting all you've got. These people live false lives. They have fat bank accounts as far as you think because they have the costliest phones, wear the most expensive jewellery and clothing and possibly exotic cars.
6. They thwart progress at all levels not minding the consequences of their action to other people. They are traitors and saboteurs. They are friends of your enemy. They are often the enemy within your own camp, house, community, village, state or country.  Remember Rahab the harlot in Joshua chapter 2?
   

There's no telling why anybody has remained a prostitute despite all the evil associated with it. Many young men and women have been lured into prostitution due to poverty. Some other youngsters have been lured into prostitution due to deviance and recalcitrance. Some have gone on to becoming emancipated through hustling (which is another name for prostitution?) but find it hard to shed the ugly habit. However, I believe that rather than throw the baby out with the bad water, efforts should be made to standardize prostitution. Public policy can make the difference here. It's not enough to say that our senators, governors, members of the house of representatives or house of assembly have known or been prostitutes themselves. We should find a way to regulate street prostitution. And if somebody is a frequent user of facilities employed by prostitutes get them to identify as practising the trade. No hide and seek games found out in the society today. No hiding in marriages in order to deceive the world. It's risky to allow these men and women to hide in marriages, families and communities if their preferred trade is risky to all and sundry.