Pilegesh or Prostitute

[Shadowjak's Dancer]

So, I was just wondering if the reintroduction of concubineage in society would help reduce prostitution. On the one hand there are men who are so keen to get some they are willing to pay. On the other hand, there are women who are willing to give their bodies for provision.

Prostitutes, sadly, get passed from male to male. Disease, fatherless children, and other natural consequences are obviously a part of that horror.

Thoughts?

 

[Slumberfreeze]

My opinion is that men with means will get what they want without needing society to approve in any concrete way about their activities, so anyone able and intending to keep a woman on the side is probably already doing so. And my idea of a 'concubine' is very much of that of a 'side woman'. Even if society approved of concubinage there are enough broken families producing enough drug addicted runaways that no-one has the time, money or inclination to take responsibility for, except the pimps who exploit them. Ah... and they aren't looking for a nice guy...

The addition of a social niche that could be an alternative (I don't believe) will significantly reduce the impact that (A) Women crave male attention, money, and vanity (B) Men are eager to exploit women.

Reducing this problem to a simple economic one will probably be a mistake, because the principle problem with all economic systems is not that they couldn't work, but that the economies are entirely populated with BAD PEOPLE for whom no system can function without victimization. Some systems merely deal more realistically with how bad people really are.

In this case, my opinion of humanity being what it is, I think instating concubinage.. or legalizing polygamy... will not over much reduce prostitution.

Maybe if society became OVERWHELMINGLY patriarchal to an improbable degree, and experienced a revival of epic proportions: Where women did not and could not easily leave their husbands, where daughters stayed in their father's house until marriage, where the penalty for rape was marriage, and where even non Christians were raised to conform to christian morals. And then yes, men being allowed to keep multiple women as they are able to provide.

Maybe that might put a dent that would be noticeable in prostitution.

 

[rustywest4]

I second Slumber's epic analysis of western civilization! #patriarchy

 

[FollowingHim]

Have you read "Thelyphthora, or A Treatise on Female Ruin"? You'll find links to it on our books page. This classic work (around 250 years old) addresses this directly, and does hypothesise that polygamy would reduce prostitution - but not for the reason you suggest. The author was a medical doctor who frequently worked with prostitutes. He found that most prostitutes were women who had had their virginity taken by a man, who had then abandoned them, and they had afterwards resorted to prostitution. If the man who had taken their virginity had been required to keep them as a wife / concubine, then they would never have ended up in prostitution in the first place.

 

[NetWatchR]

Have you read "Thelyphthora, or A Treatise on Female Ruin"?

I was just going to recommend this. But to add or restate on to what's already been said: Sure, it may reduce prostitution, but will never get rid of it. Nothing will. There will always be men wanting to have sex without a relationship and there will always be women willing to temporarily satisfy that want in exchange for money (or other barter) whether she be self-managed or scheduled via a 3rd Party.

 

[Shadowjak's Dancer]

I haven't read that, no. I will have a look, thanks. Obviously, bringing righteousness back will never resolve all the evil in men's hearts, but I do believe that corruption spreads. A little leaven, and all... Desperate people can often make poor decisions. People get used to the level of corruption they have fallen to, etc. Would it solve everything? No, but I think it could help to reduce certain evils in society when people learn there are alternate, less shameful, ways to function.

 

[Joleneakamama]

He found that most prostitutes were women who had had their virginity taken by a man, who had then abandoned them, and they had afterwards resorted to prostitution. If the man who had taken their virginity had been required to keep them as a wife / concubine, then they would never have ended up in prostitution in the first place.

I have had family spend time in jail, and it is very true that a vast majority of prostitutes were violated, many of them by step dads and uncles.
I think the modern confusion on what God considers marriage plays a roll in this, as does people's reluctance to look at verses regulating that horrible, awful practice, of a man taking another wife!

If men knew that God viewed them having sex with their step-daughter as a capital offense, and their wife would be executed too, AND their bodies would be burned after they were rocked to death.....it would still only deter the men who feared God......until a few guilty got that kind of treatment.
God said that works. And the fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom.

Families get destroyed by that sort of thing all the time, and the fall out continues for generations.