Prostitution is capitalism in action, in its most nakedly exploitative form.

It doesn't make any difference whether a pimp is a man or a woman.

It doesn't make any difference whether a prostitute is a man or a woman.

Traditionally, there has been one kind of customer (male) and two kinds of prostitutes (women for sale to heterosexual men, and men for sale to homosexual men.)

A new type of prostitution is now emerging: Western women are going on sex tours to poor countries in Asia, the Caribbean and Africa where they have sex with male prostitutes.

Slavery is endemic in the industry, and always has been.

In the 19th century Irish women, for instance, were brought to America by entrepreneurs such as Honey Fitz on the pretext that they were going to work as domestic servants; they then found themselves enslaved as prostitutes and at the mercy of their gangmasters' gangs.

Today the same trade is being carried on using the same techniques with Eastern European and African women.

This subject is touched on in the novel Two Caravans by Maria Lewycky

The charity Ruhama is working with prostitutes in Ireland; more information on that website.