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Today, there seem to be уличные женщины
(streetwalkers) and женщины по вызову (call girls), the latter
being higher class and more expensive. Most of them have
сутенёры (pimps). In the Soviet era there were интердевочки
(hard-currency prostitutes) working the bars at Intourist
hotels. I think the ladies of the evening are still in the bars
of better hotels, but now they probably take credit cards and
PayPal. The highest class seems to be the содержанка (kept
woman), who only has one client. He provides a luxury apartment,
snazzy car and credit card. At the low end of the market in
sexual services are women who идут на панель (literally "walk
the streets"). Непрофессиональные часто идут на панель от
безысходности и нехватки денег. (Amateurs often start turning
tricks out of desperation and the need for money.)
Ночные бабочки (literally "night butterflies")
is a phrase from an old song that has entered the language to
mean brightly clothed and made-up hookers. One of my favorite
old torch songs from the Civil War era has a prostitute heroine
who calls herself фея из бара (bar sprite), чёрная моль (black
moth) and летучая мышь (bat). Other terms for prostitutes are
tricky, since they either mean hookers or swingers, depending on
the context. Женщины лёгкого поведения (women of easy virtue)
might charge by the hour (or service) or might be "easy women."
Likewise, гулящая женщина might be a professional or she might
be what used to be called "a good time girl." Девки (girls) can
be an affectionate term for the girls at the office or it can
mean working girls. And in countries like Turkey and Egypt,
prostitutes are called Natashas, due to the influx of
professionals from the former Soviet Union. If your name happens
to be Natalie, consider asking your husband to call you Sally
for the duration of your vacation.
In the old days, bad women were развратницы
(libertines), распутницы (profligates), or блудницы (loose
women). Sometimes this meant that they were prostitutes;
sometimes it meant that they fooled around on the side. Today
bad women are шлюхи (sluts), a term that also confuses the
sex-for-fun and sex-for-fee issue, but which implies
condemnation in any case.
One Russian blog that bills itself as словарь
феминистки (a feminist dictionary) has decreed that all these
terms are derogatory. For prostitutes, the blogger proposes
calques from English, like сексуальный работник (sexworker) or
работник, предоставляющий сексуальные услуги (a worker providing
sexual services).
Well, maybe. But if it walks like a duck ...
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based
interpreter and translator. |