History Main / SonOfAWhore

** In the sequel ''Ashitaro Zenka Ari'', Ashitaro's half-breed OnlyFriend Alan Inoue is ''very'' strongly implied to be the son of one of the prostitutes that "service" foreigners (especially Americans) in Japanese harbors. He not only has a MultiEthnicName, but has natural blond hair that he dyes black to avert being abused ''and'' he dreams of leaving Japan and go to America at the beginning. When the BigBad of ''Ashitaro Zenka Ari'' properly sees his blond hair, he lampshades the trope in a '''very''' cruel BreakingSpeech he deals to the [[BrokenTears tearful]] young man; Ashitaro defends Alan and tells the BigBad [[ShutUpHannibal to shut the fuck up and stop judging people for their origins]].

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': Talos, Hunter of the One Soul [[Literature/NightLords and prophet of the VIII legion]] is in his own words, the son of a [[TurnOutLikeHisFather hereditary]] [[VillainousLineage murderer]] and an [[SexSlave indentured]] [[TeenPregnancy teenage]] [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold prostitute]]. He averts most of the baggage associated with the trope, and generally shows little emotion at in [[IncrediblyLamePun relation]] to his paternity. However, a dream flashback shows he genuinely cared for his mother, [[UsedToBeASweetKid at least as a child]].

** Faye has a short FreakOut when she realizes one of her Civil-War-era ancestors was a whore, rather than Faye's preferred interpretation, that she was [[PirateGirl a pirate]]. (The point of commonality? A [[IncrediblyLamePun "boarded by se(a)men"]] joke.) Dora tries to calm her down by pointing out that "it ''is'' TheOldestProfession -- statistically, we probably ''all'' are".

-->"You ain't so fine as you think you are, and you ain't mine neither. And I don't want you now that I know what you're about. Wanna know who you are, smartypants? You're Ruby Drollinger's bastard, that's who you are. Now let's see you put your nose in the air.

* ''Fils de Joie'' by Stromae is about a deceased sex worker. The chorus is sung from the point of view of her son, whereas the other parts are done by a customer, pimp and policeman.

A character whose mother is a [[TheOldestProfession sex worker]]. A "lady of the evening" is typical, but other "adult entrtainment" jobs are depicted. Expect the kid or teen to be [[DisappearedDad fatherless]], implied to be the product of one of her many horizontal business dealings. Sometimes the character was merely raised in a brothel or NoTellMotel, without either of their parents working there, or being born of a SexSlave. Expect either angst over their origin. More common amongst {{Anti Hero}}es than others.

** Inspector Javert was born in a prison-he says his mother was a UsefulNotes/{{Roma|ni}} FortuneTeller and his father was a galley slave. It's entirely possible his mom was turning tricks. In any case, even if he's not a SonOfAWhore, he's still a Son of Criminals, which is quite a big FreudianExcuse.

* In Music/RandyTravis's ''Three Wooden Crosses'', it turns out that [[spoiler:the preacher telling the story to his congregation is the son of the hooker who survived the crash, who read the Bible that the preacher who died gave her to him]].
* OC Smith's ''Son of Hickory Hollow's Tramp''.
* Music/{{Metallica}}'s music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOibtqWo6z4 Turn the page]] features a much-abused stripper and her daughter as the main characters. [[spoiler:The video's TwistEnding is that she's ''also'' a whore.]]

* Music/FrankZappa's ''Idiot Bastard Son'', whose mother's a hooker somewhere in LA.

* The Engineer in ''Theatre/MissSaigon''. Turns out he began his career as a pimp as a child, helping his mother find customers.
** Tam, Kim and Chris's son, come to that.
* Aldonza in ''Theatre/ManOfLaMancha''.
-->And, of course, there's my father. I'm told that young ladies\\
Can point to their fathers with maidenly pride.\\
>Mine was a regiment, here for one hour;\\
I can't even tell you which side!

* The late Johnny Winter from ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' applies. Before his death it's implied he constantly stood up for his mom when her profession was brought up. [[spoiler:In one of the epilogues, his mother avenges him]]
* [[VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins Zevran's]] past has him raised in the brothel until sold to the Crows.
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'': John Marston and his son Jack are both this, but it doesn't have any Negative effects on either. Heck, Jack's mother is actually a pretty nice person.
** It's still used as a taunt by the Bureau toward Marston though.
--> '''John Marston''': Son of a whore.
--> '''Edgar Ross''': As I recall, it is ''you'' who is the son of a whore, Marston.
* According to [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]], Nero of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' is the son of a prostitute and Dante's twin brother Vergil.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'', as the dressing room in the brothel has children's crayon drawings hanging on the walls. Upon examining them, Harry muses, "Everyone loves their kids."
* Vernon Roche, King Foltest's spymaster/special forces commander, is one of these in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings''. [[BerserkButton Call him "whoreson" at your own risk]].
** Of course, that doesn't stop him from [[HypocriticalHumor calling others "whoreson"]] at every opportunity.

* {{Implied}} in ''Videogame/{{Psychonauts}},'' with the campers' [[CharacterBlog fake social media accounts]]. Elton, a wimpy boy who wears a sailor's hat, says that his father died at sea, but his mother often receives visits from other sailors who are paying their respects...at the "special hotel for all ladies" where they live. Elton is usually instructed to practice his accordion in the closet during such visits.
* ''Two'' of [[PlayerCharacter Saori's]] potential love interests in ''VisualNovel/ShallWeDateNinjaShadow'' were mothered by prostitutes, were bullied and harassed due to their "muddled" origins, and have developed lots of emotional/mental issues as a result. One of them is Saori's fellow Vigilante [[spoiler:Yuzuki Hirano]] (who for worse [[spoiler:has come to [[HeManWomanHater distrust all women]] since he can't forgive his mother for leaving him]]) and the other is [[spoiler:Tsubaki Kusunoki]] (who [[spoiler:is the son of a rich Dutch man, meaning he ''also'' was subjected to HalfBreedDiscrimination]]).
* [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] from ''VideoGame/Persona5'' is revealed to be this; his mother was DrivenToSuicide when he was a child due to her family's abuse over having a child out of wedlock, resulting in him being passed around a number of neglectful foster homes. If any of it became public knowledge, it'd almost certainly destroy his career. To make matters worse, his biological father is [[spoiler:CorruptPolitican Masayoshi Shido]]. He's hellbent on making said father suffer for what he and his mother went through.

* ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'''s prologue chapters reveal Ichiban Kasuga had been raised by the manager and the working girls of Kamurocho's soapland, Shangri-La, since his mother left him there. It left him no hurry to know who his mother was, but it does leave him with a ChekhovsSkill later on when he and the party do end up working in Otohime Land, a rundown soapland in Ijincho. He's also not ashamed of fact and thinks fondly of his adopted family.

* Junuka from ''Webcomic/FarToTheNorth''. It's one of the reasons he comes across as something of a HeroicBastard even though he's part of a gang of slavers.

* Webcomic/{{Terinu}} was of the "raised in a whorehouse" variety, albeit a PG-13 "Gentleman's Cabaret". The pirate the club owed to tithe dropped him off there as an infant, and he was raised there until he was eight by the cabaret's bookkeeper, [[MamaBear who regarded him]] as her own son.

* It's heavily implied in ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo'' that Izzy and Addy were the result of their mother prostituting herself for drug money. Admittedly, the prostitution was less of an issue for them than the fact that [[AbusiveParents she was a violent psychopath]].
* ''Manhwa/IBelongToHouseCastiello'': Estelle's mother was a prostitute who had a fling with the Duke of Castiello that produced Estelle.

* David Wong in ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd''.

* In ''Roleplay/OverlordAscendant'' the main Alex is the daughter of a prostitute and a non-human client. She has absolutely no problems with this, nor with the expectation that she was to enter the "family business". Her father was eventually revealed to be the Dragon who guards the treasury of a nearby city, who is apologetic for not being there for her growing up.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" is the name of an episode for a reason -- Liane Cartman has slept with half the town, including the entire Denver Broncos team, [[spoiler:one of whom was Cartman's real father, which the town covered up.]] She's also done German pornography and posed suggestively for Crack Whore Magazine, neither of which Cartman is happy to know about.

* [[spoiler:Joe, the bully]] from ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel''. He's glad to meet his mother, [[spoiler:Nurse Bendy]] though, as his father was too old to be a good parent and he didn't get along with his PromotionToParent older sister. The episode where they reunite ends with them bonding ([[ItMakesSenseInContext by sticking their tongues out at each other]]) and a cameo in the final episode shows them skating together.
* Skwisgaar Skwigelf from ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}''. Sadly, his mother was psychologically abusive, as she frequently exposed him to scenes of her having sex with unrelated men, not caring that seeing such things would deeply scar a child.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePJs'': Walter Burkett was raised in a whorehouse. One episode has Thurgood telling a scary story about Red Moley, "the bastard son of a thousand maniacs", and Walter takes offense.
--> '''Walter''': Thurgood! I told you about my childhood in confidence!
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' claim each of their mothers are sluts.
** In one episode, Beavis specifies that his mother isn't a whore, she's a slut because she doesn’t charge for it.

* ''Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt'' does this with Markus Järv, who's the male protagonist in her novel "Betvingade". His mother was thrown out of her home when she became pregnant without being married, and that gave her no choice but to become a prostitute.
* The official story behind the eponymous villain's ancestry in ''Literature/{{Brokenclaw}}'', is that his father was a Chinese trader who was captured by Native Americans and later made part of them, with him as a result. The rumours indicate that he was an illegimate child of a Chinese tailor and a prostitute. Literature/JamesBond uses the knowledge of latter to insult him as he is about to be fed to the guy's pet wolves.
* In ''Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'', a character tries to insult Childermass by calling him "whoreson." Childermass simply shrugs it off, commenting "Better a whoreson than a thief."
* Dimitri from ''Literature/VampireAcademy'' is a minor example, since the dhampir women who end up single mothers (blood-whores, as they're called) genuinely thought that the Moroi guys they slept with loved them.
* From ''Literature/AlmostNight'', Stella's mother is a prostitute. The whole reason the plot happens is because she has to move away so that her mother can open a legal brothel.
* ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'': Christan Grey's biological mother was a drug addicted prostitute who committed suicide when he was four because her pimp was abusive.
* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', Koryk grew up in a whore house, although it's not specified if his mother worked there, merely implied. What he took away from it was that innocence is sacred, as the whores used to try to protect the children growing up among them, and a deep dislike for priests and religion, as the local priests used to make a show of stoning any sex worker they came upon on holy days.
* ''Literature/OutOfTheEasy'' has Josie. Her mother Louise is a prostitute and took up work at Willie's brothel. Oddly, Willie (and the other prostitutes) acts more akin to family to Josie than Louise does.
* In ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', [[spoiler:Esmeralda's]] birth mother Paquette became a prostitute after being seduced by a noble man. Paquette was lonely until her daughter was born, however [[spoiler:Esmeralda (then known as "Agnes")]] was stolen by Romani thieves and [[spoiler:replaced with the deformed Quasimodo]].
* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'':
** Gatt Coulomb cites his mothers profession, along with their being descended from the [[FamousAncestor infamous mercenary Gast Venom]] as the reason he's unable to advance further in the Asmodean military.
** Lemy Abelard's birth mother was this as well. She [[OffingTheOffspring attempted to drown him]] as a young child, which leads to him developing an utter contempt for prostitutes and recurring nightmares of drowning.
* ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi'': Meng Yao, later renamed Jin Guangyao, is the son of Sect Leader Jin Guangshan and the prostitute Meng Shi. Calling him "son of a whore" is an excellent way to get killed, as [[spoiler:Nie Mingjue]] learns the hard way.
* Keith in ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' is the son a minor Sorcier noble and a prostitute. He was legitimized by his father by the age of three and lived with him, yet he's been continuously insulted for his parentage while he lived there. Whatever timeline he was in, he was no longer insulted as ''this'' after he was adopted as heir of Duke Claes at eight.[[note]]Although in two of the three possible timelines he was subjected to a [[AffairBlameTheBastard different kind of abuse]] due to [[MistakenForCheating a misunderstanding]].[[/note]]
* Literature/HarryBosch is an LAPD detective whose mother, a prostitute, was murdered when he was young. The crime was never solved, but her death was a motivator for Bosch.

[[folder:Live-Action Television ]]
* ''Series/TheUntamed'': Meng Yao[=/=]Jin Guangyao, like in [[Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi the novel]]. The angst this causes him is downplayed in the series, but mentioning it remains his BerserkButton.
%%* ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'': Richard Sharpe. Sgt. Harper's son might or might not count. %% Zero Context. Please provide context before uncommenting
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': In "Breaker of Chains", Daario Naharis admits this about himself without shame.
* Dick Whitman in ''Series/MadMen''. [[spoiler:Also known as... Don Draper.]] His birth mom, a prostitute hired by his father, actually died in childbirth. His alcoholic dad followed a when he was about 10, leaving him in the care of his stern stepmother. She remarried a brothel manager, where he spent a good chunk of his childhood and even lost his virginity to one of the girls.
* Jin of ''Series/{{Lost}}''. It's unclear if he knows. But when Sun spoke to her, she made it very clear that if Jin were to ever find out his mother was alive, she wouldn't be for long. The man who raised Jin isn't even sure if he's actually Jin's biological father, but he doesn't care and loves him anyway.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', a serial killer's FreudianExcuse was that his mother was a prostitute. [[spoiler:She was his first victim. When he was a teenager.]]

* Buck Wilmington of ''Series/TheMagnificentSeven'' is entirely angst-free about it; it just makes him even fonder of prostitutes [[ChivalrousPervert than he would be otherwise]]. (And god help you if you mistreat one in his presence.)

* Karen, the adopted daughter of UsefulNotes/VietnamWar vet Boonie on ''Series/ChinaBeach'', is actually the daughter of KC Koloski, the [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold base tramp]] back in Vietnam, and Lt. Col. Mac Miller, one of KC's main customers.
* Pops up from time to time in ''Series/CriminalMinds'', given the association of this trope with [[SerialKiller serial killers]]. Two prominent examples are Frank and [[FreudianExcuse The Prince of Darkness]].
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': Jimmy Darmody was born when his mother [[TeenPregnancy was 14 years old]], after she was pimped out by Nucky to [[spoiler:the Commodore, who had to have been in his ''sixties'' even then]]. And no, [[BerserkButton you should not say a single ill word about his mother]].

* La Croix's daughter Divia in ''Series/ForeverKnight''. It's not stated explicitly, but can be inferred based on dialogue with a little knowledge of Roman customs of the time (first century AD).
* An episode of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' called "Heart of Gold" is about the crew protecting a brothel from a man wanting to kidnap his unborn child. As the battle is going on the "whore" gives birth. Once the man is captured she goes out to show him his son, looks him in the face, and puts the man down with one shot.
* In ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'', Hal claims he was both in a brothel and never knew which of the six prostitutes was his mother. As each of them died due to illness, violence or old age; he mourned each of them as if they were his mother.
* One killer on ''Series/{{CSI}}'' was the son of a hooker. When she brought in a John, he was forced to hide under the bed while she worked. Watching her perfectly painted toenails hang over the edge of the bed was what gave birth to his trademark foot fetish later in life.

* A variation in ''{{The Feast of All Saints}}''. Cecile, mother of main character Marcel and his younger sister Marie, isn't actually a prostitute. However, Marie does view the practice of ''placage'' (formalized relationships between white men and women of color) with disdain since she thinks of it as being owned by the man, like a slave. When Cecile tries to force Marie into ''placage'' to help the family financially, Marie realizes that her mother is completely willing to sell her (literally AND figuratively) and says she has the "soul of a whore."

* In the ''Series/EmeraldCity'' episode [[Recap/EmeraldCityS1E3MistressNewMistress "Mistress - New - Mistress"]], Anna is dismayed to learn her mother was one of the prostitutes in West's brothel. It seems the Wizard was a favorite client, though West claims he isn't her father.

* Played with on ''Series/MurdochMysteries''. Constable Crabtree was a foundling raised by a preacher and several "aunts" - all of them prostitutes who the preacher housed in order to keep them safe.
* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Famed stockbroker Raymond "Piranha" Jones was born to one of [[MissKitty Mama Mabel's]] prostitutes, with his biological father being a married banker who used her services. While he's not on speaking terms with his father, he has a very good relationship with his mother and, after becoming a success on Wall Street, set her up for life financially and gladly showed his father the door when he came looking for a handout.

* As in the Michael Connelly novels, Harry Bosch is portrayed as the son of a prostitute in ''Series/{{Bosch}}''. His efforts to close her unsolved murder make up an overarching sideplot of the series.
* ''Series/{{Holocaust}}'': {{Invoked}}. Nazi officials in Auschwitz make the Jewish prisoners call their parents pimps and whores while taking their personal details. Those who naturally object are beaten for it.