Prostitution in a constructed setting

My fantasy setting is mostly pre-industrial and has no issue with human sexuality whether it be outside a marriage, with multiple people or involving persons of the same gender. They have Fantasy Contraception that also allows them to have STD Immunity.

Their equivalent of pornography/erotica (which for them is simply illustrations, as they lack photography) has little taboo (think of it as having the acceptance of [[Shunga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunga during the time it was produced.

Essentially anyone (regardless of gender of sexuality) could easily find someone who is willing to have sex with them if they went to the trouble of looking.

What I'm wondering is: Would prostitution be more or less common in a setting like this? And if it is popular, would it be legal?

edited 29th Mar '15 1:18:56 PM by TheMuse

Why would it be forbidden? They have no bias against sex and don't have to worry about ST Ds or unplanned children. Don't know if it be more or less common though. You'd still have people trouble finding a partner though. Not so attractive ones who still want sex with very attractive people might have to pay for that. Then there's relatively rare fetishes that could generate a marked. Compare it to food. Just because we can cook our own food doesn't mean there are no restaurants.

It would probably be less common, but more legal. That said, if you think the ugly side of it would vanish, think again. There will always be a market for illegal acts on unwilling partners. Predators who want to abuse or degrade someone are not going to go to a legal prostitute and get busted for it. They're going to go to an underground market and victimise somebody who can't fight fight back.

Well, I think it would be both completely legal and rather common. In Free-Love Future (or past, i.e. tribal cultures) would be just another recreational activity. And sometimes even a random bar hookup may not be a workable option.

I am particularly fond of one metaphor on the topic:
Difference between sex with your spouse and hiring a prostitute would be akin to a difference between a home-cooked meal and McDonalds.

^ This. Consider, currently we have thriving service industries made up of nothing but people who do professionally something that is legal and acceptable to do yourself, but better, or more pleasantly/luxuriously, or in a specialized manner: chauffeurs drive, barbers give shaves, personal stylists pick out your outfits and accessories, chefs cook... Sex would be no different.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I don't know if it's what you intended, but this almost sounds as though it's defining prostitution as a sort of high-quality masturbation, rather than sex. In a free love kind of future, I think a "common" prostitute would be rarer; there's no taboos or biases to stop people from having as much sex as they can find. But, I'd expect that various fetishes would be more commonly provided by sex workers - after all, it's harder to find someone with the same specific quirk you have, but probably easier to find someone willing to play along for money.

Of course this leaves me wondering what kind of taboos and biases they do have, that interfere with their sex lives.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

Is it what we might call a gender-equal society? No social differences between men and women, that sort of thing? In real life, the vast majority of johns/clients/whatever are men (even the clients of male prostitutes), and that stems from male socialisation & sexual entitlement. Without that, you'd lose the demand for prostitution.

More widely, is it an egalitarian/something approaching communistic society? Or are there large differences in wealth? There are a few wealthy/middle-class women who engage in prostitution for fun, but most people involved in it do so because they have no other or very limited other choices in order to survive — immigrants, trafficked women, child sex-abuse survivors, impoverished children, and other vulnerable members of society. If you don't have that sort of inequality, you'll lose a lot of the supply side of prostitution.

(Also, many fetishes just wouldn't be possible in a pre-industrial society. Latex fetish, for example, is impossible without industrial technologies. BDSM relies on the sexualisation of slavery, and of inequality & misogyny more widely; again, in an egalitarian society that probably wouldn't exist.)

So I guess what I'm saying is that you need to give more information.

edited 6th Apr '15 10:09:26 AM by imadinosaur

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Yes, that's the conclusion I've arrived in previous discussions about these settings I've participated in (and stole that metaphor from).

Yeah, but one night stands still require some effort.

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Or perhaps the equalization opens it up for the women.

Given the other setting bases, there is nothing to show a lack of inequal social stratas. However, with legalization comes control. Open and legal brothels would be competing with the underground, getting the lion share of clients due to openness, thus forcing the underground to lower prices thus making it less profitable.

Not really.

edited 6th Apr '15 10:32:46 AM by Adannor

Also, you don't have to get into the really extreme "fetish" territory to have mild kinks that not everyone shares. Hell, not everyone shares the same basic preferences: oral sex is so vanilla it doesn't even register as a kink, but not everyone enjoys it. In fact, the ancient Romans had prostitutes that specialized, and were hired for their skill in a particular sexual practice.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Only if it's the 50 Shades of Grey version of it. In real life, bondage is just something people do for fun; it isn't a "good vs. evil" sort of thing.

Flora is the most beautiful member of the Winx Club. :)

No it doesn't really. Some of it is sexualizing pain (giving or receiving) or helplessness. Some of it is sexualizing hierarchies yes, but there are other hierarchies that would still be present in egalitarian societies like age for example.

To clarify for previous posters who asked about it, yes, the setting essentially has full gender equality (extremely effective contraceptives for men and women help with this) and there is no taboo against same-sex relations. There's also a decent amount of men who are sex workers as well.

I was thinking about having it been seen as relatively normalized, like people might go to relieve stress at the end of a bad work week the same way someone might go to get a back massage.

The whole industry is strongly regulated and are checked often by inspectors to avoid abuse from happening. (Obviously, they can't prevent everything so some illegal prostitution and sex slavery does happen) But when there's a decent amount of prostitutes who didn't enter the profession just because they didn't have any other choice, what exactly would they consider a high class prostitute"? Would it just be someone who specializes and is good in one specific area (feet, BDSM, roleplay, etc.) or what.

"what exactly would they consider a high class prostitute?"

Someone who knows about the customs of the high classes probably. Or maybe there is an actual training for the job? Someone who learned about all the stuff related to sex work, from the physical to the psychological and medical stuff to accounting. If it's considered something you have to learn instead of work everyone can do, it will be given a higher status.

Another possible - if rarer - class of sex workers could be those who specialize in people with disabilities. Some disabled people might have a harder time just picking someone up at a bar or other usual hangouts.