The Oldest Profession Kaytlin Bailey

At a time where full service sex workers in Seattle euphemistically called themselves seamstresses, Madam Lou Graham was so rich that she served as an alternative to banks, giving loans to business propositions deemed too risky by bankers. She was also largely responsible for the funding of Seattle's school system.
At the height of her power, Graham got arrested by a rookie cop who clearly did not know who he was dealing with. She was so influential that she was cleared of all charges AND had the police commissioner fired.

One of the most famous former sex workers of today's music industry, Cardi B unabashedly flaunts and celebrates her past as a stripper in her songs, music videos, and social media. 

French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is best known for is commercial paintings of the moulin rouge, but he was also a john who (literally) lived in brothels.

As a tenant and client, Toulouse-Lautrec created compelling portraits of the full service sex workers with whom he socialized. His empathetic gaze captured the elements of their lives often missed by more sensationalist or romanticized depictions of sex work by other artists of his time.

Ching Shih went from working as a full service sex worker on a floating brothel in Canton to becoming the one of the most successful pirate captains in the history of the world.

In 1949, Marilyn Monroe, struggling to make ends meet as an actress, got paid 50$ to pose nude for a calendar. She worked as a pinup and, some say, as a prostitute before becoming an internationally recognized sex symbol & box office sensation. 

To this day, her vibrant, sensuous charisma, her comedic genius and witty flair deeply resonates with old pros and civilians alike. Over fifty years after her death, we're still obsessed with her. 

This Mesoamerican Goddess was the deity of vice, filth, purification, steam baths, lust, fertility, adulterers and, you guessed it, sex workers. 

She symbolically castrated priests in elaborate rituals, and provoked and pardoned her followers' sin in a never ending circle of life, sex and death.