History Main / HighClassCallGirl

[[TruthInTelevision Historically]], a High-Class Call Girl was refined, well-educated, and genuinely smart, giving her more agency than most women of her time. In some cases, back when theatre [[TheWickedStage used to be stigmatized]], a High-Class Call Girl would also have dabbled in acting and other performing arts (no innuendo intended). In modern settings, she has even more financial freedom to control her situation, choose her customers, and engage in UnproblematicProstitution. She might not officially sell her body at all, she might merely [[PlatonicProstitution sell her time and company]], and whether sex happens during that time is up to her. Often an EthicalSlut; also likely to be a HookerWithAHeartOfGold, or to become a MissKitty when she's older.

[[TruthInTelevision Historically]], a High-Class Call Girl was refined, well-educated, and genuinely smart, giving her more agency than most women of her time. In modern settings, she has even more financial freedom to control her situation, choose her customers, and engage in UnproblematicProstitution. She might not officially sell her body at all, she might merely [[PlatonicProstitution sell her time and company]], and whether sex happens during that time is up to her. Often an EthicalSlut; also likely to be a HookerWithAHeartOfGold, or to become a MissKitty when she's older.

** Pairin, Joka and Meimei, who main protagonist Maomao views as her surrogate [[CoolBigSis older sisters]], are beautiful and skilled courtesans who are known as the "Three Princesses" due to their services being highly sought after and ''very'' expensive. In particular, Pairin is a great dancer while Meimei and Joka are known for [[SmartPeoplePlayChess their skill at strategic board games]] and having intellectual talks with their clients.
** It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Fengxian, Maomao's mother, was once the most expensive and sought-after courtesan at the Verdigris House before the Three Princesses took that position from her (with Meimei having started out as her apprentice). She was well-known for her beauty and her skill at playing shogi and go; unfortunately, getting pregnant with Maomao destroyed her worth as a high-class courtesan and her beauty and mind have both been destroyed by syphilis.]]

* While detailing the debauchery at Stratton Oakmont in Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet, Jordan Belfort mentions hiring "Blue Chip" prostitutes for his office, who cost upwards of $500 per session and wear semi formal attire and expensive make up. This contrasts with the "Penny Stock" prostitute he hires, who is wearing cheap, tacky clothing and looks physically unwell.

* In the music video for Music/MichaelJackson's [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Who Is It?"]], Jackson finds a calling card carelessly misplaced by his girlfriend. The card appears expensive and has the name "Alex" inscribed on it. Consequently, Jackson suspects her of cheating and has his trusted attendant investigate her. The woman is actually, unbeknownst to him, secretly working as a high-end call girl, and Alex was one of the pseudonyms she used. When she realizes that the card is missing, she apparently quits sex work and goes to Jackson's mansion, ready to confess everything and start anew. Unfortunately, before she could get there, Jackson was told everything about her and decided to abandon the place (and her) for good. The final part of the video shows the girl going back to her "establishment," [[ResignationsNotAccepted being smacked for leaving]], and returning to the life of a high-end hooker, now trapped in this role for good.

* ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Angel Dust is the equivalent of a high-class call ''[[GenderInvertedTrope boy]]'' as well as a porn superstar, although his boss Valentino occasionally forces him to slum and [[{{Streetwalker}} service regular schlubs on the street]] as punishment for shirking his duties or sometimes just ForTheEvulz.

* ''Art/{{Olympia}}'': {{Subverted}}. The nude woman is a prostitute, not a high-class girl. Instead, it's the person she is modeling who is healthy. In other words, her client is so rich that he has even assigned Olympia a servant. Additionally, the name "Olympia" is a French slang term for prostitute.

The High-Class Call Girl --also known as an escort or "courtesan" if you're feeling fancy --occupies the highest tier of her profession, which is usually safer, pays more, and is seen as more respectable than working in a brothel or on the street. On-screen, it allows for attractive actresses to do plenty of {{fanservice}}, while not dealing with the truly unsavory aspects of prostitution. She moves through elite circles and appears at fancy events. Her clientele will mostly be men (and sometimes women) in the upper echelons of society (expect at least one of them to be a politician, particularly one [[{{Hypocrite}} who is always publicly touting]] his [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny good old fashioned Family Values]]). The nature of this clientele may also lead to them becoming involved in a HookersAndBlow situation.

The High-Class Call Girl - also known as an escort or "courtesan" if you're feeling fancy - occupies the highest tier of her profession, which is usually safer, pays more, and is seen as more respectable than working in a brothel or on the street. On-screen, it allows for attractive actresses to do plenty of {{fanservice}}, while not dealing with the truly unsavory aspects of prostitution. She moves through elite circles and appears at fancy events. Her clientele will mostly be men (and sometimes women) in the upper echelons of society (expect at least one of them to be a politician, particularly one [[{{Hypocrite}} who is always publicly touting]] his [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny good old fashioned Family Values]]). The nature of this clientele may also lead to them becoming involved in a HookersAndBlow situation.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Mixing WebOriginal and RealLife, the [[http://freakonomics.com/2010/02/10/superfreakonomics-book-club-allie-the-escort-answers-your-questions/ Freakonomics blog]] features interviews with a real-life High-Class Call Girl using the pseudonym Allie. She was also interviewed for the Freakonomics books. Her discussions were informed by Allie's own rather thorough knowledge of economics as well as the insights from Stephen Levitt, a University of Chicago economist, and Stephen Dubner, his collaborator. In short, Allie earned a high six-figure income from her work and suffered very few adverse events, including no significant run-ins with the law. She also had to be extremely well-educated, refined, and careful about her work. Her work called for the sacrifice of her personal life.
--> Q. Do you feel that the inelasticity of demand for your services was because a higher price signaled a higher quality to the client or was it the case that your prior experience in your profession justified the raise or is there another explanation? Related to this, do you feel that a new escort could enter the market and charge the higher rates that you arrived at over many years? – Sam R\\
A. I believe that a higher price does signal a higher quality to clients, but many clients are well-informed and decide on who they are going to see based on photographs and reviews. Many of these clients are not price-sensitive, and in those cases, I don’t think a few hundred dollars would make a difference if they found someone they wanted to see. I think in my case I was able to raise my prices because I was well-reviewed, and had clients already in my book that I had established a relationship with. I have no doubt that if a new escort marketed herself well, and treated her clients well, she could achieve and maintain a reasonable business with these higher rates.
** Then viciously inverted when the same book analyzed the adverse events, risks, and living conditions of low-class prostitutes in Chicago. Even when presented through the fairly sterile lens of an economist, it's a bit of a painful read.
* The Butterfly Girls of early 20th century Chicago were beautiful, brilliant, and earned the modern equivalent of over $400,000 per year.
* Ashley Dupre, the call girl who brought down former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, is now an [[http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/spitzer_babe_answers_4duaVqTCJHA38suGawuaiM advice columnist]] for the ''NewYorkPost''.
* Sydney Biddle Barrows, "The Mayflower Madam", and her employees.
* Courtesans the world over, including regional variations like oiran in Japan and hetaera in ancient Greece.
* The oiran of Japan were the High-Class Call Girls of their time and culture. The most beautiful, most high-ranked oiran were of high demand and charged accordingly, and their job, along with the laying down part, consisted of partying with their clients. {{Geisha}}, high-class entertainers sometimes mistaken as prostitutes, were often called to entertain both the oiran and her customers.
* Empress Theodora of the Eastern Roman Empire was not an example of this. She was an actress and borderline prostitute who worked her way up to a higher class of clients, including eventually becoming the mistress of the future Emperor Justinian and having him overturn many laws on Marriage for prostitutes to higher-class Romans. Belisarius, the top General of the Emperor, however, was then free to marry his own high-class prostitute mistress.
** Theodora's sister, Comito, was, however, one of the leading courtesans of the period.
* Heidi Fleiss, the "Hollywood Madam".
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phryne Phryne]], a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetaera hetaera]] from ancient Greece, was so beautiful that she may have been the model for multiple statues of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Aphrodite]] and eventually grew so rich that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes so long as the words ''destroyed by [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Alexander]], restored by Phryne the courtesan'' were inscribed on them. Coincidentally, she was a native of Thespiae, where Eros, the god of love/sexual desire, was the most worshipped deity.
** She is also famous for being acquitted after taking off her clothes before the jury. ItMakesSenseInContext: in UsefulNotes/AncientGreece, BeautyEqualsGoodness because it was a sign of being blessed by the gods, and Phryne's alleged crime was blasphemy.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspasia Aspasia]], who is believed to have had a major influence on UsefulNotes/{{Pericles}}'s opinions and oratory. However, historians now disagree as to whether she actually ''was'' a courtesan; on one hand, it's recorded in several sources, but on the other hand, several of these were basically Ancient Athens' equivalent of stand-up comics making jokes about her lover Pericles, so it might just have been MemeticMutation. She may well have been a madam: as a ''metic''--that is, a free Greek resident alien in Athens (she was specifically from Miletos)--she was expected to have some kind of trade. As an unmarried but wealthy woman, running a firm hiring out hetaerae would have been a likely--although hardly certain--business (prostitution was one of the few areas of work open to free, single, foreign women, and she didn't become Pericles' SO right when she arrived in Athens).
* The originally anonymous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_de_Jour_(writer) writer]] of [[http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/ Belle de Jour]] wrote a memoir about her experiences as a call girl, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intimate_Adventures_of_a_London_Call_Girl The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl]]. In a story that made newspapers, the mystery surrounding her true identity eventually led Dr. Brooke Magnati to reveal herself to the public.
* It's fairly common for famous porn stars to also work as escorts, charging a lot of money for a date and being very careful in their choice of clients.
* [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hookers-at-cannes-40000-a-497667 An article]] in the ''Hollywood Reporter'' states that these are common along the French Riviera during events like the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix, which are among the biggest paydays of the year for European prostitutes. Many models, and even actresses in career downturns, also flock to the region to work as "yacht girls", being paid thousands of dollars to hang out on the yachts of wealthy clients in arrangements that, while they don't explicitly mention sex, are generally understood to include it. Creator/RogerEbert noted it on a trip to Cannes in 2010, tweeting that the prostitutes were "the ones who are well-dressed and not smoking," and Creator/EmilyRatajkowski discussed [[https://www.stylist.co.uk/long-reads/yachting-hollywood-trafficking/627259 her experiences]] with yachting in her 2021 memoir ''My Body''. Unsurprisingly, the region is also a hub of human trafficking, the subject of the article being a Lebanese businessman and associate of UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi who ran a [[ModelScam "modeling agency"]] before he was busted in 2007.
* In TheRoaringTwenties, María Calvo Nodarse, better known as "La Macorina", chose her clients among the most select circles of Cuban society, befriending ex-president José Miguel Gómez. She got enough money that, by her retirement in 1934, she owned several cars, houses, racehorses, furs, and jewelry. Her beauty was the subject of the poem "Macorina", later turned into a song by Chavela Vargas.
[[/folder]]

The High-Class Call Girl - also known as an escort or "courtesan" if you're feeling fancy - occupies the highest tier of her profession, which is usually safer, pays more, and is seen as more respectable than working in a brothel or on the street. On screen, it allows for attractive actresses to do plenty of {{fanservice}}, while not dealing with the truly unsavory aspects of prostitution. She moves through elite circles and appears at fancy events. Her clientele will mostly be men (and sometimes women) in the upper echelons of society (expect at least one of them to be a politician, particularly one [[{{Hypocrite}} who is always publicly touting]] his [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny good old fashioned Family Values]]). The nature of this clientele may also lead to them becoming involved in a HookersAndBlow situation.

* Yumi Komagata from ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' was an ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oiran oiran]]'' (a high-class courtesan). Also, despite not being a bad person, she was ''far'' [[BrokenBird more cynical and emotionally broken]] than the standard thanks to some extreme dick moves on the part of TheGovernment. The prequel ''Master of Flame'' [[ADayInTheLimelight is dedicated to Yumi]] and shows how her pre-Shishio life was, mentions how she became a call girl and shows how she and Shishio met in the luxurious brothel she worked for.
* GenderInvertedTrope: Souma from ''Manga/SakuraGari'' will let anyone sleep with him as long as there is something for him to gain from them in return. One of the detectives [[LampshadeHanging even remarks on it]], saying that even back when they were investigating [[spoiler:his step-mother's suicide]], he had the eyes of a prostitute.

* ''Art/{{Olympia}}'': {{Subverted}}. The nude woman is a prostitute, not a high-class girl. Instead, it's the person she is modeling who is healthy. In other words, her client, who is so rich that he has even assigned Olympia a servant. Additionally, the name "Olympia" is a French slang term for prostitute.

* One volume of ''Comicbook/TheBoys'' has a superhero party called Herogasm, where the majority of the country's heroes gather and have wild sex with each other and the high-class call girls there. At one point, The Homelander attempts to use one of these girls to distract his uber competent MagnificentBastard boss from Vought American.

* ''Film/AmericanPsycho'' Several times, along with numerous {{Streetwalker}}s he kills, in many different ways.

* ''Flim/HalfMoonStreet'': Sigourney Weaver plays an academic who moonlights as a high class escort, eventually becoming involved in a plot to assassinate a diplomat played by Michael Caine.
* In ''Film/TheLoft'', Anne Morris is a very expensive prostitute who usually serves a paid consort to a city councilman.

* ''Film/MurdersInTheRueMorgue1971'', Genevre used to be an actress in Cesar's troupe, and is now an exclusive courtesan.

* ''Film/{{Spears}}'' has the minor character Ashaki, who's implied to be expensive - given that Jeff knows her, and he's not the type to pick up a StreetWalker. She's hired to help them catch an enemy by seducing him in a nightclub.

* ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong'' downplays it, since Suzie does have to pick clients up at a bar, but considers herself higher class than street walkers. She also makes enough to briefly support Robert financially. She also has an UnlimitedWardrobe of fancy cheongsams. The book clarifies that she did used to be higher class, working at a dance hall and having rich businessmen as clients. She only had to stop working there when one of them got her pregnant and decided not to marry her.

* ''Literature/TheChangeRoom'': Shar is a well paid, very beautiful sex worker who does this for money to get her degree in therapy at the university. At one point Shar even mentally calls herself this.

* In the ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'' series, prostitution is a sacred calling. The protagonist, Phedre no Delaunay, is an extremely high priced prostitute, who, besides her [[TooKinkyToTorture innate craving for pain]], is a trained spy, speaks [[{{Omniglot}} thirteen languages]], and is quite generally regarded as the best in the business by man and [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer woman alike]]. She also becomes active in court politics as a confidante of the Queen and earns a noble title, making her high-class in every respect.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': 'Abby Carfax' is a Boston Brahmin debutante turned call girl who keeps a string of wealthy clientele; she is careful to make sure that no money changes hands, just 'gifts' in the form of things such as expensive jewlry, rent payments for her expensive hotel room, etc. Too bad for her clients that it's all fake: she is actually Alex O'Brien, AKA Vamp, an [[{{Hermaphrodite}} intersexed]] teenage SuperVillain who uses her CharmPerson powers to convince them they had sex when they really hadn't.

* Joanie Stubbs in ''{{Series/Deadwood}}''. At the beginning of the series she has graduated from High-Class Call Girl to Bottom Girl and manages the other whores. She goes on to open her own brothel staffed exclusively by High-Class Call Girls. [[spoiler: It doesn't work out.]]

* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': In season 1, [[AlphaBitch Maisy Gibbons]] is a housewife who runs a side business as a prostitute for various married men in Fairview. Bree's husband Rex Van de Kamp uses Maisy's services to engage in UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} activities he's too ashamed to tell Bree about. Bree ends up finding out about Rex's visits to Maisy when he has a heart attack during one of them and is hospitalized. Later on, Maisy is investigated and arrested for solicitation, and cuts a plea deal with the district attorney to give up a list of all her clients, refusing Bree's request to take Rex's name off said list as a way of retaliating against her for snubbing Maisy when her husband Harold got laid off from his job a year earlier.

* In the Australian straight-to-cable TV series ''Series/{{Satisfaction}}'', one of the main protagonists is an independent call-girl of this nature who gets work through the brothel the series focuses on.

* Sam's not-girlfriend, Laurie, from the first season of ''Series/TheWestWing'' (yes, the one played by Creator/LisaEdelstein) is probably the highest class of high-class call girls, being that she provides her service for some of '''THE''' most powerful men in the country. She's actually codified almost perfectly, as she's actually a final year law student (later graduate) from Georgetown University paying her way through college.

* ''Series/TheWhiteLotus'': Lucia's dressed quite nicely, worldly, charming and gets paid 2,000 euros for one night with clients.
* ''Series/YouMeHer'': Izzy and Nina are both beautiful, working as escorts temporarily while going to college so they can pay for tuition. They appear to earn a good amount from it, and there's no sign it's unsafe nor any issues from it.

* In the music video for Music/MichaelJackson's [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Who Is It?"]], Jackson finds a calling card carelessly misplaced by his girlfriend. The card appears expensive and has the name "Alex" inscribed on it. Consequently, Jackson suspects her of cheating and has his trusted attendant investigate her. The woman is actually, unbeknownst to him, secretly working as a high end call girl, and Alex was one of the pseudonyms she used. When she realizes that the card is missing, she apparently quits sex work and goes to Jackson's mansion, ready to confess everything and start anew. Unfortunately, before she could get there, Jackson was told everything about her, and had decided to abandon the place (and her) for good. The final part of the video shows the girl going back to her "establishment," [[ResignationsNotAccepted being smacked for leaving]], and returning to the life of a high end hooker, now trapped in this role for good.

* The Vodacce courtesans in ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'': professional companions/prostitutes who were expected to be witty, well read on politics, educated and so on.

** Additionally, there is the '[[PlatonicProstitution Brothel For Slaking Intellectual Lusts]],' run by the [[AscendedDemon redeemed succubus]] Fall-From-Grace. Sex isn't an available service, but her clientele are basically paying High Class Call Girls to be nerdy with them.
* In ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker2'', if the Daughter gets high Charisma/Glamour and Refinement ''and'' also has high Sin/Karma, she may be recruited by a handsome pimp who will put her in the path to becoming one of these. In the ending picture, she's seen completely naked on a bed and giving a mischievous wink.

* Bridget O'Brian in ''Webcomic/TalesOfGnosisCollege'' is a beautiful and talented college student who agrees to spend time in a sultan's harem -- even going through a mock slave-auction to get there -- partly in return for a hefty fee paid to her for her services, although she also claims to be doing it as a mode of sociological research.

A. I believe that a higher price does signal a higher quality to clients, but many clients are well informed and decide on who they are going to see based on photographs and reviews. Many of these clients are not price-sensitive, and in those cases, I don’t think a few hundred dollars would make a difference if they found someone they wanted to see. I think in my case I was able to raise my prices because I was well-reviewed, and had clients already in my book that I had established a relationship with. I have no doubt that if a new escort marketed herself well, and treated her clients well, she could achieve and maintain a reasonable business with these higher rates.

* Empress Theodora of the Eastern Roman Empire was not an example of this. She was an actress and borderline prostitute who worked her way up to a higher class of clients, including eventually becoming the mistress of the future Emperor Justinian and having him overturn many laws on Marriage for prostitutes to higher class Romans. Belisarius, the top General of the Emperor, however, was then free to marry his own high-class prostitute mistress.

-->-- '''"Lady Marmalade"'''

Compare and contrast {{Dominatrix}} and SilkHidingSteel. Compare GoldDigger. If they limit themselves to one client, they are TheMistress.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/MoulinRouge https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moulin_rouge_nicole_kidman.png]] She has the beauty to get your attention... and the talent and charm to keep it.]]