History Main / MistakenForProstitute

* ''Film/{{Jack Reacher}}'': Jack meets a woman named Sandy at a bar, but doesn't tell her his name to remain undercover. When she invites him to drive with her, he tells her "I'm sorry I can't afford you." She gets offended and defends herself by saying that she isn't a hooker and that she works at the Auto Parts Store.

* Kurosaki from ''Cocytus'' works at a coffee shop in the shopping district. Classmates at school spread a rumor that she's a prostitute and it's a source of bullying for her.
* In the second episode of ''Manga/ComicGirls'', Ruki's classmates wonder if she is in a "shady profession" owing from her being chronically underslept. This is because she's a SequentialArtist than anything else.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'', a naked ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} wanders confused into an alley, having just woken up from her rocket, and is spotted by three workers. One of them mistakes her for a prostitute and decides to play Lothario only to have his hand crushed and be slammed through a wall. The second tries to help his friend. The third wisely proclaims he's not with the other two and offers her his coat.
* In ''ComicBook/SwampThing'', when Abby skips bail after being charged with crimes against nature for her relationship with the title character, she flees to Gotham, stops to ask some prostitutes to recommend a place to stay, and gets picked up along with them in a police sting.
* Played with in ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets''. This trope happens to Maggie three times as she wanders alone through Texas. The first time, just after her breakup with Hopey (Maggie still clad in the slinky party dress she was wearing at the time), a man propositions her at a bus station. Penniless and wanting to make her way home, she accepts, for three hundred dollars. The second time, in another town, everyone at the local motel assumes this about her, including an actual prostitute who assaults her for invading her turf. The thoroughly demoralized Maggie, noticing a security guard eyeing her, invites him to her room for sex. When she awakens, she finds he's left her money; she doesn't return it. Played straight the third time as, having returned to the town, patched things up with the prostitute and just about to be reunited with Hopey, one of the motel owners slaps her in the face after a regular blames her for breaking up his marriage,[[note]]even though it was entirely his idea to leave his wife for Maggie[[/note]] whereupon yet another man propositions her. This time, she responds by beating him up.
* This happens to ComicBook/RedSonja on a semi-regular basis; largely due to her habit of hanging around seedy taverns in her ChainMailBikini. Thus usually ends badly for the person making the mistake, although she always gives them the opportunity to apologise before kicking their ass. They seldom take it.
* ''The Logan Legacy'': While trying to wind down at a goth club following the death of Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}, Comicbook/{{X 23}} is approached and propositioned by a man at the club. It's subverted a bit in that [[Comicbook/{{NYX}} at one time in her life]], Laura ''was'' a prostitute, however she has long since retired. She explains the situation and otherwise lets him down gently (as well as saving the John's life when the club is attacked by a pack of nihilistic idiots with too much time on their hands).
** During the ''Songs of the Orphan Child'' arc of her solo series, Laura encounters a young girl named Alice who approaches her in a diner. After a brief SherlockScan Laura deduces the girl is an abused prostitute, causing her to flee and get into a car with her pimp. Laura follows, and when she finds that the man has murdered her, she kills him in retaliation. Later, she and Gambit are captured by Ms. Sinister with the aid of Alice's BodyBackupDrive clone, who reveals that her other self was ''not'' a prostitute at all: She was one of several clones Claudine Renko gave to Malcolm Colcord in his attempts to grant a HealingFactor to another subject, and the injuries Laura assumed were inflicted by her pimp were actually the result of testing to see if her healing factor was working. It wasn't, Alice was deemed defective, and she was instead purposed in an attempt to kidnap Laura. The man who killed her was her handler, not her pimp.

* A supporting character sees [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]] meeting with Alfred, and interprets it the wrong way, despite Cass's attempts to correct her.

* Played intentionally in ''ComicBook/{{Copperhead}}'' by Bronson, who strips down to infiltrate a brothel and take one of the clients hostage.
* ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}'': This happened to Marjane when she recounts her only meeting with a Kuwaiti refugee from UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar where he is driving a nice car and accosts her while she is walking the street drinking soda. He harasses her asking "How much? How much" before she splashes her drink in his face in anger.

* Male variation in ''FanFic/{{Hivefled}}''; trolls don't make a gender distinction in the promiscuity stigma. Eridan, when he joined the fleet, slept with anyone who looked at him in a desperate attempt to fit in, and rumours of him committing theft got mixed up with stories of him fucking everyone and got him arrested for illegal prostitution.
* A short story within the FanFic/TriptychContinuum series centers on this. Twilight, upon noting how bad Ponyville winters are, decides to make some extra bits teleporting others so they need not deal with the weather. Unfortunately, her familiarity with academic and technical terminology leaves her putting up flyers for ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/213598/twilights-escort-service Twilight's Escort Service]]''.
* Discussed in the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "Smurfed Behind: The Passion Of The Smurfs", where Smurfette through time travel meets with the real Mary Magdalene and assumes that she was a prostitute, only to learn that Mary was mistaken for one.
* ''FanFic/ABrighterDark'': [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Corrin]] assumes Kagero is a prostitute in their first encounter (though knowing [[TheGadfly this version of Corrin,]] she could have been joking).
* Naruto in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12742973/6/For-My-Brother For My Brother]]'' mistakes Anko for a hooker due to her clothing. When she complains about someone thinking she's a prostitute because of her clothes, he confusedly responds that he's on a first name basis with a hooker who wears the exact same outfit (Except she has a higher quality top).
* Urd's comments about "making his dreams come true" in ''Fanfic/StallionOfTheLine'' have Ranma assuming she's some sort of magical hooker.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13623840/1/A-Knight-and-the-Scouts A Knight and the Scouts]]'': When Sailor Venus confronts the villain Vauquelin, an evil sorcerer pulled from the Middle Ages, he thinks she is a harlot because of her short-skirted outfit and won't stop insulting her about this.

* In ''Strictly Sexual'', two friends go to a bar known for having escorts and pick up two guys who claim to be construction workers, assuming they're actually prostitutes, only to find out they're [[StripperCopConfusion actually construction workers]].

* This happens to Maudie Triplett (Creator/MaeWest), in ''Night After Night'' ([[UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra 1932]]) starring Creator/GeorgeRaft as ex-boxer and current high-society speakeasy owner Joe Anton. West basically channels the amazing actress/entrepreneur/producer/saloon owner [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Guinan Texas Guinan]] ([[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration yes, the one you're familiar with was named for her]]) in her film debut.[[note]]Raft wanted Guinan to play Maudie -- she'd played NoCelebritiesWereHarmed versions of herself in two other pictures, but Paramount wanted someone younger.[[/note]] Maudie makes friends with Mabel Jelliman, a GrandeDame who's giving Anton a catch-up course in higher education. Maudie offers Mabel a job, to which she responds politely that TheOldestProfession has made many important historical contributions to culture and society, but that she is too old. Maudie explains she runs a chain of elegante beauty parlors, not brothels, and she wants Mabel to be a hostess, which Mabel accepts happily.
* In ''Film/TheScorpionKing: Rise of a Warrior'', a couple of guards think Layla is a wayward concubine when she attempts to [[ShowSomeLeg distract them]].
* ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'': With Peter Parker's constant appearances and disappearances, odd explanations when asked where he's been, and [[HeroicBuild worthwhile physique]], Peter's classmate Betty thinks he's a male escort. It doesn't help that at one point Peter is caught [[NotWhatItLooksLike changing his clothes in front of a beautiful woman]].

* In ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'', Ford makes the logical assumption when he meets a woman on the streets of a WretchedHive who tells him she has a special service she performs for rich people. It turns out she's a social economist who is paid to tell them it's okay to be rich.

* A rare gender inverted example in ''Series/TheTwoRonnies'' serial "The Worm That Turned", but then it does take place in a female supremacist dictatorship where all gender roles are inverted.
* Inverted in ''Series/CornerGas'', Davis mistakes a policewoman undercover as a prostitute for a ticket scalper. His ambiguous wording when trying to buy "merchandise" causes her to arrest him for soliciting.
-->'''Davis:''' Honestly, I didn't know you were a prostitute.\\
'''Policewoman:''' I'm not a prostitute, I'm a police officer ''pretending'' to be a prostitute.\\
'''Davis:''' I know, I ''get'' that. I just didn't ''think'' you were a prostitute. The outfit? Really didn't sell it for me.\\
'''Policewoman:''' Are you saying I don't know my job?!\\
'''Davis:''' No, I didn't-- I mean-- You look very... trashy.\\
'''Policewoman:''' Thank you.

* Happens quite a lot to The Princess in ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues''.
* Happens to Princess Solange in ''VideoGame/CodeOfPrincess'' because of her {{Stripperific}} outfit. An enemy soldier thinks she looks familiar, like "[[{{Streetwalker}} that girl on the street corner]]," Jade or Jasmine or whatever. His comrade eventually points out that she's the princess they're after and had encountered earlier.
* Also subtly done in ''VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth'', when [[GuestFighter Akatsuki]] meets [[AbsoluteCleavage Hilda]]:
-->"Okay... Going by [[MissFanservice your appearance only]], I thought you were [[StreetWalker one of these professionals who ply their trade at night]]..."

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has Kendl wearing nothing but shorts and a tied up shirt, making herself quite revealing. Her brother, Sweet, scolds her for how she dresses and tells her that she looks like a hooker, but she brushes it off as her brother being paranoid and overprotective. Later on, Kendl runs to CJ complaining about how [[ConstructionCatcalls a bunch of construction workers were hitting on her and trying to show her "a good time"]]. CJ gives payback by [[DisproportionateRetribution killing all the workers]] and pushing the port-a-potty with the foreman inside down a pit and [[BuriedAlive filling it with cement]].
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' has Tonya (an actual prostitute) believing that her childhood friend Franklin has become a rentboy due to vaguely sourced gossip. It's true in that Franklin has been hanging out with a rich white guy, but only as his protege as a professional criminal, nothing more.

* In ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'', [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Marle]] attempts to deal with people on the street in Nexus the same way [[HeroicMime Crono]] does: staring at them until they give [[WelcomeToCorneria useful information]]. However, she's no longer in her RPG world, and most of the people she attempts to talk to aren't [=NPCs=], so it doesn't go well. Most people clue in to the fact that she's an RPG character, against which there is [[FantasticRacism a lot of bias]] in Nexus, but at least a few of them mistake her for a prostitute.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' HalloweenEpisode "Escape from Goochland", Donna confiscates Roberta's hooker costume. Cleveland convinced Donna to wear it. Later, she got arrested for being mistaken for a real one. As she was thrown into the police van she tries to tell them she's just wearing a costume, and the real hookers mock her.

* Also [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar subtly done]] in ''VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth'', when [[GuestFighter Akatsuki]] meets [[AbsoluteCleavage Hilda]]:

* ''Series/LasVegas'': A meta-example in the pilot. Danny [=McCoy=], the main character and {{Narrator}} for the first few episodes, is going through his work day and introducing the various supporting characters. After talking with his buxom colleague Mary, she walks off with one of her (older, male) clients, and Danny turns to the audience with "No, I know what you're thinking, and don't go there. Mary's not a hooker, she's our Special Events Director".

* Urd's comments about "making his dreams come true" in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12696961/1/Stallion-of-the-Line Stallion of the Line]]'' have Ranma assuming she's some sort of magical hooker.

-->'''Heroine:''' ''[Turning red]'' I don't know who you think I am, but this is ''not'' a brothel, and you can't just--

-->'''Marge:''' ''(covering her chest)'' Well if he thinks he's getting a corner piece, forget it.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has Kendl wearing nothing but shorts and a tied up shirt, making herself quite revealing. Her brother, Sweet, scolds her for how she dresses and tells her that she looks like a hooker, but she brushes it off as her brother being paranoid and overprotective. Later on, Kendl runs to CJ complaining about how [[ConstructionCatcalls a bunch of construction workers were hitting on her and trying to show her "a good time"]]. CJ gives payback by killing all the workers and pushing the porta potty with the foreman inside down a pit and [[BuriedAlive filling it with cement]].

-->'''Heroine:''' ''[turning red]'' I don't know who you think I am, but this is ''not'' a brothel, and you can't just--

* Viper gets hit with this trope in ''Film/TheWolverine''. Being who [[AxeCrazy she]] [[PoisonousPerson is]], this goes badly for the potential john.

-->John: Who's this? I don't think I asked for one today, but I won't say no!

-->*Shepard pulls out her gun*

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by a young woman named Tamar in the Literature/BookOfGenesis. Her first husband passed away without leaving any [[HeirClubForMen male heirs]], so she married his brother Onan [[ValuesDissonance in hopes of perpetuating his family lineage]]. But Onan didn't want kids that were not legally his, so he practiced coitus interruptus... and also died a premature death. Next in line is a the youngest brother Shelah, but Shelah's father Judah doesn't want to give up Shelah because he worries that [[CartwrightCurse Tamar is cursed]] and that he'll lose his last son. Conveniently, Shelah is not ''quite'' old enough for marriage yet, so Judah tells Tamar to move back in with her parents and wait, which she does. When Shelah comes of age, he is not given to Tamar as promised (and indeed expected by society) and is married off to someone else... so Tamar puts on the veil and garments of a shrine prostitute and waits while Judah heads up to Timnah. He promises to pay her a goat for her "services," [[note]] Remember, this is a barter economy.[[/note]], and she takes his seal, cord, and staff as collateral. Three months later, her pregnancy is revealed, and Judah sentences her to be [[HonorRelatedAbuse burned to death]] for engaging in illicit sex; but before she is brought to the stake, Tamar sends a messenger with the items to Judah, saying that they belong to the man that impregnated her. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Judah]] owns up to his role in all this, apologizes for not keeping his promise to Tamar and spares her life, even allowing her to live under his roof and supporting her as he would an actual wife. The twin boys she gives birth to are acknowledged as her and Judah's children.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'' novel ''Vanishing Point'', the Doctor, in a conversation with the local equivalent of a priest and a woman who's ''actually'' a prostitute, manages to [[ChasteHero obliviously]] [[note]]Although there's a case to be made for him [[ObfuscatingStupidity feigning naivete]] [[ItAmusedMe for the hell of it]][[/note]] create the impression he's a prostitute himself who recently had a very satisfying night with the aforementioned priest.

‘You’re a dark horse, Holy Man, aren’t you?’ Lanna smiled, and nodded at the Doctor. ‘I know what you mean. I had one or two. . . ''meetings'' myself last night.’

* A staple of cheap romance novels of the "Rake meets Virgin" kind — of course, the hero would never rape a ''decent'' woman, but if he mistook the heroine for a prostitute, then he is only to blame for mistaking her for a prostitute ... [[DoubleStandard as raping prostitutes is okay if he can pay.]] Or so we're told. Lots and lots of UnfortunateImplications.

* ''Literature/MasqueradeOfTheRedDeath'': At one point, Dire [=McCann=] returns to his hotel room with both of his vampiric bodyguards ... both of whom are female and wearing tight clothing. The hotel security guard immediately makes this assumption, and has to be hit with vampiric [[MindControl Domination]] to avoid problems.

* ComicBook/PowerGirl was suspected of being a prostitute by a alien magistrate who thought her attire was too indecent, having [[CleavageWindow "unacceptable levels of cleavage"]]. He got his brains blown out by Harley Quinn, who was accompanying her at the time.

* Played with in ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets''. This trope happens to Maggie three times as she wanders alone through Texas. The first time, just after her breakup with Hopey (Maggie still clad in the slinky party dress she was wearing at the time), a man propositions her at a bus station. Penniless and wanting to make her way home, she accepts, for three hundred dollars. The second time, in another town, everyone at the local motel assumes this about her, including an actual prostitute who assaults her for invading her turf. The thoroughly demoralized Maggie, noticing a security guard eyeing her, invites him to her room for sex. When she awakens, she finds he's left her money; she doesn't return it. Played straight the third time as, having returned to the town, patched things up with the prostitute and just about to be reunited with Hopey, one of the motel owners slaps her in the face after a regular blames her for breaking up his marriage,[[note]]even though it was entirely his idea to leave his wife for Maggie[[/note]], whereupon yet another man propositions her. This time, she responds by beating him up.

* Mentioned by Creator/DaveBarry, in an anecdote where the husband complains about the wife's driving, and she snaps LetsSeeYouDoBetter. She is about to get in the back, when it occurs to her she should be in front and slams the door, at which point the husband thinks she's in and drives off. Being dressed lightly in a bad neighborhood, she gets several price offers from passing men (It all worked out in the end though).

* Played with in ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets''. This trope happens to Maggie three times as she wanders alone through Texas. The first time, just after her breakup with Hopey (Maggie still clad in the slinky party dress she was wearing at the time), a man propositions her at a bus station. Penniless and wanting to make her way home, she accepts, for three hundred dollars. The second time, in another town, everyone at the local motel assumes this about her, including an actual prostitute who assaults her for invading her turf. The thoroughly demoralized Maggie, noticing a security guard eyeing her, invites him to her room for sex. When she awakens, she finds he's left her money; she doesn't return it. Played straight the third time as, having returned to the town, patched things up with the prostitute and just about to be reunited with Hopey, one of the motel owners slaps her in the face after a regular blames her for breaking up his marriage[[note]]even though it was entirely his idea to leave his wife for Maggie[[/note]], whereupon yet another man propositions her. This time, she responds by beating him up.
* This happens to ComicBook/RedSonja on a semi-regular basis; largely due to her habit of hanging seedy taverns in her ChainMailBikini. Thus usually ends badly for the person making the mistake, although she always gives them the opportunity to apologise before kicking their ass. They seldom take it.

When treated as comedy, whether the mistaken-for person decks the accoster or flees there will always be a followup scene where that person asks if she really dresses like a sex worker. The answer is always Yes. Don't be surprised to find some ValuesDissonance or UnfortunateImplications here, in the form of [[MyGirlIsNotASlut "nice girls don't wear _____".]] And it doesn't necessarily have to be clothing items; this is one area where MakeUpIsEvil isn't a ForgottenTrope.

** Phoebe, who is a legitimate massage therapist, gets called into work while her half-brother is visiting and invites him to come along and get a massage from one of the other masseuses. Thanks to Frank being a horny idiot he assumes Phoebe works at the HappyEndingMassage kind of "parlor" and hits on his masseuse who corrects him by throwing him in a wristlock and marching him back to Phoebe.

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** Phoebe, who is a legitimate massage therapist, gets called into work while her half-brother is visiting and invites him to come along and get a massage from one of the other masseuses. Thanks to Frank being a horny idiot he assumes Phoebe works at the HappyEndingMassage kind of "parlor" and hits on his masseuse who corrects him by throwing him in an armlock and marching him back to Phoebe.

* ''{{Series/Outlander}}'': When Brianna first approaches him, Jamie mistakes her intentions as a proposition, telling her that he's married.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Angua finds a notebook in Captain Vimes' quarters with a list of women's names and dollar amounts. Having spent most of the book with a rather low opinion of Vimes, she naturally assumes they're prostitutes. [[spoiler:They're widows and orphans of Watchmen.]]

* The first issue of ''ComicBook/{{Vampirella}} Lives'' combines this trope with MuggingTheMonster. The eponymous character and her guide are acosted by a group of ravenous vampires who assume she is a prostitute because of her [[{{Stripperiffic}} attire]]. She proceeds to slaughter them all with the help of her ally.