These ladies may die, but their story is deathless: modern-day academics analyze the trope of the tubercular heroine and lately, I’ve been thinking about it too. I dressed up as Marguerite Gautier for Halloween, as well as two other times in the past year. And I’m jealous that one of my dearest friends is named Marguerite Camille–wouldn’t I love to be named after a literary heroine!

I read the original novel last year for a music course focusing on how works of literature get adapted into operas. Of course it’s a sentimental tearjerker, and the hero, Armand Duval, is annoying, weak, and whiny. If Dumas was like this in real life, I wouldn’t want to have known him! But Marguerite is always vivid and sympathetic (Verdi had the right idea to make her the central character) and the book has an interesting narrative strategy. Like Wuthering Heights, it’s one of those 19th-century novels where narrations nest within one another. The first narrator is an unnamed man who hears that courtesan Marguerite Gautier has died, and becomes intrigued by her life. Then he encounters Armand, Marguerite’s lover, who tells his sad story to Narrator #1. Then the climax of the story comes in Marguerite’s confessional letter to Armand–a third nested narrator.

The most surprising part of the book is the true meaning of Marguerite’s famous camellias. I’d always assumed they were purely symbolic–their virginal whiteness denoting that although Marguerite is a courtesan, she has an unstained and noble heart. But actually, the camellias serve a much more mercenary function…

Every time a new play opened, one was sure to see [Marguerite] there, with three things she never left behind [...] : her lorgnette, a bag of bonbons, and a bouquet of camellias. For twenty-five days out of the month the camellias were white, and for five they were red; no one ever knew the reason for the change in color, which I mention without being able to explain it. (my translation)

Oh Narrator, stop being so coy! You know the reason perfectly well–we all do. Yes, you wrote at a time when people were supposed to pretend that women don’t menstruate or indeed have any bodily functions–but your novel is about a woman who sells her body! So stop with the faux innocence. It’s tipped over the line into salaciousness. (Anyone want to add “wearing red camellias” to the list of euphemisms like “visiting Aunt Flo” or “on the rag”?)

Credits: stanford.edu/~brooksie

After his novel became a success, Dumas adapted it into a play that served as a star vehicle for many actresses including Sarah Bernhardt (see the beautiful Alphons Mucha poster at left–image from art.com).

Now, when I was in France, my fantastic host family insisted that I throw a dinner party for my friends, and, naturally, I chose French Theatre for its theme. Everyone had to dress up as a character from a French play, and I went as Marguerite Gautier. After all, it’s an incredibly easy costume–all you have to do is look pretty and wear camellias. I couldn’t find any cut camellias (only potted bushes) in Paris flower shops, so I made do with a silk flower in my hair. I wore it with a black skirt and a black silk top with a small white floral print. None of my friends guessed who I was, which disappointed me.

Then, last week, a French professor held a Halloween party at his apartment where everyone had to dress up as a French literary or historical figure. Out came the Dame aux Camélias outfit again! This time, I had more silk camellias–two in my hair, one in my sash, one at my neckline–and wore them with a red velvet dress that I bought in France. And I did my makeup more elaborately, aiming for that consumptive complexion, pale with very flushed cheeks. I was a “modern” Marguerite–I didn’t have a big froufrou 1850s gown, but I tried to catch the character’s essence. It was kind of like Anna Netrebko’s costume in this video of the “Brindisi” from La Traviata–not that I claim to look like Ms. Netrebko, opera’s glamour-girl!

More people guessed who I was this time, and one of my friends even chastised me for not carrying around a big bloodstained handkerchief and coughing into it. And I suppose if someone had asked me to do a “trick” to get a “treat,” I’d have sung “Sempre libera,” albeit very poorly and with much fudging of lyrics. Certainly not like Angela Gheorghiu, whose great rendition seems to have become the YouTube standard for this aria:

Yesterday, my Tubercular French Courtesan outfit got yet another airing, because one of the dorms on campus had a “Moulin Rouge”-themed party and I helped distribute free crêpes for the French Club. This time, I made the costume less the ethereal, self-sacrificing Marguerite, and more the fun-loving bohemian cancan girl, by tying up the skirt of my red velvet dress with a red ribbon to make it shorter, and wearing black lace stockings. My friend (the same one who’d said I needed a bloody handkerchief) now told me that my drapey tied-up skirt looked “very Poiret,” which I took as a great compliment.

This story all comes full circle, though, because my inspiration for buying that red dress in the first place was… Moulin Rouge! The movie came out when I was 13, the perfect age to fall in love with it; it quickly became my all-time favorite and I still adore it. (Further IMDB-review thoughts here.) Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor have never looked better nor had to cover so much ground in a performance–singing, dancing, comedy, tragedy… And as soon as Kidman stepped out in that gorgeous red satin gown, I got a craving for a red dress of my own–even though it’s not my best color.
The more direct reason I bought my red dress is that my best friend Veronique in France was throwing his dinner party a month after mine, with a “Red” theme. In between the two parties, I’d fallen out with this guy and his friends, so I was not exactly looking forward to the occasion. But damn it, it gave me the excuse to buy the red dress I’d always wanted, and when I walked into La Redoute, and saw the deep-red velvet dress massively marked down, and available in my size only…well, it was meant to be, n’est-ce pas? I knew I’d be the best-dressed party guest–overdressed perhaps, but I didn’t care. (Isn’t there a whole history of red dresses symbolizing defiance? See Gone with the Wind or Jezebel.)

Still, I felt deeply hurt underneath my external defiance. And so when I listen to “Sempre libera” and Violetta sings “Sola, abbandonata, in questo popoloso deserto che appellano Parigi!” (Alone, abandoned, in this populous desert called Paris!) the words strike me to the heart. I know how it feels, Violetta.

And while researching this blog post I just discovered that Paul Poiret designed Sarah Bernhardt’s costumes for years–including for the film of La Dame aux camélias.

We all know the word prostitute but how many people know what a courtesan is? It is not a type of ointment that one rubs over something itchy, that is cortisone and is in no way related. Courtesans were at the top of the prostitutional hierarchy. They were above streetwalkers, prostitutes, madams and lorettes. They were the upper tier and they had very elegant lifestyles.

Courtesans were basically mistresses. They were supported by wealthy men who provided them with anything they could ever want. Many such women lived in a more comfortable way then some of the bourgoisie

Usually a woman of an upper class household would turn to the world of the courtesan for several different reasons. To begin with, marriage in the nineteenth century was more of a business deal then an act of true love. This idea was abhorrent to some women and so, not wanting to leave the comfort of their lifestyle would simply turn to a life that would allow them to continue on as they had without the confines of a husband. Some women chose the life of a courtesan in order to cultivate their minds which they usually, were they not independent, were meant to keep dormant.

Defining the courtesan basically comes down to this: “a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele.” (Courtesy of the Merriam Webster dictionary)

Being a Courtesan Lifestyle

Many women turned to prostitution out of desperation. These women needed money so badly that they were willing to become social pariahs if it meant that they could support themselves. These were generally women who had fallen on hard times. Then there were courtesans. These women did not choose this lifestyle out of desperation, or at least no the same type. These women chose to do this because it allowed them to live in such a way that was enviable to many.

Courtesans only stayed with a lover if they could provide them with a certain standard of living. If they could not then the woman would simply take a different lover. For what ever reason they were desirable, be it beauty or whit or even knowledge these women used their assets to gain a style of living that was extremely comfortable. As well as jewels, courtesans also received the money with which to provide housing which could be decorated in any style and degree that they desired. Everything was provided for them and all that was required of them was to entertain the men in any area he wished, whether it be intellectual or sexual.

Courtesans enjoyed such a comfortable lifestyle that they were often able to blend into society as wealthy bourgeoisie. They frequented the same hot-spots and lived in the same manner as did the upper class of the time. All that separated them was the fact that the upper class gained its money through inheritance and or working in socially acceptable jobs, whereas courtesans gained their wealth by selling their bodies.

Some women who were married took lovers who would buy them things. These women were able to have the best of both worlds in the stability of a husband and the constant influx of riches from their lovers.

In general courtesans were to be envied. Although they did exist by performing a socially stigmatized form of work they were able to live in extreme comfort and enjoy the lifestyle that they wanted. They would have several apartments, jewels, carriages and random other gifts for as long as they chose to stay with one benefactor. Them moment they were tired of any man they simply switched to another and retained their lifestyle in the comfort that they were accustomed to

A comparison of nineteenth century courtesans and the upper class women of the time illustrate the freedom that could be gained by giving up a husband and selling ones body. The bourgeoisie women of the eighteen hundreds were captives. From a young age they were not given the same rights as any male counterparts and were, simply because of their sex, given a lesser value. A young woman was not expected to be highly educated but was to be well versed in all the social etiquette of the time. She was to know how to perform the duties of a woman but in general was more of a window dressing. The thoughts and ideas of women were not taken seriously if they were even listened to by men and even if they made sense, the fact that it came from a woman discounted any substance it might have had.

Women were like children, meant to be seen and not heard. They were useful for starting a family, for running a household and for spending their husbands money on fripperies and fineries but that was about it.

With the birth of the enlightenment and the birth of salons women did gain a certain foothold into the world of politics and thought but were still not equal and were certainly not more powerful or prestigious then any man.

Courtesans were unlike the upper class women in many ways. They were not tied down to a husband and could enjoy the attentions of many men whenever they liked. They were also able to speak their minds on any subject. Although the women of the time were slowly gaining this right as well it did not compare to the way in which courtesans were able to speak and think freely along any route they chose.

Sex was also used as a way of gaining power and prestige. Courtesans were usually highly educated and well versed in the etiquette of the time but they were also independent and able to express themselves as no other women could.

A courtesan or lorette was in control of her own life. She decided what lovers to take and she decided what was acceptable for her to do or say. The more genteel women of the time did not have this luxury.

It seems as though selling one’s body is a small price to pay for the amount of freedom that was allowed to courtesans. Even though the bourgeoisie women had prestige based solely upon class distinctions they did not have any amount of freedom to live as they wished. Even women with more open-minded husbands or fathers were not able to act as they wished simply because society demanded certain things of women. This was not so for the courtesan who, in choosing her profession had already rejected society’s constraints and was thus able to live in an open and free manner

Upper Courtesans Social Acceptance

Being socially acceptable is a big thing nowadays. It seems that this has always been the case because fitting in with the right people has always been an important part of life for many centuries. Especially in the France of the eighteen hundreds social acceptability was a pivotal part of life. In a time when appearances and classes held so much sway, to be socially unacceptable was a terrible thing to be. In the world of prostitution gaining social acceptability was only made minutely possible if you were a very high class courtesan or sometimes a lorette.

It seems odd that prostitution was so widespread especially considering the fact that everyone spoke out against it. The only reason that I can come up with is that while everyone was busy saying that prostitution was wrong, they were also indulging themselves while no one was watching.

Nineteenth century France was full of sexual hypocrisy. The hypocrisy grew from the fact that though almost every man frequented brothels or spent his time with a mistress they also frowned upon prostitution in its many forms. While many men would publicly speak out about prostitution and would claim that it was a sin they could usually be found with one of the aforementioned sinners in the night.

Women did not look kindly on prostitution at all. Although several women kept lovers themselves they did not frequent brothels or pick up men on the street. This had a lot to do with the fact that the way that women acted was rigidly structured with the etiquette of the time. These proper women disliked the prostitutes and were perhaps even a little bit jealous of them as well. Courtesans of the time lead very comfortable lives as did lorettes. Streetwalkers and common prostitutes were not really enviable but they were at least living independently, supporting themselves. This is not to say that the women of the time wanted to be prostitutes but who wouldn’t envy someone who spent almost as much time with their husbands as they themselves did?

In general being a prostitute of any class was a double edged sword. Many resorted to such lines of work out of desperation or simply a desire to live in a comfortable manner. Although many women escaped poverty or a life of loveless marriage in this way they were also socially outcast. Only the courtesans, who were able to blend in with society to a certain extent, and even in some cases lorettes, were able to enjoy society and all it had to offer. While courtesans were able to blend in they did not always remain unnoticed by the bourgeoisie class. Sometimes, even a well dressed woman, displaying all the proper etiquette of the time could be exposed for the double life that she lead and thus ostracized.

It seems that even though it was very difficult to gain social acceptability everyone, even prostitutes of different classes tried to achieve it. For many the dream was never realized and for those that were able to creep into the society life was not always easy. This is largely due to that fact that France’s population contained much sexual hypocrisy and shunned prostitutes while supporting them.

Most selective Courtesan of the world

The word ” Courtesan “ seems to sit almost coyly on the page. But first impressions can be misleading. The slightly risqué connotations which come to mind hardly reveal the abundance that is hidden here. What was a courtesan, really? As with any tradition that was once alive, the meaning is far too rich for a simple answer. Dictionary definitions will hardly suffice. Where one edition says the courtesan was a prostitute who associated with wealthy men or aristocrats, another refers to her as a kept woman. Yes, she shared characteristics with both. But she was neither.
To claim that courtesans were prostitutes would be deceptively simple. It is true that Madame du Barry, favorite of Louis XV, was once patronized by upper-class men who paid nightly for her favors. And we know that Céleste Mogador, who eventually became a countess, worked in a brothel when she was very young. But their stories only make what may seem a subtle distinction on paper more clear. To become a courtesan was a promotion of great proportions, a fortunate leap into an unimaginably better life. Unlike a prostitute, a courtesan did not live in a brothel, never walked the streets, nor did she, strictly speaking, have a pimp to control and bully her.

On occasion, usually early in their careers, some women did have procurers, but it was their mothers who played this role. Sarah Bernhardt, for example, was given her first liaisons by a mother who, being a courtesan herself, looked to her daughter to provide for her in her old age. This arrangement was common in sixteenth-century Venice and Rome, where mothers who had once been courtesans would, as a matter of course, procure for their daughters. The relationship between mother and daughter is entirely different from that between pimp and prostitute in many significant ways, including the fact that unlike the prostitute, who enriches a pimp more than herself, while she supported her mother, a courtesan could benefit from her own success.

But the distinctions are far greater. With some legendary exceptions, the agreements made with courtesans were hardly quid pro quo. It is probably true that la comtesse de Castiglione was given 1 million francs for a twelve-hour orgy with Richard Wallace, natural son of the fourth Marquess of Hertford. And the rumor may be justified that Liane de Pougy was given 80,000 francs by Henri Meilhac, the librettist for Offenbach’s popular operas, just to see her nude (or so Edmond de Goncourt writes in his Journal). But the usual arrangements were like those made with mistresses and even wives — longer lasting and more subtle in nature. And in distinction to the support given mistresses, who were often modestly kept, these relationships were far more lucrative. Soon after their liaison began, for instance, Louis XV presented Madame de Pompadour with an estate, one of several she was to receive in her lifetime, including the mansion known as the Palais Elysée, now the home of French presidents. A hundred years later, following the same tradition, in addition to giving Marie Duplessis a splendid coach, a team of the finest horses, and a monthly allotment to pay for a maid and a cook, le comte de Stakelberg bought the courtesan her fashionable apartment on the boulevard Madeleine.

The splendor in which the great courtesans lived is fabled. At times their riches grew to exceed those of their protectors. They accumulated town houses, châteaux, villas, all decorated with frescoes and sculptures by important painters, with wood embellishments carved by the best craftsmen, endowed with precious materials — gold gilt, silver, crystal, marble, and onyx — and furnished with the finest antiques, silver services, porcelain vases, the most select china, and priceless tapestries. Their coaches rivaled those sported by the elite. Their wardrobes, made from the most luxurious fabrics and by the most celebrated designers — Charles Worth, for instance, or Paul Poiret — were envied by respectable and titled women who copied the styles they wore. And above all, courtesans collected jewelry: strings of diamonds and pearls, diamond tiaras, sapphires and ruby rings, emerald brooches, which they displayed with a good measure of pride and also canniness. In a memorable scene from Colette’s novel Gigi, the daughter of a courtesan is carefully taught to tell the difference between a canary diamond and topaz; a cocotte’s cache of gems served both as an emblem of success and as a fund for her retirement.

The rivalry between courtesans over jewelry had occasional dramatic moments. A story is told about the competition between Liane de Pougy and the Belle Otero which is true, though the setting is disputed. Some say it occurred at Maxim’s; others, such as Janet Flanner, the correspondent to The New Yorker in the early twentieth century, place it at the Opéra; and still another, Pougy’s recent biographer, places it at Monte Carlo. But the essence of the action is always the same. First, Otero makes her entrance, dripping with diamonds and precious gems in every form: necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, layered and piled in a glittering display of astonishing abundance. Then, shortly after, Pougy enters, wearing only one very elegant diamond necklace, but she is followed by a maid who carries a high pyramid of her priceless jewelry stacked on a red pillow.

The goods would have come from many sources. If, as with a mistress, an affair with a courtesan was rarely just a one-night stand, that is where the similarity ends. Courtesans could be both less and more than mistresses. Less because they were by no means always faithful. Usually, they had several lovers, some who contributed to the household expenses and some who did not. Like other Venetian courtesans, Veronica Franco had many protectors. Sharing in her support, each was pledged a different night of the week in her schedule.

And unlike the mistress of a married man, who is often kept hidden, just as the courtesan was proud of her jewelry, she too was proudly displayed. She was expected to accompany her various lovers to public places and events, café s, restaurants, balls, parties, the theatre, the opera, even hosting gatherings of her lover’s friends at her own home. In sixteenth-century Rome, when the powerful banker Chigi entertained at his villa near the Vatican, his lover, the courtesan Imperia, was usually the hostess. It is thought that her beauty inspired Raphael’s famous fresco of Galatea that still adorns one wall there. During the Belle Epoque in Paris, among the wealthy playboys, aristocrats, and businessmen who belonged to the exclusive Jockey Club, it was considered de rigueur to keep a courtesan — so much so that even homosexual men felt they had to do it for show.

But perhaps the greatest distinction we must make here between kept women and courtesans is that the latter were personages. They were, indeed, what we call today celebrities. Friends of kings, regents, emperors, statesmen, financiers, famous writers and painters, they were the constant subject of columns printed in weekly journals, gossip about their romances, what they wore and what they did providing continual fodder for public curiosity. Flaubert, Zola, Balzac, Colette, the Goncourt brothers, all based major characters on the lives of courtesans. And of course, from Praxiteles to Titian to Manet, they were favored as subjects by painters and sculptors.

For this reason, a courtesan had to be highly cultivated. Often born to poverty, with no education and lacking upper-class manners, a young woman would have to be taught many skills in order to play her new role. As in Shaw’s play Pygmalion (or the musical that followed, My Fair Lady), she would have to learn to speak with an upper-class accent, dress well if not lavishly, arrange her hair fashionably, walk gracefully, dance, and play the piano. She would be required to know table manners, of course, but also different protocols, including at times the protocols of the court. A woman who may not even have been able to read very well would now be expected to know the plots of operas, recognize literary references, and have some familiarity with history. Only the brave and intelligent would be able to survive the course.

Many courtesans exceeded these requirements. Some, such as Céleste Mogador, who wrote novels, or Tullia D’Aragona, three hundred years earlier, who wrote a philosophical text on Eros, were writers. Veronica Franco was a respected poet. A great many wrote their autobiographies. More than can be counted were notable actresses, dancers, singers, music-hall and circus performers. A few, such as Sarah Bernhardt and Coco Chanel, became far more famous in other professions. An even smaller group, the comtesse de Loynes for instance, gained titles when they married their aristocratic lovers, then having learned to behave well enough and after acquiring sufficient wealth, they slipped past the arbiters of class into high society.

But if these women were remarkable in their accomplishments, they were exceptions among the already exceptional. Altogether, there can be no doubt that courtesans were extraordinary women, not only considering their talents but because, as Simone de Beauvoir writes, they created for themselves “a situation almost equivalent to that of man… free in behavior and conversation,” attaining, “the rarest intellectual liberty.” For centuries courtesans enjoyed more power and independence than did any other women in Europe. To understand why this was so, we must consider the history of women in Europe, a history that is by no means always the same as the history of men. The consideration is crucial, especially because outside the context of the larger narrative of women’s lives, the word “courtesan” loses much of its meaning.

V.I.P. Escort Cortigiana De Luxe

For the several centuries during which courtesans practiced their skills, women were far more confined and regimented than they are today. Except among courtesans, if a woman had wealth, it was almost never her own, but hers to use only through the beneficence, permission, or parsimonious allowance of a father, brother, or husband. Thus it was rare even for women born to wealthy families to be financially independent. Though a luxurious dependency may sound attractive, economic dependency implies a loss of freedom. An upper-class woman did not own the houses she inhabited, could not in fact purchase a house if she wanted to, nor even furniture, china, jewelry, clothing, or food without approval, nor could she travel by her own choice or alone. She was controlled by those who controlled the purse strings.

This circumstance was coupled with still another condition that served to keep upper-class women dependent. They were not fully educated. According to the century in which a lady lived, she might be taught to embroider, to sing, to play the piano, and to dance; she would be instructed in religion and given the rudimentary skills of reading and writing, but what she knew of history, literature, philosophy, or politics she would have had to glean by inference from listening to the conversations of the men in her family. And until the latter part of the nineteenth century when, because of the influence of feminist movements, a few women were admitted to universities, medical, law, and art schools, women were denied the training they would need to enter a profession. Thus the ways available to upper-class and respectable women to earn an independent living were very few. Lacking either inheritance, a family wealthy enough to sustain her, or a husband, an aristocratic or bourgeois woman might become a governess. For the most part, her only other option was to join a convent.

The purpose, therefore, of a young girl’s life was to prepare her to attract a husband. She was taught to dress and dance and curtsy so that she might be presented at court or at a debutante ball, where it was hoped she would meet her future husband. But though she was required to enter the rituals of courtship, neither her feelings nor her preferences were considered relevant. Most marriages were not made for love. They were, rather, thinly veiled financial agreements, arranged to benefit a young woman’s family or the family of her future husband, while conferring prestige on one or the other or both.

Even the instructions she was given to be pleasing to men had unnatural limits. Given almost no sexual education except the advice to behave with a modestly flirtatious deference to men, her efforts to catch a husband were supposed to be innocent, just as her limited knowledge of the worlds of finance and politics was thought to add to an air of innocence, lending her an attractive naïveté. We might say that, paradoxically, by the rules of this social world, her dependency was her chief asset.

But this state of being could also easily prove her downfall. A descent of this kind has been painfully captured by Edith Wharton. In her great novel The House of Mirth, Wharton depicts the financial and sexual naïveté of Lily Bart, a young woman who is upper class by birth, with only a small inheritance, whose ignorance leads her to commit several social follies that leave her both penniless and unmarriageable. By painful degrees of descent, she meets the worst fate imaginable for a woman born to privilege — she is forced to begin life as a working woman.

The fact that throughout centuries of European history the majority of women had to work is often omitted even from accounts that purport to focus on women’s lives. Peasant families depended on the labor of women and children alike to eke out a living. And among those who lived and worked in the city, apart from the nobility or the wives of the professional classes and the bourgeoisie (who only began to grow to significant numbers in the eighteenth century), whether women took in laundry, worked as chambermaids, charwomen, seamstresses, or weavers, they were wage earners. Married or not, the income they earned was necessary to their own survival as well as that of their families, yet they could earn only a fraction of what men could. In Paris in the early nineteenth century, for example, when peasant economies in France began to collapse and the cities, especially Paris, were flooded with refugees from the countryside seeking employment, even the salaries of workingmen were barely sufficient for survival. Though they worked long hours, often sixteen hours a day, many women could not live on the salaries they were paid.

Thus the word for a woman working in the garment industry, the most common form of employment for women, grisette, which derived from the dull gray of the muslin dresses she wore, acquired a second meaning. Even into the mid-twentieth century, dictionaries still defined the grisette as “a woman of easy virtue.” Earning 1 to 1.5 francs a day for work that was seasonal, the garment worker had to turn to other sources for her income. Some walked the streets; some lived with casual lovers, oftentime students, who helped to pay the bills; others attended the many public balls that were popular then in Paris to search for wealthier men who might pay for their favors for a night.

It was for this reason that so many courtesans began as grisettes. If they were lucky enough or extraordinary in some way, they could climb the rungs of a ladder that could lead them further and further away from penury and a grueling schedule of hard work. At a public dance hall, a young woman might meet a man who would set her up in an apartment. A woman who had this good fortune was called a lorette, the word for a would-be courtesan, a woman who was kept only modestly. She did not habituate the elevated circles in which courtesans traveled, though she was a social fixture of the bohemian world. Mimi in Henri Murger’s Scènes de la Vie Bohème was a lorette. But the story is better known as Puccini’s opera La Bohème.

Only the few who were the most talented among lorettes would ever become courtesans. The heroine of another famous opera, Violetta Valéry in Verdi’s La Traviata, was modeled after Marie Duplessis, a real woman who started as a grisette, became a lorette soon after, only to ascend with remarkable rapidity to the rank of courtesan. Her story is typical of the rags-to-riches ascent that was both as desirable and improbable then as is the dream of becoming a sports hero today. Born to near poverty in Normandy, Marie’s mother died early. After a period in which her alcoholic father, an itinerant salesman, hauled her with him about the countryside, offering his daughter at least once as merchandise, and after being abandoned by the same father to distant and unwelcoming cousins in Paris, she began work as a grisette. That she was poverty-stricken during this period is verified by the testimony of Nestor Roqueplan, director of the Opéra, who spotted her a year before she became famous, on the Pont-Neuf, dressed in dirty, ragged clothing, begging for a taste of the pommes frites that were sold on the bridge. It did not take her long to meet a restaurateur who established her as a lorette in her own apartment. But this tenure was equally brief. She rose quickly to become one of the highest-ranking courtesans of her time. Well fed and housed, considered to be the best dressed woman in Paris, the woman known as “the divine Marie” had acquired great fame, not to speak of a title, before her death from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-three.

Page/Content protected by CopyScape

Class is an essential ingredient in the history of courtesans for many reasons, including the dramatic transformation that occurred in the life of a woman who was elevated thus. According to accounts from the eighteenth century, Madame du Barry, who herself experienced a spectacular rise from grisette and sometime prostitute to become the favorite of Louis XV, spoke far better French than his previous mistress, Madame de Pompadour. Since the celebrated Pompadour had been educated by her bourgeois family, she spoke a French that was at least passable at court. But because Barry’s working-class language was entirely unacceptable, she was compelled to learn an upper-class grammar that was far more correct than that of her predecessor.

Still, the plot thickens. The issue of class cannot be understood apart from issues of morality. For several centuries in European cultures, with some variations, it was thought that a woman should be chaste before marriage, and if not absolutely faithful, she should at least behave with enough discretion to protect her reputation. The requirement was not uniform. In certain periods and places, especially those in which the poor were driven to desperate measures, a woman’s chastity had less significance among working people than it did for the aristocracy. But this division of sentiments was not consistent. The peccadilloes and open liaisons of nobles, kings, and emperors were known to incite wrath from the less privileged public.

What remains relevant to this history, however, is another condition that fostered the tradition of courtesans, the simple fact that as with Edith Wharton’s character Lily Bart, a wellborn woman could fall, and in falling not only lose any chance for marriage but be shunned by society as well. In that case, one of the better options open to her would be to become a courtesan. There were so many women who chose this solution in Paris at the turn of the century that a special word was used for them: they were referred to as demicastors. Because of a scandal that had ruined her reputation, one such woman, Laure Hayman, was ostracized until she made her way back into society in another role, as a courtesan. She counted among her lovers many powerful men, including Louis Weil, the uncle of Marcel Proust. It was probably because Proust had known her since he was a boy that he took Hayman as a model for Odette Crécy, the fictional courtesan whose story threads through A la recherche du temps perdu.

The tangled skein of double standards regarding both sex and money, gender and class, creates an interesting controversy over whether or not certain historical figures ought to be classified as courtesans. Agnès Sorel, favorite of Charles VII of France, is generally not considered a courtesan, nor is Alice Keppel, longtime mistress to the Prince of Wales, though both were given financial aid by the monarchs who loved them. One might answer that they did not take money from any other lovers. Except that Pompadour, who took remuneration from no other lovers either, is called a courtesan by almost everybody, probably for the sole reason that she came from the bourgeoisie. Rather than probe the justice of this reasoning, the hope is that these controversies might be resolved by the chapters to follow, which in general use the term “courtesan” as a favorable designation.

Yet it should not be construed that The Book of the Courtesans attempts to argue that its subjects were virtuous in a moral sense. No effort will be made here either to defend or condemn their behavior. Rather, the virtues in the title take their definition from an older usage — one that was once applied exclusively to men, but which, though it has been out of fashion since the Renaissance, this book revives and applies now to women. In this older definition, virtue has nothing at all to do with chastity. It refers rather to the strengths and attributes that characterize as well as distinguish a person.

Though circumstances must and will be summoned so that these stories can be better understood, the emphasis here will be on the creative response each woman showed to the conditions she confronted. For this phenomenon to be entirely explained, we must explore the considerable magic of human ingenuity here. There are so many kinds of genius to be found in these stories that were we not to place our focus on virtue, we would be squandering a treasure that belongs to all those who are the inheritors of this history.

For history it is. Although the many virtues that courtesans possessed were employed to defy circumstances, the role they played depended on the same circumstances over which they triumphed — conditions which today, fortunately for modern women, no longer exist. At least within modern European cultures women are not expected to be virgins before they marry, nor do they have to be dependent on husbands, brothers, or fathers for their economic survival.

And there is still another reason for the disappearance of this tradition. The temper of the times has shifted, too. Technically speaking, many women today do what courtesans did; it is quite common still for a married man to support his mistress, and a whole population of highly cultivated and elegant women serve today as escorts, call girls, and modern hetaerae. But just as surely as the role of the courtesan was created by historical conditions, she was also inextricably linked to a historical mood that had come to an end by the third decade of the last century. In 1948, after visiting La Belle Otero, Anne Manson wrote: “When Otero departs there will depart with her the last symbol of an epoch, superficial, light and at the same time virtuous and cynical, covetous toward others yet madly extravagant in its pleasures, full of faults but not without its splendors.”

To become a courtesan, a woman required a setting. Though she was center stage, she was not alone. Nor was she hidden. Almost by definition, she was surrounded by scintillating activity. She was inseparable from the demi-mondes she inhabited — slightly rebellious, risqué, or naughty worlds, alternate societies where a certain sophistication, including carnal knowledge that was banned from proper society, was allowed to thrive. The Belle Epoque, the period that Otero symbolized, was famous not only for its writers, artists, playwrights, and actors but also for the glittering social scene which was staged almost continuously on the Grands Boulevards in Paris, the epicenter of the atmosphere, and the stage on which the courtesan played a vital and charismatic role.

An Elite Courtesan is the one who possesses an intelligent beauty and honorable features, she displays a quite reserved behavior. An Elite Courtesan is that rare category of courtesan, where her choice of activity is a well thought out decision that demands honor to be one. A genuine or elite courtesan is a  person who possesses flawless talent for elegant communication, if required even on an intellectual plane. She is especially hired to serve and entertain the opposite gender on mutual mental, emotional and intimate level.

Educational background of an Elite Courtesan is of brilliance. She possesses qualities of a cultured, artistic, sensitive and insightful woman. She is sophesticated in her everyday approach to life and what it brings her. She makes for a delightful company and companion.

It would be in bad taste to talk of an Elite Courtesan in the same breath as a prostitute or a call-girl. We must remember that intimacy of an elite courtesan is an exclusive feast, personal and unlimited in fantasy.

A coutesan is representative of everything that is reflective of classy. This pleasure provider is generally well-travelled, very sophisticated, well turned out, smart and beautiful, elegant and stunning, passionate conversationalist as well as a thinker.

Page/Content protected by CopyScape

These ripe feminine women mostly in their 30s, are full of genuine warmth, and can be quite playful. An elite courtesan efficiently divides her time between several companions. She is differentiated from other working girls by her intellect, beauty, class, charm, honesty, humour, style and most of all her sex appeal. Her talent lies in providing desirable companionship and seduction at various planes.

It is from the horse’s mouth that being a courtesan is not really about the money and the sex, alone – it’s also about the excitement and the experiences. Elegnce is her middle name. She opts for classic clothing which are subtly elegant, not flashy or seasonal. Not ever. Her unique Selling point is my intellect. Her conversations from the moment go are stimulating for a normal mind.

An elite Courtesan is very regular with her home work and proprities that her profession demands to stay at the top. She is often seen practicing outdoor sports and paying visits to the spas to get her manicures, pedicures, facials and so on and so forth. She buys new lingeries. The point to understand is that the preparations that an elite courtesan undergoes are as much about putting herself in the right place mentally as it is physically.

www.asjainternational.net

Alternative Names

Disorders of sex development DSDs Pseudohermaphroditism  Hermaphroditism  Hermaphrodite
Definition
Intersex is a group of conditions where there is a discrepancy between the external genitals and the internal genitals (the testes and ovaries).

The older term for this condition, hermaphroditism, came from joining the names of a Greek god and goddess, Hermes and Aphrodite. Hermes was a god of male sexuality (among other things) and Aphrodite a goddess of female sexuality, love, and beauty.

Although the older terms are still included in this article for reference, they have been replaced by most experts (and patients and families) because they are misleading, confusing, and insensitive. Increasingly this group of conditions is being called disorders of sex development (DSDs).

Causes

Intersex can be divided into four categories:

46, XX Intersex
46, XY Intersex
True Gonadal Intersex
Complex or Undetermined Intersex
Each one is discussed in more detail below. Note: In many kids the cause of intersex may remain undetermined, even with modern diagnostic techniques.

46, XX Intersex. The person has the chromosomes of a woman, the ovaries of a woman, but external (outside) genitals that appear male. This usually is the result of a female fetus having been exposed to excess male hormones before birth. The labia (“lips” or folds of skin of the external female genitals) fuse, and the clitoris enlarges to appear like a penis. Usually this person has a normal uterus and Fallopian tubes. This condition is also called 46, XX with virilization. It used to be called female pseudohermaphroditism. There are several possible causes:

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (the most common cause).
Male hormones (such as testosterone) taken or encountered by the mother during pregnancy.
Male hormone-producing tumors in the mother. These are most often ovarian tumors. Mothers who have children with 46, XX intersex should be checked unless there is another clear cause.
Aromatase deficiency. This one may not be noticeable until puberty. Aromatase is an enzyme that normally converts male hormones to female hormones. Too much aromatase activity can lead to excess estrogen (female hormone); too little to 46, XX intersex. At puberty these XX children, who had been raised as girls, may begin to take on male characteristics.
46, XY Intersex. The person has the chromosomes of a man, but the external genitals are incompletely formed, ambiguous, or clearly female. Internally, testes may be normal, malformed, or absent. This condition is also called 46, XY with undervirilization. It used to be called male pseudohermaphroditism. Forming normal male external genitals depends on the appropriate balance between male and female hormones; therefore, enough requires the adequate production and function of male hormones. 46, XY intersex has many possible causes:

Problems with the testes. The testes normally produce male hormones. If the testes do not form properly, it will lead to undervirilization. There are a number of possible causes for this, including XY pure gonadal dysgenesis.
Problems with testosterone formation. Testosterone is formed through a series of steps where each requires a different enzyme. Deficiencies in any of these enzymes can result in inadequate testosterone and produce a different syndrome of 46, XY intersex. Different types of congenital adrenal hyperplasia can fall in this category.
Problems with using testosterone. Some people have normal testes, make adequate amounts of testosterone, but still have 46, XY intersex.
5-alpha-reductase deficiency. People with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency lack the enzyme needed to convert testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). There are at least 5 different types of 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. Some of the babies have normal male genitalia, some have normal female genitalia, and many have something in between. Most change to external male genitalia around the time of puberty.
Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS). This is the most common cause of 46, XY intersex. Here the hormones are all normal, but the receptors to male hormones don’t function properly. There are over 150 different defects that have been identified so far, and each causes a different type of AIS. AIS has also been called testicular feminization.
True Gonadal Intersex. Here the person must have both ovarian and testicular tissue. This might be in the same gonad (an ovotestis), or the person might have one ovary and one testis. The person may have XX chromosomes, XY chromosomes, or both. The external genitals may be ambiguous or may appear to be female or male. This condition used to be called true hermaphroditism. In most people with true gonadal intersex, the underlying cause is unknown, although in some animal studies it has been linked to exposure to common agricultural pesticides.

Complex or Undetermined Intersex. Many chromosome configurations other than simple 46, XX or 46, XY can result in disorders of sex development. These include 45, XO (only one X chromosome), and 47, XXY, 47, XXX — both cases have an extra sex chromosome, either an X or a Y.

Symptoms
The symptoms associated with intersex will depend on the underlying cause, but may include:

Ambiguous genitalia at birth
Micropenis
Clitoromegaly (an enlarged clitoris)
Partial labial fusion
Apparently undescended testes (which may turn out to be ovaries) in boys
Labial or inguinal (groin) masses — which may turn out to be testes — in girls
Hypospadias (the opening of the penis is somewhere other than at the tip; in females, the urethra [urine canal] opens into the vagina)
Otherwise unusual appearing genitalia at birth
Electrolyte abnormalities
Delayed or absent puberty
Unexpected changes at puberty
Exams and Tests Return to top

Chromosome analysis
Hormone levels (for example, testosterone level)
Hormone stimulation tests
Electrolyte tests
Specific molecular testing
Endoscopic examination (to verify the absence or presence of a vagina or cervix)
Ultrasound or MRI to evaluate whether internal sex organs are present (for example, a uterus)
Treatment Return to top

Ideally, a team of health care professionals with expertise in intersex should work together to understand and treat the child with intersex — and to understand, counsel, and support the entire family.

Parents should understand controversies and changes in treating intersex in recent years. In the past, the prevailing opinion was that it was generally best to assign a gender as quickly as possible, often based on the external genitals rather than the chromosomal gender, and to instruct the parents to have no ambiguity in their minds as to the gender of the child. Prompt surgery was often recommended. Ovarian or testicular tissue from the other gender would be removed. In general, it was considered easier to reconstruct female genitalia than functioning male genitalia, so if the “correct” choice was not clear, the child was often assigned to be a girl.

More recently, the opinion of many experts has shifted. Greater respect for the complexities of female sexual functioning has led them to conclude that suboptimal female genitalia may not be inherently better than suboptimal male genitalia, even if the reconstruction is “easier.” In addition, other factors may be more important in gender satisfaction than functioning external genitals. Chromosomal, neural, hormonal, psychological, and behavioral factors can all influence gender identity.

Many experts now urge delaying definitive surgery for as long as healthy, and ideally involving the child in the gender decision.

Clearly, intersex is a complex issue, and its treatment has short- and long-term consequences. The best answer will depend on many factors, including the specific cause of the intersex. It is best to take the time to understand the issues before rushing into a decision. An intersex support group may help acquaint families with the latest research, and may provide a community of other families, children, and adult individuals who have faced the same issues.

Concubine are the concubines of the shogun, who were usually aristocratic ladies chosen to be the shogun’s ‘second wife’ or ‘third wife’ and hopefully to bear a son for him to be the future shogun. To be a concubine was a highly coveted honour and concubines were formally recognised in a ceremony much like a marriage.

Page/Content protected by CopyScape

Geisha and Courtesans on the other hand were (and are) part of the demi monde. Geisha are entertainers – the word means artistes – who performed dances and songs to private gatherings usually of men. In old Japan they were at the very bottom of the social system (like actresses in the Victorian west – think ‘Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington.’) Traditionally they were not supposed to sell sex. That was the courtesans’ job and they were prohibited from stealing the courtesans’ clients. If they married they had to stop being geishas – geishas and wives were like opposite sides of the coin.

In other words, geishas, concubines and courtesans were entirely different, not just a catch all term for Japanese women, and not to be confused

www.asjainternational.net 

Asja hermaphrodite

Like a hybrid of Dorothy Parker and Jennifer Lopez, a courtesan in Renaissance Italy used her brains and her body to enjoy the benefits of marriage — companionship, property and financial stability — without the stifling social constraints. She also replaced a man’s wife on the social scene, since proper married women were sequestered from the sins of the world and kept prisoners in their own homes.

Courtesans were companions for bankers, princes, prelates and merchants. Known for their wit, charm and elegance, they palled around with the most important and powerful men of their day. They wrote novels, published poems and influenced politics, often delivering political messages from pillow to pillow. They also used sex, and they flaunted it in ways that married women could not. As the French traveler and writer Pierre de Brantome snidely commented in the 16th century, “Roman ladies copulate like bitches but are silent as stones.”

While the heyday of courtesans was classical Greece, they’ve been in every culture, most notably Renaissance Italy and 18th century Japan. No one knows where the term comes from but it’s closest to the male “courtier” which means “of the court,” says Margaret Rosenthal, the author of “The Honest Courtesan: The Life of Veronica Franco.” Franco is perhaps the best known courtesan of the Renaissance — a hall-of-famer who greased relations between Venice and France by bedding the King of France, and whose life was depicted in the 1998 film “Dangerous Beauty.”

Asja hermaphrodite

 

“Intersex”

is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside, but having mostly male-typical anatomy on the inside. Or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types—for example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia. Or a person may be born with mosaic genetics, so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY.

Though we speak of intersex as an inborn condition, intersex anatomy doesn’t always show up at birth. Sometimes a person isn’t found to have intersex anatomy until she or he reaches the age of puberty, or finds himself an infertile adult, or dies of old age and is autopsied. Some people live and die with intersex anatomy without anyone (including themselves) ever knowing.

Which variations of sexual anatomy count as intersex? In practice, different people have different answers to that question. That’s not surprising, because intersex isn’t a discreet or natural category.

What does this mean? Intersex is a socially constructed category that reflects real biological variation. To better explain this, we can liken the sex spectrum to the color spectrum. There’s no question that in nature there are different wavelengths that translate into colors most of us see as red, blue, orange, yellow. But the decision to distinguish, say, between orange and red-orange is made only when we need it—like when we’re asking for a particular paint color. Sometimes social necessity leads us to make color distinctions that otherwise would seem incorrect or irrational, as, for instance, when we call certain people “black” or “white” when they’re not especially black or white as we would otherwise use the terms.

In the same way, nature presents us with sex anatomy spectrums. Breasts, penises, clitorises, scrotums, labia, gonads—all of these vary in size and shape and morphology. So-called “sex” chromosomes can vary quite a bit, too. But in human cultures, sex categories get simplified into male, female, and sometimes intersex, in order to simplify social interactions, express what we know and feel, and maintain order.

So nature doesn’t decide where the category of “male” ends and the category of “intersex” begins, or where the category of “intersex” ends and the category of “female” begins. Humans decide. Humans (today, typically doctors) decide how small a penis has to be, or how unusual a combination of parts has to be, before it counts as intersex. Humans decide whether a person with XXY chromosomes or XY chromosomes and androgen insensitivity will count as intersex.

In our work, we find that doctors’ opinions about what should count as “intersex” vary substantially. Some think you have to have “ambiguous genitalia” to count as intersex, even if your inside is mostly of one sex and your outside is mostly of another. Some think your brain has to be exposed to an unusual mix of hormones prenatally to count as intersex—so that even if you’re born with atypical genitalia, you’re not intersex unless your brain experienced atypical development. And some think you have to have both ovarian and testicular tissue to count as intersex.

Credits: www.isna.org

HOW NORMAL IS INTERSEX?

To answer this question in an uncontroversial way, you’d have to first get everyone to agree on what counts as intersex —and also to agree on what should count as strictly male or strictly female. That’s hard to do. How small does a penis have to be before it counts as intersex? Do you count “sex chromosome” anomalies as intersex if there’s no apparent external sexual ambiguity?1 (Alice Dreger explores this question in greater depth in her book Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex.)

Here’s what we do know: If you ask experts at medical centers how often a child is born so noticeably atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called in, the number comes out to about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. But a lot more people than that are born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which won’t show up until later in life.

Below we provide a summary of statistics drawn from an article by Brown University researcher Anne Fausto-Sterling.2 The basis for that article was an extensive review of the medical literature from 1955 to 1998 aimed at producing numeric estimates for the frequency of sex variations. Note that the frequency of some of these conditions, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, differs for different populations. These statistics are approximations.

Not XX and not XY one in 1,666 births
Klinefelter (XXY) one in 1,000 births
Androgen insensitivity syndrome one in 13,000 births
Partial androgen insensitivity syndrome one in 130,000 births
Classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia one in 13,000 births
Late onset adrenal hyperplasia one in 66 individuals
Vaginal agenesis one in 6,000 births
Ovotestes one in 83,000 births
Idiopathic (no discernable medical cause) one in 110,000 births
Iatrogenic (caused by medical treatment, for instance progestin administered to pregnant mother) no estimate
5 alpha reductase deficiency no estimate
Mixed gonadal dysgenesis no estimate
Complete gonadal dysgenesis one in 150,000 births
Hypospadias (urethral opening in perineum or along penile shaft) one in 2,000 births
Hypospadias (urethral opening between corona and tip of glans penis) one in 770 births

Total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female one in 100 births
Total number of people receiving surgery to “normalize” genital appearance one or two in 1,000 births

Credits: www.isna.org