The word prostitution does not only refer to the exchange of sex for money or goods, but mainly, to a kind of human behavior which has been defined and stigmatized as a social deviance because of the sexual practices related to it. This understanding of prostitution arises through specific historical processes in the Western world, specially in the dialectical construction of a "legitimate" and an "illegitimate" sexuality. In this conception, marriage and dating relationships are the only situations in which sex is permitted. The validity of this understanding of prostitution continues nowadays and, despite its Western origins, it has marked the interpretations of prostitution in non-Western contexts. How was this understanding of prostitution built in the West? What images and reviews about prostitution or prostitutes were legitimized through this understanding to date? Which has been the influence of this understanding of prostitution on the interpretation of exchange of sex for money or goods in non-Western contexts, such as in Africa? These are the questions that will be addressed herein.