Why call them that...

They don't sleep with just anyone. They sleep with royals. No diseases. Good body. There are classes within the sex workers as well.

So high class prostitutes basically...

Imperial ho’s

Well, yes. But English and the culture this language brings makes the culture of other countries look vulgar. Geisha in China or Devdasi in Southern India. They were women who choose to have sexual liaisons with others purely out of their will and no one else's. They were women who were proficient in dance, music and other arts. They were women of high social and noble status. The prudish and sexist English culture could not comprehend the free will of women and instantly classified everyone as lowly prostitutes in their generic and limited vocabulary...

Yes….all kidding aside, I remember seeing that movie, Geisha. It was awesome. Gave a great insight into exactly what you’re talking about. They were more accomplished culturally than most any single individual of nobility.

umm no. devdasi, especially in the later vedic period, were the daughters of commoners or peasants who were "beautiful despite their class" so they were forcibly married(by preists) to the statue of a god to become the god's servant (dev=god . dasi= female servant)

later they would be forced to dance naked in front of god (alone except for the priests) and later the priest would take her to another room to have sex with her. if she refused, the priest would kill her and then say she died "by the wrath of god"

i can't exactly say what went on in the southern part, but yeah, in northern and central india , this is what happened. mostly coz priests were the highest and most respected class and they exploited that.

so no, the girls didn't do it of their free will.

I learn so much on here. After reading your comment, I started to remember more of the Geisha movie. I saw it sooooooo long ago. What stuck in my mind was the beauty, grace and accomplishments of the Geisha. I pulled out my dvd and read the synopsis. Ugh, I’d totally forgotten the horrific details. The fl in the movie and her sister were sold to a Geisha house by her father I believe. They were very poor. One sister was pretty so they kept her. They sent the other sister to a whore house. They were just kids. So, yeah, no choices there.

Just shows women in these countries were exploited, raped, sexualized, trafficked by vulgar pig men. Whether East, West…all over the world. Since men wrote history my guess is they glamorized this disgusting practice. This movie was based on life just prior to WW2. Not sure about the Geisha culture further back in history. I’ll probably read up on it later since this has peaked my interest. However, my guess is a Geisha house is nothing more than a brothel that serves the rich by offering educated prostitutes.

You are welcome. I haven't yet seen the movie but I've read the book. Yes, they were sold but the father was already dead. I believe they were sold by a rich businessman or something. The older sister became a prostitute but the younger one became a Geisha because her eyes were a unique grey-blue color. She was sold to the madam of that bitch Hatsumoto I think.

Geisha did have more choice than prostitute and Geisha were mostly entertainers rather than prostitutes. I don't know if it was shown in the movie or not, but there was an event of giving up her virginity. Literally her viriginity was "on sale" like an auction, and the main competetors were her mentor's owner and a doctor. She was 'persuaded' with the reason that she would have to do it someday anyway and she could rather do it for the highest price.

Geisha house is not a brothel but rather an entertainment house, i suppose. but they can choose to have sex with whomever they want. except if they had a debt, like Hatsumoto.

Geisha is Japan not China....

Sorry! My mistake!

And yes guys! Everything, including ideologies that once began to overthrow existing corrupt systems, become corrupt in the end. I only meant to point out that every culture has its own systems and we can't look at it from a single perspective and then, look down on it.