Government website

The government's website on sex workers Brazil's Labor and Employment Ministry Primer on Sex Professional, which describes sex work as labor, has been the source of controversy, with some accusing the government of encouraging professional sex work.^[19][20] However, this is not the purpose of the site at all. Rather, the Ministry of Labor site simply lists all of the characteristics of prostitution as work: i.e., what a prostitute is typically expected to do in the course of their labor. The site in no way encourages or "advises" about prostitution.

The press reported at the end of 2008 that a government official has announced that the site would be "toned down" following criticism by the media.^[20] The law professor Luiz Flavio Gomes has told the O Globo newspaper in its online edition that "What is on the site gives the impression of an apology for sexual exploitation."^[21]

"Professional of sex" is described as follows: "They [the sex worker] works on their own initiative, in the street, in bars, night-clubs, hotels, harbor, highways and in garimpos (gold prospecting places). They act in different environments: open air, closed places and inside vehicles, in irregular schedules. In the exercise of some of their activities they can be exposed to vehicles gases, to bad weather, to sound pollution and to social discrimination. There are still risks of getting STD infections, bad-treatment, street violence, and death."

Prostitution and slavery

Portrait of a Slave by Rugendas, 1835

After little successful attempts with enslaved Indians, in the 16th century the Portuguese began to import black Africans to Brazil. The slaves also had to be sexually available to their owners, and also to their overseers, friends, relatives, visitors, traveling tradesmen, merchants and others. From there it was only a small step to prostitution with enslaved negroes and mulattoes women and girls. Since slaves were considered as things and not as persons,^[22] similar to animals, they were not protected by any laws and could be exploited almost without restriction. There were also no restrictions on the use of minor slave girls in the brothels. Many slaveowners also sent their slaves to the streets to make money by selling homemade sweets, small products or services, and as if it were the most natural thing of the world they also used the opportunity to decorate girls with a few colorful and gold ribbons.^[23][24] The young slave girls and women were sent either to work in the brothels or had to offer themselves at the windows of the houses of their owners or they received a passport from their mistress or their master which allowed them to spend the night in the streets, and in dawn they had to return and with the money they earned from prostitution. If the stipulated minimum amount was not achieved, the usual punishments on the slaves were carried out.^[25]

During the first half of the 19th century the slaves, who were destined for prostitution, were bought directly from the African traders. After the end of official slavery between Africa and America, the slave girl were delivered by the large farms in Minas Gerais and northeastern Brazil to the brothels and pimps. Pimps, often poor "gypsies" or small criminals, came to great prosperity and lived "in the greatest lascivious behavior among their host of young, submissive black sex slaves." Even in private classifieds about the sale of private female house slaves, there was often quite unashamedly pointed out to the willingness and sexual subservience of "well-behaved" black and mulatto girls.^[26]

There were in the 19th century four types of prostitutes. First, the negroes and mulattoes, who had to be prostitutes by orders of their owner. Often, they had to deliver the entire income, some others were allowed to keep part of the money for incentive, and others had to bring a minimum each day, otherwise they were beaten or tortured. The second category were poor free women, often ex-slaves or their daughters, who inhabited miserable huts, and there or on the street they prostituted themselves and their daughters. The third category were foreign girls who had been lured or sold to Brazil under false promises. Although they were free persons in the law, they were treated as slaves, trapped in the brothels, forced into debt bondage, beaten and tortured, when they couldn't earn enough money to pay the debts, the high interest rates, rental fees for their room and the other costs of their life. The fourth category was made up of French and other courtesans who lived in their own large houses and possessed carriages and exquisite jewelry and frequented theaters and other sociological events.^[27]

The fact that the enslaved girls and women were exploited in prostitution without misery nor protection by the law was also used as an argument for the abolitionism, the social movement to abolish slavery in the 19th century. The Lei do Ventre Livre ("Law of the free belly"), according to which children of slaves were no longer slaves themselves, also decided that slaves were allowed to save money, which their master could not arbitrarily take away from them, and with which they could free themselves. As a result, it became more interesting for slave girls to become prostitute, because this way they had a chance to earn a tip for themselves. The inhibition to prostitute themselves was usually low for the female slaves, because they had learned since childhood that they had no sexual self-determination and were accustomed to be raped. However, the custody and administration of the savings of a slave was the responsibility of the owner, and he could try to manipulate the savings and list cost and penalties like tricky pimps do. There have been even processes of female slaves against their masters, where the women often had to prove with the help of clients that they had been "industrious" and diligent and had numerous customers, much more as listed in the wrong accounting of the master.^[28]

Although there had been several attempts to prohibit prostitution, there were no laws against it. Prostitutes were sometimes charged with being vagabonds and with provoking disorder.^[29]

The climax of prostitution in the early 20th century

After the abolition of official slavery in Brazil by the Lei Áurea (Golden Law) in 1888, many former female slaves and their daughters or granddaughters tried to earn some money as prostitutes. In addition, there were more and more imported girls from Europe, especially from the poorer regions in the East, Jews, Albanians, women and girls from the Habsburg monarchy, and for the higher demands French and Italians.^[30] From this time report the novels of the well-known Brazilian writer Jorge Amado, in which there are often more prostitutes than other women.^[31] The climax was reached around 1930; the brothels in Rio de Janeiro were famous all over the world, the brothel Casa Rosa is today a cultural center.^[32][33]

Jewish forced prostitutes in Brazil

The Jewish prostitutes are a special chapter in the history of prostitution in Brazil.^[34] In 1867, to the port of Rio de Janeiro came seventy Jewish women from Poland, who had been attracted by false promises and were abused as prostitutes. Like their subsequent Jewish sufferers from Russia, Lithuania, Romania, Austria, and even France, they were called "Polacas" (Polish Girls). About 1,200 women followed them in the next years. Most were victims of the Jewish pimp mafia Zwi Migdal. Their members traveled to the impoverished towns of Eastern Europe and established themselves as rich businessmen from Latin America looking for brides. In truth, they were trafficking. The women who believed their promises became sex slaves.^[35]

In 1931, Brazil counted more than 400 Jewish brothels. In 1936 the German writer Stefan Zweig visited Rio de Janeiro's famous red light district Mangue. He described in his diary the misery of these women, but he also noted that these Eastern European Jewish women promised exciting and unusual perversion. The prostitutes founded a second Jewish community in Rio, with their own cemetery and their own synagogue, because the prostitutes were rejected by the other Jews. There the women celebrated the Jewish festivals, although there was no liturgy for women at the time. The pimps were important sponsors of the Jewish theater. At the premieres, Polacas, luxuriously dressed, sat in the front rows and were presented to the potential clientele. The Second World War ended this trafficking of women. The Jewish prostitutes influenced the cultural life and the artist scene of Rio. They inspired musicians to many compositions. On average the women became only forty years old. There are three cemeteries of Jewish prostitutes in Brazil. In 1970, the last of the prostitutes lured into the country was buried at Rio's Jewish prostitute cemetery.^[36]

In 2007, Rio de Janeiro's Jewish community first conceived a Sabbath ceremony for Jewish prostitutes, which was designed only by women. The celebration was held not in a synagogue, but in the cultural center of the district Lapa, but there are still prejudices against these women.^[37]

Last years

Stickers on a payphone advertising the services of prostitutes

According to a poll taken in 1998 (26 years ago), 64% of the population thought professional sex work was immoral and should be made illegal, whereas 29% saw it as a job like any other. Fifty-nine percent (64% of women) believed that sex workers do what they do because they like it.^[38]

In the 2000s, sex worker Bruna Surfistinha, a confessing prostitute, gained media attention for her blog where she told of her experiences with clients. She became famous and wrote an autobiographic book, O Doce Veneno do Escorpião (São Paulo, SP: Panda Books, 2005). The most important fighter for the rights of the prostitutes was the prostitute Gabriela Leite, (1951–2013), who was the leading the campaign for to recognize the sex workers as a profession, so that they got access to the system of pension. She is the founder of Davida, an organization for the rights of sex workers. There are several organizations like the "Rede brasileira de prostitutas" (Network of Brazilian prostitutes).^[39]

The state of Minas Gerais is the seat of the busy Aprosmig (Association of Prostitutes in Minas Gerais).^[40] It became famous because of the annual election of Miss Prostitute,^[41] and it organized English courses for the prostitutes before the Soccer World Cup 2014 in Brazil and the Olympic Summer Games 2016.^[42] and access to insurances for the sex workers. By its initiative prostitutes working in the streets can be paid cashless, too. The Aprosmig has also a little sex-museum.^[43]

The limit between prostitutes and non-prostitutes is becoming more and more fluid, as there are more and more opportunities and non-professional prostitutes, who are offering their body only when they need money or other goods. Besides the classical survival sex, women and teenager offer sex to get a mobile or other product, to pay their or their parents debts or they are looking for immaterial advantages. Women and girls are selling themselves from time to time at the streets or the beach or are forced to by their partners, to get the sum to pay some extra expenses. Oral sex is not regarded as a real sex among the teenagers, and therefore it is not considered as a form of prostitution. While official estimates are based on one million Brazilian prostitutes, much higher numbers are mentioned by free associations. In the formerly network Orkut, up to 30% of all surveyed women and girls in various surveys stated that they had already performed sexual services for money or other benefits or goods. 10% of the surveyed women voted that they had oral sex for the first time younger than 10 years. Other opportunity considered no prostitution is working as a cam-girl in the internet.^[44]

The most important districts devoted to commercial sex are the Vila Mimosa in Rio de Janeiro or the Rua Augusta in Sao Paulo, are well known. In the Rua Guaicurus in Belo Horizonte, Capital of the Federal State Minas Gerais,^[45] there are hundreds of naked or half-naked girls in small rooms or in front of them, where they can be seen and contacted by the men passing through the floors. Therefore, the houses are always teeming with slippery men who often do not even want to buy sex, but searching only the free visual stimuli.^[46] The fees are very cheap, but despite of the large number of prostitutes, many girls get more than 20 clients per 12-hour shift. A prostitute needs between four and fifteen customers to pay the room rent. The rooms are small, poorly ventilated, dark and mostly without bathroom.^[47]

In April 2021, many prostitutes in Minas Gerais participated in a work stoppage with the goal of being recognized as a priority group for COVID-19 vaccines.