History Main / UnproblematicProstitution

* Undercover Heat: beautiful police woman Cindy goes undercover at a high class bordello. The establishment is like a 5 star hotel, the other hookers are beautiful and friendly, the madam is wise and kindly and her customers are miraculously all good looking and want her to abuse them rather than the other way around. Now if only she could find that pesky murderer...

* ''Film/SinCity'': While the violence and drugs are present, the girls have banded together so there are no pimps and violent customers are quickly disposed of without police interference. However, they are constantly threatened by the organized crime families.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''. In the far future on the planet Secundus, prostitutes are considered as artists who are looked up to. They don't just provide sex, but emotional comfort as well.

* This is PlayedWith in ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''FanFic/BeautifulFictionsBabylon'' the Riders brothel. The brothel is very upper class with the motherly madame looking out for her workers and most of the workers do seem happy, but she meets Edward when a john tries to rough her up in order to get a refund, and a girl left because she felt stifled on the brothel's set prices.

In many depictions (and TruthInTelevision examples), the closer the woman is to working as a HighClassCallGirl or some equivalent thereof, the more it is possible (although far from certain) for this trope to be achieved. This is generally because, as the name suggests, the HighClassCallGirl is in theory able to earn more money for doing less work overall, which in turn allows for more education, greater freedom to pick and choose clients, greater control over her own earnings, greater ability to hire or work with people to best safeguard her own interests, and so forth.

->''When you see a prostitute on the television, it's all drugs, knives, beatings, babies and AIDS. And it is all those things, but we wanted to show the positive side, you know, how sexy it all is.''

* 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 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 [[TheImmodestOrgasm immodest orgasms that can be heard for]] ''miles.''

* Played ''very'' straight in ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'', where the Velvet Fist is a famous galactic corporate brothel-empire and the workers therein are, as far as we know, quite happy with their jobs.

* This is PlayedWith in ''Franchise/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 meets Edward when a john tries to rough her up in order to get a refund, and a girl left because she felt stifled on the brothel's set prices.

* Played with in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/19205179/chapters/45656869 The Amorous Argonian Adventurer]]'', in which the protagonist, Keeran-Rei, is a prostitute in addition to being a mercenary and treasure hunter. He mentions that plying his trade in Skyrim is much easier due to the Nords' incredibly easygoing attitude toward sex and that Cyrodiil is much more uptight about it. Early on the story, he works as a whore at the Bee and Barb in Riften, getting free food and lodging from Talen-Jei and Keerava in exchange for a modest cut of his profits, but mentions that the cut they take is very small compared to some other innkeepers he's dealt with in the past.
* Literature/{{Discworld}}-set fic ''Strandpiel'' by Creator/AAPessimal deals with growing up in Ankh-Morpork. A group of teenage girls grow up and leave school, meeting up again as young adults thrown into the pitiless howling wasteland of having to earn a living. One is an apprentice Witch, another training for nursing, a third has a boring office job, and the fourth is Janey. Janey is following her mother into the Guild of Seamstresses. As she says, it's ''normal'', right, to go into the same job as your parents? Family trade, right? If one of my parents was a plumber and I chose to go into plumbing, nobody would look at me sideways and give me funny looks? Well. Mum's a Seamstress. [[note]]Janey is sixteen and two years below Mrs Rosie Palm's rigorously enforced minimum age for That Sort Of Thing. However, her ability to plan, lead, manage and organise has been noted by Mrs Palm, who has seen her potential as somebody who can ''run'' a House of Repute as a non-practicing Seamstress. As her best friend remarks, somebody's got to see the roof stays on, the bills are paid, the furnishings are in good order, the bar and catering side turns a good profit and the BDSM equipment in the bondage cellar doesn't fall apart, thus causing injury and court actions based on health and safety infractions.[[/note]]

* ''Film/DeconstructingHarry'' has Cookie Williams, a hired professional who seems at peace with her choice ("beats waitressing") and overall well-adjusted.

** 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.

* 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/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/MemoirsOfAGeisha'' averts this trope most of time. It is stressed that geishas are not prostitutes nor courtesans (although they have their own problems and miseries), and the protagonist's sister, who ''is'' sold as a slave prostitute, lives a very different and miserable life until she manages to escape. Despite all those statements and implications, it is portrayed as an absolutely normal and mundane thing that the protagonist sells her virginity to the highest bidder. The way it is done is especially shocking: her mentor makes her give wealthy men a special gift that means they are invited to make an offer for her maidenhood, ''without her even knowing the symbolic value of the gift''. When she is told the meaning of her acts she is neither shocked nor angry for getting manipulated, and the selling of her virginity itself apparently has zero consequence on her mind or her relationships with anyone. The film focuses much more on the relationships and rivalries between geishas and puts a lot of emotional weight and drama in these issues, but it seems getting pushed into prostitution by your mentor without anyone asking for your consent or even informing you is just a normal and boring thing.

* ''Film/FlowersOfWar'': {{Subverted}}. At first the young prostitutes come off as a cheerful lot, happy with their lives. Then it turns out some were sold off to the brother before they were even in their teens or tricked into joining. One speaks hopefully of buying her way out too.

* ''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.

* Many of Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's series feature organized sex workers who are, at worst, seen on about the same level as modern Western society would see a stripper. In particular, in ''Literature/{{Damia}}'' young Afra has a relationship with a "companion" who openly hoped to be more to him.

* In the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' sex therapists are a respectable profession on socially liberal and technologically advanced Beta Colony. Cordelia Vorkosigan, who's from Beta Colony, likens them to a hairdresser on her adopted world of Barrayar: they're formally educated (it takes an associate's degree in psychiatry) people who perform a skilled service. They're quite popular with virgins looking for a safe and psychologically comfortable first sexual experience.

* Hitchhiker ghosts in ''Literature/{{Ghostroads}}'' can only receive favors freely given, and sex is the only way 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.

* Katje [=DaVries=] of ''Literature/TheMUniverse'' was a HighClassCallGirl in Amsterdam before [[TheMagicCameBack the events]] of the first book. She considered herself something of a teacher as well as an escort, because she helped her more socially-awkward clients navigate the world of relationships as well as sex, and tended to remain friends with them even when their business arrangement ended. At one point she's asked how she can let herself be used like that, and her response is essentially that if anyone's doing the using, it's her: her clients just get sex. She gets sex ''and'' stuff.

* ''Literature/TheChangeRoom'': Shar it turns out is a sex worker who pays for law school through doing this. There is no mention of any problems, and all her clients have never treated Shar anything but well, while she's never been arrested etc for it either. Her ex-girlfriend Leanne though believed any such idea was a terrible myth due to her being a radical feminist, with all sex work an inherently abusive enterprise, which Shar knows isn't true. The book does not though claim it's always the way Shar experiences it.

** 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/YouMeHer'': Izzy and Nina temporarily work as escorts to pay for college tuition. At no point is there even a mention of any danger which they might face, nor social stigma and other issues.

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': The Magistracy of Canopus is know for its [[FreeLoveFuture sex-positive attitude]], with people who are skilled in the carnal arts being held in high regard. As such, it's the top destination for sex tourism in the setting.
* The Kingdom of Aldis in ''TabletopGame/BlueRose'' has unionized prostitution as a matter of course, in line with the land's FreeLoveFuture culture. The "Guild of Intimates" has freedom to run pillow houses throughout Aldis so long as the Intimates are practicing of their own free will and get regular health inspections.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': Right on the Citadel Presidium, the seat of galactic power, across a walkway from the Embassies and a short walk away from the Council Chambers is an establishment run by Sha’i’ra the Consort. The Consort is often visited by various high ranking officials and diplomats for “advice, comfort or pleasure”. If the Consort herself cannot see a client, there are numerous acolytes, each with their own “specialties” who attend to the needs of the client. Sha’i’ra herself is a [[HighClassCallGirl very powerful well regarded highly respected]] asari and [[BandOfBrothels her acolytes appear to absolutely love working for her and supporting each other]]. The fact that the Presidium is the safest most secure part of the Citadel doesn’t hurt either.

* In the [[{{Hentai}} adult-webcomic]] ''Spirit Bathhouse'', Olivia aka: "Ollie", the main character, gets a job at a bath house because she thought the owner, [[MissKitty Moma]] was hot. The bath house provides good pay and benefits, and Moma even encouraged the employees, from those who work behind the scenes to the service personnel who work as masseuses/masseur, waitress/waiters, and provide sex-services, [[BandOfBrothels to form a union]]. Despite worries that [[SexSlave she was kidnapped and forced to work as a prostitute]], Ollie tells her favorite client, Zagroff, aka: "Zaggie", a [[FunnyAnimal humanoid]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]], that she got the job out of her own will, and enjoys working there, and it's implied that they may have feelings beyond client and server. Her other favorite client, Ibas, an angel who works a high ranking government job and who was given a special collar to put on her since seeing [[AngelicAbomination his true form]] during their first encounter [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm made her pass out]], opened on investigation into her employment, as he assumed that she was trafficked into this world against her will, but she says she lives in the human world and commutes into the "Spirit Fold" to work at the bath house, right before [[ProfessionalsDoItOnDesks they begin to go at it in his office]].

** ''Cracked'' also has 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.

* Dorothy Haze from ''VisualNovel/{{VA11HALLA}}''. She's a [[RobotGirl Lilim]] prostitute with an earnest enjoyment of her work and [[Squick the body of a 12-year-old]] (Dorothy's particular model of Lilim are built young-looking but can earn a free upgrade to an older body after passing three "maturity tests". Dorothy never opted in for the upgrade.) As you can guess, this gives Dorothy a bit of an advantage in her line of work.

* 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 meets Edward when a john tries to rough her up in order to get a refund, and a girl left because she felt stifled on the brothel's set prices.

* In ''Literature/{{Wayfarers}} The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet]]'', 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.

* ''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.

* 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.

* 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 [[TheImmodestOrgasm immodest orgasms that can be heard for]] ''miles.''

* ''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).

* {{Downplayed}} in ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight''. Essentially a SliceOfLife {{Work Com}}edy series that revolves primarily around adult models and porn actresses, it's very sex-positive and treats sex work as a legitimate occupation worthy of respect, but it doesn't turn a blind eye to the fact that it can be very unpleasant and even dangerous at times. [[RapeAsDrama Sexual violence is a recurring plot element]], and main character Misora Haebara, a karate black belt, is once shown hosting self-defense classes for brothel workers in the red-light district.

See [[Analysis/UnproblematicProstitution the analysis tab]] for some blatant editorializing on ''why'' the editors who came up with this trope consider sex work to be inherently problematic, and why all right-thinking people should agree, amirite?

See [[Analysis/UnproblematicProstitution the analysis tab]] for ''why'' sex work being portrayed as unproblematic is a trope.

# [[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 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.

* ''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 upper-crust 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.]]

* ''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 as 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.

* 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]].