Red-light district

File:Sex worker statue Oudekerksplein Amsterdam.jpgs in Amsterdam, Netherlands]]

Red-light districts are mentioned in the 1882 minutes of a Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting in the United States.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NN5CAQAAMAAJ|title=Minutes of the Ninth Annual Meeting|pages=332, 333 & 363|publisher=National Woman's Christian Temperance Union|year=1882}} The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest known appearance of the term "red light district" in print as an 1894 article from the Sandusky Register, a newspaper in Sandusky, Ohio.{{cn|date=September 2023}}

Author Paul Wellman suggests that this and other terms associated with the American Old West originated in Dodge City, Kansas, home to a well-known prostitution district during the 19th century, which included the Red Light House saloon.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/tramplingherd00well|url-access=registration|quote=Paul Wellman Dodge City red light.|last=Wellman|first=Paul Iselin|title=The Trampling Herd: The Story of the Cattle Range in America|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1988|isbn=0-8032-9723-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/tramplingherd00well/page/195 195]}} This has not been proven, but the Dodge City use was likely responsible for the term's pervasiveness.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxxHnAq50wsC|last=Barra|first=Allen|title=Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0803220584}} A widespread folk etymology claims that early railroad workers took red lanterns with them when they visited brothels so their crew could find them in the event of an emergency. However, folklorist Barbara Mikkelson regards this as unfounded.{{cite web |url= http://www.snopes.com/language/colors/redlight.asp|title= Red Light District|author= Barbara Mikkelson|date= July 9, 2007 |work= snopes.com|access-date=October 3, 2010}}

File:JudgeMagazine12Jan1901.jpg cover]]

A commonly repeated, though likely spurious, folk etymology stems from sailors coming back from sea to Amsterdam ({{Circa|1650}}): Women working as prostitutes, deprived of proper hygiene and running fresh water, carrying red lanterns — with their color camouflaging boils, zits, inequalities in the face and on the skin — made clear they were available as women of pleasure.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

One of the many terms used for a red-light district in Japanese is {{nihongo|akasen|赤線}}, literally meaning "red-line". Japanese police drew a red line on maps to indicate the boundaries of legal red-light districts. In Japanese, the term {{nihongo|aosen|青線}}, literally meaning "blue-line", also exists, indicating an illegal district.

In the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term "sporting district" became popular for legal red-light districts. Municipal governments typically defined such districts explicitly to contain and regulate prostitution.{{cite book | title=Prostitution in the United States.| author=Woolston, Howard Brown | year=2009 |orig-date=1921 | publisher=The Century Company | location=New York | isbn=978-0-217-03857-7 | page=[https://archive.org/details/prostitutioninun01wool/page/105 105]–107 | url=https://archive.org/details/prostitutioninun01wool}}

In World War I (circa 1915), "Brothels displayed blue lamps if they were for officers and red lamps for other ranks."{{cite web|title=WW1 brothels: Why troops ignored calls to resist 'temptation'|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-25762151|date= 2014-02-27|access-date=2024-04-26}}

Some red-light districts (such as De Wallen, Netherlands, or Reeperbahn, Germany) are places that are officially designated by authorities for legal and regulated prostitution. Often, these red-light districts were formed by authorities to help regulate prostitution and other related activities, such that they were confined to a single area.{{cite web|title=The Red Light District of Amsterdam |url=https://www.camsterdamn.com/news/amsterdam-red-light-district/ |publisher=CamsterDamn |access-date=February 20, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520125420/https://www.camsterdamn.com/news/amsterdam-red-light-district/ |archive-date=May 20, 2013}}

Some red-light districts (such as those in The Hague){{cite web|url=http://www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/relocation-and-settling/to/Camera-surveillance.htm|title=Camera surveillance in red-light districts in The Hague|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008030841/http://www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/relocation-and-settling/to/Camera-surveillance.htm |archive-date=2016-10-08 |date=January 24, 2014}} are under video surveillance. This can help counter illegal forms of prostitution (such as child prostitution), in these areas that do allow regular prostitution to occur.

[[File:Prostitution laws of the world2.svg|center|thumb|upright=2.5|Legality of prostitution{{legend|#00ffff|Decriminalization - No criminal penalties for prostitution}}

{{legend|#008000|Legalisation – prostitution is legal and regulated}}

{{legend|#336699|Semi-legal – prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated}}

{{legend|#ff7f00|Quasi-legal – illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex}}

{{legend|#FF0000|Prohibitionism – prostitution illegal}}

{{legend|#585858|Legality varies with local laws}}]]

File:Red Light District.jpg|The Red Light District in Amsterdam

File:Reeperbahn at dawn.jpg|Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany

File:Soi Cowboy - Bangkok.jpg|Soi Cowboy, Bangkok, Thailand

File:RedLightDistrictAmsterdamBloedstraat.jpg|Rooms illuminated by red lights in De Wallen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

File:Aarschotstraat.jpg|Rue d'Aerschot, Brussels, Belgium

File:Kabukicho-Sinjyuku-Tokyo.JPG|Kabukichō Ichiban-gai gate and colorful neon street signs, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

• List of red-light districts
• Prostitution by region

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{{Commons category-inline|Red-light districts}}

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Category:English-language idioms