History Main / UnproblematicProstitution

* ''Manga/InterspeciesReviewers'': Our main heroes want to find the best lay out of all! Thankfully for them, prostitution is legal and brothels abound, so finding a partner is no issue. Originally prostitution was made legal for the sake of the various HornyDevils species, who ''need'' vast amounts of sexing to live, but all other races quickly joined in after pointing out that succubi screw around so much, everyone has at least some succubus ancestry. The endless political success of the Orc Party (who prioritize social stability over everything else and tend to pour ridiculous sums of money into [[BreadAndCircuses the food and entertainment industries]]) then cemented the brothel industry as a major part of this cheerfully sexually liberated world. In fact, the only girls who are ever shown as unhappy are two small-eyed cyclops girls who don't get ''enough'' customers. All that said, while the prostitution may be healthy and safe, it's still a dead-end job. It's mentioned there's plenty of succu-girls only in it for easy money while they look for something better, and only a few (such a Tiaplate the Salamander, who basically gets paid for laying back and being a [[BodySushi very raunchy barbecue]]) are making serious money and/or see it as a long-term career.

* In ''Literature/TheLongWayToASmallAngryPlanet'', the Exodus Fleet has "tryst clubs" that were explicitly designed to be this, being part of the Health and Wellness division of the ship. There's no money in the Fleet (at least traditionally) so there's no exploitation, they get free healthcare, and there's no taboo against visiting one as long as you're of age.

If a character in this role has a personality of their own (rather than being a pure MsFanservice or similar), don't be surprised if they're[[HookerWithAHeartOfGold a really good person]] who [[NeedAHandOrAHandjob you can really talk with]]. Indeed, sometimes [[PlatonicProstitution talking is as far as it goes]], and that's OK, too.

* ''Manga/InterspeciesReviewers'': Our main heroes, want to find the best lay out of all! Thankfully for them, prostitution is legal and brothels abound, so finding a partner is no issue. Originally prostitution was made legal for the sake of the various HornyDevils species, who ''need'' vast amounts of sexing to live, but all other races quickly joined in after pointing out that succubi screw around so much, everyone has at least some succubus ancestry. The endless political success of the Orc Party (who prioritize social stability over everything else and tend to pour ridiculous sums of money into [[BreadAndCircuses the food and entertainment industries]]) then cemented the brothel industry as a major part of this cheerfully sexually liberated world. In fact, the only girls who are ever shown as unhappy are two small-eyed cyclops girls who don't get ''enough'' customers. All that said, while the prostitution may be healthy and safe, it's still a dead-end job. It's mentioned there's plenty of succu-girls only in it for easy money while they look for something better, and only a few (such a Tiaplate the Salamander, who basically gets paid for laying back and being a [[BodySushi very raunchy barbecue]]) are making serious money and/or see it as a long-term career.

* In ''Literature/ALongWayToASmallAngryPlanet'', the Exodus Fleet has "tryst clubs" that were explicitly designed to be this, being part of the Health and Wellness division of the ship. There's no money in the Fleet (at least traditionally) so there's no exploitation, they get free healthcare, and there's no taboo against visiting one as long as you're of age.

* ''Shlick-Crazy Ninja'' is a comical H-doujinshi series about [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake Yuffie Kisaragi]], who starts of having a secret addiction to masturbation. But after finally losing her virginity in chapter 2, she soon finds [[AllWomenAreLustful she can't get enough]] and turns to prostitution to satisfy her cravings. Despite its subject matter, the series remains lighthearted by averting the dark aspects and potential dangers of prostitution. Likewise, the fact that she's selling her body at 16 years old is never an issue for any of her clients. Instead, Yuffie has [[GoodBadGirl 'fun for profit']] since they always treat her well and pay her with rare Materia.

* In the hentai comedy manga ''Spunky Knight'', the exceptionally lusty female protagonist is a part-time adventurer for hire, part-time prostitute. She only prefers adventuring because the brothel customers aren't as exciting as those she encounters on missions. Ironically, being a prostitute actually pays the bills a LOT better even though she takes on a lot of high-paying mercenary jobs. Thing is, she has a tendency to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero mess up the guild's plans]], whether or not she mixes business with pleasure. She once unintentionally [[NeckSnap snaps the neck]] of an escaped mook the guild was interrogating. She also [[OutWithABang kills or nearly kills targets]] like by draining a HeroKiller down to an unrecognizable husk so she couldn't collect his bounty. Or she [[ADateWithRosiePalms spends so much time masturbating that she is late to an exam.]] She's considered TheLoad almost only good for sex, which [[TheChessmaster Torre]] figured out how to make work to their advantage, i.e. Honey Traps and her [[ImmodestOrgasm immodest orgasms that can be heard for]] ''miles.''

In some works of fiction, prostitution is portrayed as a dream job, or at least as a pleasant and reasonably unproblematic career, even if the sex worker would like to move on to another occupation someday. It may not be a coincidence that the creators of this scenario are usually male.

# Safe, pleasant working conditions: no customer is ever violent or dangerous; no one is unwashed, unattractive, unsanitary, or unsavory. If the customer has a kink, it's one that the prostitute is happy to indulge, and often thoroughly enjoys themselves. No one ever has to do for money anything that s/he wouldn't do otherwise -- or if s/he does, this doesn't cause any emotional problems afterward. Also, the prostitute has the option to turn down any clients s/he chooses, for any reason.

# Everybody cheerfully pays whatever the sex worker's going rate is. S/he never gets [[DoubleEntendre (''ahem'') stiffed.]]

If a character in this role has a personality of her own (rather than being a pure MsFanservice or similar), don't be surprised if she's [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold a really good person]] who [[NeedAHandOrAHandjob you can really talk with]]. Indeed, sometimes [[PlatonicProstitution talking is as far as it goes]], and that's OK, too.

# Any middlemen (pimps or madams) are always looking out for the best interests of the prostitute and are never abusive. Or all pandering, security and other support services are dealt with by a completely worker-run and non-exploitative BandOfBrothels.

* ''Jill: Part-time Lover'' covers all of the above criteria to a tee as [[AmbiguouslyBrown the title character's]] EstablishingCharacterMoment is waking up in a gangbang with three [[LatinLover Latin Lovers]] she brought home last night and admitting she's a "horny nut and nuts about fucking" while feeling like she's practically getting away with murder with how much fun she's having. It's an STDImmunity world with only an offhand mention of putting in her diaphragm, otherwise she takes her clients completely raw whenever she wants. Her clients both respect her staying on the DL and [[TakingYouWithMe would be even more fucked if word got out]] given these are uppercrust executives and the like. She's self-employed, makes a minimum of ''thousands'' per call where only ''half'' of her first client's payment as merely a sex-free incentive would've covered her rent and then some. With her rich clients doing the networking for her by word-of-mouth to other rich guys. The closest thing to a truly bad customer is one that hurt her in a [[SlapstickKnowsNoGender slapstick]] way before she left him and his blue-balled brother for some nearby [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Black Men]] that she had a ''free'' orgy with involving [[TheCameo her friend, Jaliera Dane.]]

* Zigzagged in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/16637981/chapters/39007109 Satisfaction Guaranteed]]''. While Jaune's job as a gigolo goes wonderfully for him due to being a legitimate business, it's still made clear that there's plenty of cases of prostitutes forced into their careers by drug addiction, debts, or blackmail. He's also told up front that his job is satisfying his clients, not himself. If they get off on blue balling him, then he's gonna get blue balled or he's not getting paid. There is still stigma attached to prostitution though, which is why Jaune's profile is a description and a body shot with his face cropped out; similarly both prostitutes and clients all use pseudonyms for the app they all use. Lastly, Jaune's "kit" includes both condoms and emergency contraceptives in case a condom breaks, though his boss does say that any client who wants him to "finish inside" is on her own for preventing/dealing with a pregnancy.

** A hooker (played by Julia Roberts) is picked up by a millionaire (played by Richard Gere) and they fall in love. Vivian is a good person (although she does have ''some'' emotional baggage, it's not related to her work) and, over the course of the week he hired her for, completely turns around the millionaire's way of dealing with the world through her sheer goodness and sweetness. Although this is a change he wanted to do for as long as he can remember -- what she gave him is emotional support rather than insights. His business partner doesn't care either way about her, until she gets in his way; then he calls her a dirty whore and tries to rape her.
** The original script was a huge deconstruction of it. To start off with Vivian was heavily addicted to cocaine and emotionally unstable, and the movie ends with the millionaire throwing her out of his limo, tossing the cash at her and driving off. She then dies of a cocaine overdose brought on by a mental breakdown. Some real prostitutes blame the final glamorized version for making them feel it was an okay profession to take up, and ruining their lives in doing so.

* ''Film/MoulinRouge'' is a deconstructed version. Satine ''appears'' to be this trope, reveling in the fortune and fame of being the nightclub/brothel's star attraction, but in reality it's more of a GildedCage for her. As the film goes on, we see how little control over her life she actually has. And of course it's a ForegoneConclusion that she's going to die of tuberculosis.
* ''Film/DangerousBeauty'' portrays high class 16th Century Venetian prostitution in a glowing light. There's a scene where lower class prostitutes are shown to be in desperate shape, but for the most part, prostitution is looked upon as a way to empower intelligent women, allowing them to interact with wealthy men on their own terms (of course, the film totally overlooks the fact that its main character had, in the RealLife story this movie was based on, ''six kids'' with her high class lover. Oh, and also, the earliest, most virulent form of syphilis was raging through Italy at the time, making prostitution a dangerous gamble). However, the main character cautions a friend who thinks her daughter becoming a courtesan is a good way to get an education and independence against romanticizing this, as it's easy for courtesans to fall from grace into the dire straits of street prostitution.

* ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong'' downplays it. The bar girls all look like attractive women and never seem to have problems with [=STDs=]. However Suzie is assaulted by a customer who won't take no for an answer, and she [[spoiler:has a son thanks to one of her clients]]. She also became a prostitute because she was thrown out at the age of ''ten''. The book explains that as part of an agreement with the hotel, all the prostitutes have to have weekly medical check-ups. One in the book had three children -- two of whom she gave up and the third died of neglect. There are also [[ChristmasCake older prostitutes]] who have to charge very little in order to get work (one of whom had two children to support).
* ''Film/{{Predestination}}''. Space Corps recruits physically fit, intelligent women to provide sexual and emotional comfort for astronauts on long term missions, and the recruiters interest in Jane's aptitude for mathematics and physics implies they work as BridgeBunnies when not performing this function. Rather than prostitutes (who are often psychologically unsuitable for space work anyway) the recruiters prefer virgins because they can be trained from scratch. Jane mentions that the recruits are [[MRSDegree guaranteed to end up with a husband]] as such women are the [[CommonalityConnection only kind astronauts can relate to]] by the end of their own careers.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' both subverts and plays the trope straight. The first Velvet Room, Chicago's chief brothel, is run by the Red Court of Vampires (flabby, disgusting bat monsters with narcotic drool that can put on a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting 'Flesh Mask']] to look like the VampiresAreSexGods are concept) subverts this trope -- the girls are hinted to be controlled by addiction to the narcotic saliva, they get fed on by the brothel's vampire Madame, Bianca St. Claire, who kills at least one when she loses control. She's also implied to recruit quite forcefully, with Thomas Raith relating that she hates him because she wanted his drop dead gorgeous girlfriend Justine to be one of her 'girls'. After Bianca, who [[NeverMyFault blames Dresden for provoking her and 'making' her kill her favourite prostitute/lover]], makes an enemy of Dresden and gets burned to ash along with the rest of the Velvet Room, the city's resident NobleDemon crime lord Gentleman John Marcone sets up the new Velvet Room, effectively disguised as a gym/health club about which this trope is discussed: [[FriendOnTheForce Sergeant Murphy]] remarks that the girls in places like this are usually well paid, given/required to have medical tests on a regular basis, and volunteers not coerced or controlled by drugs or violence - all of which fits very much Marcone's habits of being good to his employees and savage in his retribution towards those who harm them. So, aside from token gestures, the cops don't generally do anything because they have bigger problems. However, it is clear that this is not the norm outside of Marcone's control.

* The Companions in Fiona Patton's ''Literature/TalesOfTheBranionRealm'' series. In fairness, they are really courtesans rather than regular prostitutes, are organized into a guild, are generally under contract to the nobility and basically use their roles as kept lovers of said nobility to manipulate the politics of the realm. Although this is frowned upon, quite a few of them end up in loving relationships with their clients, who in turn just keep renewing their contracts so they can basically live as couples.

* Misty Carpenter in ''Literature/TheIdentityMatrix'' simply loves being a a prostitute and a stripper, as she's both a nymphomaniac and an AttentionWhore in all senses of that term. But this is not considered normal within the setting -- it's the result of a GovernmentConspiracy [[FalseMemories deliberately messing with her mind]] and giving a formerly depressed, introverted person the life of constant attention and sex she always craved as a form of self-reinforcing StockholmSyndrome. It's implied that her environment (a high-class legal bordello in Nevada) is an intentionally Disneyfied establishment used just for this purpose.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' shows two extreme ends of the spectrum of prositution:
** The Companions Guild, whose members are among the Alliance's upper class, can wield a fair amount of influence with their favored clients. It is also Guild law that a Companion chooses her clients, and they are paid very well for what they do. Companions get regular health screenings and have systems in place to blacklist clients who don't treat them with respect. One such Companion, Inara, is considered to be the most respectable of ''[[CoolStarship Serenity's]]'' crew (above the on-board reverend, even), and the only one who makes a completely "honest" living. She is shown to enjoy most aspects of her work, but at the same time her lifestyle causes some degree of friction. One of her clients snubs her when she politely refuses to settle down with him (and it is implied that this happens a lot) and another calls her a "whore" when he loses his temper with her (and she subsequently blacklists him from the client registry). Companions are also more than simply prostitutes, and are shown providing counsel and psychological help with their clients.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' doesn't usually go for this, but the episode "Pleasure is my Business" does. The unsub is a high class call girl who's going around killing her clients. The team suspects she's targeting them based on a sexual kink (citing the fact that even call girls don't have total control over what acts they have to perform), but her victim selection criteria is based on moral failings separate from soliciting prostitutes, and another (former) call girl they talk to for advice blows off that concern, feeling confident that the unsub could have filtered out unsavory clients on her own. The biggest "problem" presented with prostitution in the episode is the possibility of a scandal, but that's portrayed as a risk for ''the FBI team investigating the murders'' more than for the call girl herself, or even her clients [[note]]The ending of the episode declares that there's going to be fallout for the clients involved, but since that's only implied to happen off-screen, it loses any possible impact[[/note]], and while the unsub's FreudianExcuse involves her father leaving the family after having an affair with a call girl, it doesn't play out any differently than if he'd had an affair with a non-prostitute, and we even meet the former call girl in question, who has a cushy life with a good husband. So, as long as you avoid seeking revenge on your DisappearedDad via poisoning surrogates, being a call girl is a perfectly safe, mostly respectable career choice.
* ''Series/TippingTheVelvet'': {{Subverted}}. At first Nan is quite comfortable with being a {{streetwalker}} and perfectly safe. Then however a client tries to rape her after she's unwilling to do anal sex with him. She becomes the kept woman of Ms. Lethaby, which also seems okay at first. Over time however Lethaby becomes far more exploitative and controlling to the point Nan describes herself later as her slave.

* Whores, hoes or hos were a very prominent part of both the Dangerous Women of Wrestling and Women's Extreme Wrestling promotion. For whatever reason sex workers were prolific throughout them, providing lots of {{fanservice}}. While they did serve as RedShirts for baby{{face}}s to save from or avenge against the {{heel}}s, the hos apparently had no financial hardships and faced no legal trouble. Some such as GI Ho, Navaho and Cleo-ho-patra even managed to become pro wrestlers [[WrestlingDoesntPay while holding down their sex work]]. Hos were good mind you. The porn stars making up the Pussy World Order were heel invaders of WEW who were trying to force people into their business.

* In the musical ''Theatre/{{Tenderloin}}'', the prostitutes have only one thing to be unhappy about: reformers trying to close their RedLightDistrict down. They do have corrupt police to pay off, but that's just a cost of doing business.

** Mostly avoided in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', in which many prostitutes are [[FantasticDrug Jet]] addicts, and some in New Reno are actually chattel slaves. Played straight in the case of the Cat's Paw, which seems to be a brothel of clean, consenting, prostitutes who take professional pride in their skills.

* The ''VideoGame/KantaiCollection'' doujin "Glasses That Show the Number of Sexual Partners of Ship Girls" makes Akitsu Maru into a veteran army prostitute[[note]]As a ship she was run by the Army and not the Navy[[/note]] who refers to herself as a "comfort woman" and loved serving with the soldiers.

* ''Film/{{Predestination}}''. Space Corps recruits physically fit, intelligent women to provide sexual and emotional comfort for astronauts on long term missions, and the recruiters interest in Jane's aptitude for mathematics and physics implies they work as BridgeBunnies when not performing this function. Rather than prostitutes (who are often psychologically unsuitable for space work anyway) the recruiters prefer virgins because they can be trained from scratch. Jane mentions that the recruits are guaranteed to end up with a husband as such women are the [[CommonalityConnection only kind astronauts can relate to]] by the end of their own careers.

* A complaint levied against ''Webcomic/{{Teahouse}}'' by its detractors. While it's true that none of the characters have it easy, sources of drama include [[UptownGirl social differences]], [[DeadlyDecadentCourt messy politics]], and at least two [[ArrangedMarriage unhappy marriages]] ([[DysfunctionJunction among many, many others]]). True, all are tangentially related to the titular brothel, yet the more typical problems that real-life prostitutes would face haven't come up yet.

# Most critically of all, no one is forced into the trade, either by poverty [[SexSlave or with violence or blackmail]]. No one is [[YouWouldMakeAGreatModel tricked into it]], either. Also, everyone is above the age of consent.

!! Examples:

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* ''Manga/InterspeciesReviewers'': Our main heroes, want to find the best lay out of all! Thankfully for them, prostitution is legal and brothels abound, so finding a partner is no issue. Originally prostitution was made legal for the sake of the various HornyDevils species, who ''need'' vast amounts of sexing to live, but all other races quickly joined in after pointing out that succubi screw around so much, everyone has at least some succubus ancestry. The endless political success of the Orc Party (who prioritize social stability over everything else and tend to pour ridiculous sums of money into [[BreadAndCircuses the food and entertainment industries]]) then cemented the brothel industry as a major part of this cheerfully sexually liberated world. In fact, the only girls who are ever shown as unhappy are two small-eyed cyclops girls who don't get ''enough'' customers.
** All that said, while the prostitution may be healthy and safe, it's still a dead-end job. It's mentioned there's plenty of succu-girls only in it for easy money while they look for something better, and only a few (such a Tiaplate the Salamander, who basically gets paid for laying back and being a [[BodySushi very raunchy barbecue]]) are making serious money and/or see it as a long-term career.
* In the hentai comedy manga ''Spunky Knight'', the exceptionally lusty female protagonist is a part time adventurer for hire, part time prostitute. She only prefers adventuring because the brothel customers aren't as exciting as those she encounters on missions. Ironically, being a prostitute actually pays the bills a LOT better even though she takes on a lot of high paying mercenary jobs. This is she has a tendency to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero mess up the guild's plans]], whether or not she mixes business with pleasure. She once unintentionally [[NeckSnap snaps the neck]] of an escaped mook the guild was interrogating. She also [[OutWithABang kills or nearly kills targets]] like by draining a HeroKiller down to an unrecognizable husk so couldn't collect his bounty. Or she [[ADateWithRosiePalms spends so much time masturbating that she is late to an exam.]] She's considered TheLoad almost only good for sex, which [[TheChessmaster Torre]] figured out how to make work to their advantage i.e. Honey Traps and her [[ImmodestOrgasm immodest orgasms that can be heard for]] ''miles.''

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

* ''Jill: Part-time Lover'' covers all of the above criteria to a tee as [[AmbiguouslyBrown the title character's]] EstablishingCharacterMoment is waking up in a gangbang with three [[LatinLover Latin Lovers]] she brought home last night and admitting she's a "horny nut and nuts about fucking" while feeling like she's practically getting away with murder with how much fun she's having, it's an STDImmunity world with only an offhand mention of putting in her diaphragm otherwise she takes her clients completely raw whenever she wants, her clients both respect her staying on the DL and [[TakingYouWithMe would be even more fucked if word got out]] given these are uppercrust executives and the like, she's self-employed, makes a minimum of ''thousands'' per call where only ''half'' of her first client's payment as merely a sex-free incentive would've covered her rent and then some with her rich clients doing the networking for her by word-of-mouth to other rich guys and the closest thing to a truly bad customer is one that hurt her in a [[SlapstickKnowsNoGender slapstick]] way before she left him and his blue balled brother for some nearby [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Black Men]] that she had a ''free'' orgy with involving [[TheCameo friend, Jaliera Dane.]]

[[folder:{{Fanworks}}]]
* The VideoGame/KantaiCollection doujin "Glasses That Show the Number of Sexual Partners of Ship Girls" makes Akitsu Maru into a veteran army prostitute[[note]]As a ship she was run by the Army and not the Navy[[/note]] who refers to herself as a "comfort woman" and loved serving with the soldiers.
* This is PlayedWith in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''FanFic/BeautifulFictionsBabylon'' the Riders brothel. The brothel is very upper class with the motherly madame looking out her workers and most of the workers do seem happy but she met Edward when a john tried to rough her up in order to get a refund and a girl left because she felt stifled on the brothel's set prices.
* Numerous ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' apply this to the [[EmotionEater Emotion Eating]] [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Changelings]] in order to give them an, erm, [[HornyDevils less invasive means of acquiring their food]].
* Subverted in the fanfic ''Fanfic/ValesUnderground''. Even though it is legal and without general stigma, sex work isn't unproblematic. Yang still has to deal with unruly customers and she has to check condoms to make sure that people didn't try to poke holes in them without her knowing. It's better since they can at least go to the police without fear of being arrested, but it still isn't a perfect profession. It is even noted that while she enjoys the job generally, Mercury is the only one of her customers who regularly makes her orgasm without her having to fake it.[[note]]To drive that point home, Yang once joked that she'd give a discount for every orgasm she gets and the narration says that she wouldn't be making as much money off of Mercury if she did that.[[/note]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]

** A hooker (played by Julia Roberts) is picked up by a millionaire (played by Richard Gere) and they fall in love. Vivian is a good person (although she does have ''some'' emotional baggage, it's not related to her work) and, over the course of the week he hired her for, completely turns around the millionaire's way of dealing with the world through her sheer goodness and sweetness. Although this is a change he wanted to do for as long as he can remember - what she gave him is emotional support rather than insights. His business partner doesn't care either way about her, until she gets in his way; then he calls her a dirty whore and tries to rape her.

* In ''Film/{{Mammoth}}'' Selling sex and "girlfriend experience" to silly white guys comes across as emotionally stressful or maybe even draining... But it still comes across as far less awful than the alternatives presented. Try being a night-shift doctor, not getting enough sleep and spending your nights watching children die without being able to save them. Or try being a nanny, hearing on the phone how your own children's lives are spiraling into hell while you are busy taking care of another woman's child... a rich woman who is jealous of you, frightened that her daughter may love you more than she loves her.

* ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong'' downplays it. The bar girls all look like attractive women and never seem to have problems with [=STDs=]. However Suzie is assaulted by a customer who won't take no for an answer, and she [[spoiler: has a son thanks to one of her clients]]. She also became a prostitute because she was thrown out at the age of ''ten''. The book explains that as part of an agreement with the hotel, all the prostitutes have to have weekly medical check-ups. One in the book had three children - two of whom she gave up and the third died of neglect. There are also [[ChristmasCake older prostitutes]] who have to charge very little in order to get work (one of whom had two children to support).

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' both subverts and plays the trope straight. The first Velvet Room, Chicago's chief brothel, is run by the Red Court of Vampires (flabby, disgusting bat monsters with narcotic drool that can put on a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting 'Flesh Mask']] to look like the VampiresAreSexGods are concept) subverts this trope - the girls are hinted to be controlled by addiction to the narcotic saliva, they get fed on by the brothel's vampire Madame, Bianca St. Claire, who kills at least one when she loses control. She's also implied to recruit quite forcefully, with Thomas Raith relating that she hates him because she wanted his drop dead gorgeous girlfriend Justine to be one of her 'girls'. After Bianca, who [[NeverMyFault blames Dresden for provoking her and 'making' her kill her favourite prostitute/lover]], makes an enemy of Dresden and gets burned to ash along with the rest of the Velvet Room, the city's resident NobleDemon crime lord Gentleman John Marcone sets up the new Velvet Room, effectively disguised as a gym/health club about which this trope is discussed: [[FriendOnTheForce Sergeant Murphy]] remarks that the girls in places like this are usually well paid, given/required to have medical tests on a regular basis, and volunteers not coerced or controlled by drugs or violence - all of which fits very much Marcone's habits of being good to his employees and savage in his retribution towards those who harm them. So, aside from token gestures, the cops don't generally do anything because they have bigger problems. However, it is clear that this is not the norm outside of Marcone's control.

--> "Some of them have lost everything and had nothing else to sell. Some who want money. Some, like Rosa, who are too wild to keep to one man."
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':

* Zig-zagged in ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'' series. Justified in that the d'Angeline Servants of Naamah are Church-affiliated {{High Class Call Girl}}s and boys in a country with "Love As Thou Wilt" as its main creed and no stigma against prostitution, so they're quite well-regarded and can attain positions of high rank. However, they're {{Indentured|Servitude}} to brothels as children and obligated to {{work off the debt}}, which can be nigh-impossible if they fall short of the brothel's standards of beauty; and Phedre campaigns against the element of debt bondage in later books.

--> ''Who wants to be a doctor or a lawyer when you can be a prostitute like me? A proper one I mean, not one of those grim ones, a nice, pretty, clean one, which in reality, most of us are.''
* ''Series/WildWestTech'': One episode harshly deconstructs this trope.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Whores, hoes or hos were a very prominent part of both the Dangerous Women Of Wrestling and Women's Extreme Wrestling promotion. For whatever reason sex workers were prolific throughout them, providing lots of {{fanservice}}. While they did serve as RedShirts for baby{{face}}s to save from or avenge against the {{heel}}s, the hos apparently had no financial hardships and faced no legal trouble. Some such as GI Ho, Navaho and Cleo-ho-patra even managed to become pro wrestlers [[WrestlingDoesntPay while holding down their sex work]]. Hos were good mind you. The porn stars making up the Pussy World Order were heel invaders of WEW who were trying to force people into their business.

[[folder: TabletopGames]]

[[folder:{{Theatre}}]]
* ''Film/TheBestLittleWhorehouseInTexas''

--> '''Nickie''': "You run your heart like a hotel — you've always got people checking in and checking out".

[[folder: VideoGames]]

* Mostly avoided in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', in which many prostitutes are [[FantasticDrug Jet]] addicts, and some in New Reno are actually chattel slaves. Played straight in the case of the Cat's Paw, which seems to be a brothel of clean, consenting, prostitutes who take professional pride in their skills.

* Dorothy Haze from ''VisualNovel/{{VA11HALLA}}''. She's a [[RobotGirl Lilim]] prostitute with an earnest enjoyment of her work and [[NoYay the body of a 7-10-year-old]] (Lilim are built young but can earn a free upgrade to an older body after passing three 'maturity tests.' Dorothy never opt-in for the upgrade.) As you can guess, this gives Dorothy a bit of an advantage, in her line of work.

[[folder: WebComics]]

[[folder: WebOriginal]]
* Discussed (and ultimately averted) in the ''WebVideo/ZinniaJones'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGrNMsVfrbw "Overstating the case for full decriminalization of prostitution"]].

* TheOldestProfession may be older even than humanity, as it appears to emerge in the presence of money. An article in ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' ([[http://www.cracked.com/article_19388_6-things-you-wont-believe-animals-do-just-like-us_p2.html 6 Things You Won't Believe Animals Do Just Like Us]]) describes several experiments in which researchers introduced money to communities of monkeys. In one, a female monkey ended up trading sex for money so she could buy some grapes.
* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' also had an article titled "No Fat Tourists: 5 Facts of Life You Learn as a Prostitute in Vietnam" that painted the life of a prostitute in a ridiculously rosy way. According to the article, prostitution was just a nice way for the author to earn some pocket cash, had no social stigma among the locals, she was kept safe by both the police and her "street caller" (pimp), and in fact it enriched her life because it taught her English. The whole thing is criticized as glorifying SexTourism and reads like it was written by a Vietnamese tourism board.

* Hitchhiker ghosts in ''Literature/{{Ghostroads}}'' can only receive favors freely given, and sex is the only way [[TheProtagonist Rose Marshall]] has to repay people for rides or meals. She doesn't particularly mind because there can be no consequences and it's an experience she wished she'd had in life. She's also not above using "a trip to the woods" to delay someone long enough to miss their appointment with death. As a "hitcher"-type ghost Rose is fueled by "borrowed life" and describes herself addicted to things she can only really experience while wearing a borrowed coat - cheeseburgers, coffee, and sex, though sex seems to be more something she enjoys in passing than craves.

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* A complaint levied against ''Webcomic/{{Teahouse}}'' by its detractors. While it's true that none of the characters have it easy, sources of drama include [[UptownGirl social differences]], [[DeadlyDecadentCourt messy politics]], and at least two [[ArrangedMarriage unhappy]] [[YourCheatingHeart marriages]] ([[DysfunctionJunction among many, many others]]). True, all are tangentially related to the titular brothel, yet the more typical problems that real-life prostitutes would face haven't come up yet.

* ''Manga/InterspeciesReviewers'': Our main heroes, want to find the best lay out of all! Thankfully for them, prostitution is legal and brothels abound, so finding a partner is no issue. Originally prostitution was made legal for the sake of the various HornyDevils species, who ''need'' vast amounts of sexing to live, but all other races quickly joined in after pointing out that succubi screw around so much, everyone has at least some succubus ancestry. The endless political success of the Orc Party (who prioritize social stability over everything else and tend to pour ridiculous sums of money into [[BreadAndCircuses the food and entertainment industries]]) then cemented the brothel industry as a major part of this cheerfully sexually liberated world.

# [[MyGirlIsNotASlut The social stigma attached to prostitution]] is very mild, if it exists at all. In many cases, the sex trade is considered no worse than any other service job. Indeed, it might even be ''sanctioned'' by that society. [[note]] (For example, a society in which {{Arranged Marriage}}s are the norm and seeking out sex elsewhere is more-or-less accepted. Or a society in which prostitution is an aspect of the society's religion, as with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_prostitution temple prostitutes]], who were usually also priests/priestesses. Or one in which boys or girls are given ProfessionalSexEd when they are considered marriageable adults, or some other form of SexAsRiteOfPassage. Or one in which rape is seen as a result of unresolved {{Lust}} rather than anger or power dynamics, and therefore it's seen as important for men to have an "outlet" so they won't harm "[[MadonnaWhoreComplex respectable]]" women.)[[/note]] If and when s/he decides to [[INeedAnIndexByMonday pursue a different career path]], their sex work won't be [[NeverLiveItDown held against them]]. Nor does it hinder their chances of getting into real long-term relationships or marriages, and no one is considered DefiledForever by having been in this career path. Sex workers are never harassed by police or the MoralGuardians. This problem especially is what has now led some countries to ban the act of paying for sex, but not prostitution. UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} was the first country to do so in 1999, followed by UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} and UsefulNotes/{{Norway}} in 2011, UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland in 2014 and UsefulNotes/{{France}} in 2016.

** As shown in ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', this is far from the norm ''outside'' Ankh-Morpork: the good Sergeant in that book relates that usually, he goes in and gives the poor girls a chance to rest, as their jobs are long, hard, and often thankless, even in a house of ill repute.

* Zigzagged in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/16637981/chapters/39007109 Satisfaction Guaranteed]]''. While Jaune's job as a gigolo goes wonderfully for him due to being a legitimate business, it's still made clear that there's plenty of cases of prostitutes forced into their careers by drug addiction, debts, or blackmail. He's also told up front that his job is satisfying his clients, not himself. If they get off on blue balling him, then he's gonna get blue balled or he's not getting paid. There is still stigma attached to prostitution though, which is why Jaune's profile is a description and a body shot with his face cropped out; similarly both prostitutes and clients all use pseudonyms for the app they all use.