Line #50 PlayingWith/UnproblematicProstitution


1	'''Basic Trope''': [[TheOldestProfession Sex work]] is portrayed as enjoyable and safe.
2	* '''Straight''': Alice works as a prostitute. She gets to take time off without hassle, can say no to any clients she wants, lives in a setting where [=STIs=] are few and far between (and those that do exist are ''easily'' cured) and has access to reliable birth control. She is also treated with respect and dignity by her clients, law enforcement, and society at large.
3	* '''Exaggerated''':
4	** Alice actually gets benefits, like one would get at most jobs.
5	** Alice has a more stable job than anyone else in the series.
6	** Alice's job is not only respected but ''prestigious'', more so than a CEO. She's treated like a queen, has no real trouble in life, and is admired by people for her career.
7	** Alice is [[EternalSexualFreedom living in a time or place where sexual mores are quite a bit more conservative than they are in modern, Western society]]; [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome in a realistic setting]], she would be ''[[HonorRelatedAbuse killed]]'', [[HonorRelatedAbuse either by her family or by the state]], just for becoming the victim of a ''rumor'' that she was engaging in prostitution or other "illicit" sex, let alone ''actually'' doing it.
8	* '''Downplayed''':
9	** Alice's job is great because she's a well-educated HighClassCallGirl in a society where that's an acceptable job for a woman of her status and connections, but it's clear that prostitutes without her connections don't have such an easy life.
10	** Alice's job is legal and regulated, but it's a job like any other; some days she has sex with handsome men who are just down on their luck, some days she puts up with creeps with one finger on the silent alarm.
11	** The realistic and common problems with prostitution exist, but for one reason or another she ''personally'' thinks getting paid for sex is worth said problems.
12	* '''Justified''':
13	** In this setting, SexIsGood, and no one is scorned or viewed as immoral for having it or enjoying it.
14	** Alice lives (and works) in an area where prostitution is legal and regulated.
15	** Alice is a priestess who engages in sacred ritual prostitution in the name of a LoveGoddess, and is held in high esteem because of her status as priestess.
16	** Alice either doesn't have to answer to a pimp or a madam, or she works for one that treats her (and any of their other "employees") well.
17	** Alice is a camwhore or phone sex worker, and thus never has any ''actual'' contact with her clients.
18	** Alice is a HighClassCallGirl.
19	** Alice enjoys the flexible hours and the pay.
20	** Alice engages in PlatonicProstitution, or is more of an escort; she does not provide sexual services.
21	* '''Inverted''': Alice works as a prostitute. She catches hell from her pimp if she takes time off, or refuses a client, for any reason, and gets to keep only a small amount of her earnings. Some of her clients are belligerent and cruel, she's shamed by her society, and she's always worried about being caught by the police. She does not have access to reliable birth control, and has been infected with several different [=STDs=]. She didn't get into TheOldestProfession of her own volition: she was [[ModelScam deceived and trafficked into it]] at the age of 14.
22	* '''Subverted''':
23	** Alice tells her johns she enjoys her job, but she's lying so her customers don't feel guilty; she actually started prostituting herself to escape PerpetualPoverty, or to [[SingleMomStripper support her child(ren)]], and would rather be doing something else.
24	** Alice enjoys her job at first, but then finds herself in a CareerVersusMan dilemma: she can't get a boyfriend to stick around because [[MyGirlIsNotASlut they're put off by her (current or past) prostitution]].
25	** Alice enjoys the job at first, but later finds that she can't get a "real" job because businesses are concerned about what hiring a former prostitute (even though it was legal work) would do to their image.
26	** Alice gets infected with gonorrhea from one of her clients.
27	** Alice speaks positively about her job, and it sounds like she's a prostitute, but she's actually a camwhore, stripper, porn actress, phone sex operator, geisha, escort, et cetera.
28	** In the setting of the story, no one is ever directly forced into the profession and poor people are offered plenty of other options, so officially, everyone in the sex industry is there because they want to. However, it later turns out that, as a result of rigid cultural norms (e.g. the idea that SexIsGood leading to people with any kind of personal sexual taboos being ridiculed as prudes, or followers of a religion where ritual prostitution is viewed as a particularly powerful expression of faith falling under suspicion of not being "real" believers if they won't engage in it), many prostitutes have taken up the profession not because they really wanted to, but because they felt peer-pressured into it, which makes the strictly voluntary basis of the job look more like QuestionableConsent.
29	** Alice contracts an STI from one of her clients.
30	** Alice becomes pregnant by one of her clients.
31	* '''Double Subverted''':
32	** Alice is lying about enjoying the job at first, but after leaving her unpleasant pimp for a madame who treats her workers right, she finds it's actually pretty decent.
33	** Alice finds that while many men are turned off by her career choices, [[MyGirlIsASlut the ones who aren't]] are the sorts she's truly interested in anyways.
34	** Alice struggles to get out of the sex industry until she figures out how to put a spin on it and get hired that way, or is able to [[StartMyOwn start her own business]].
35	** Alice gets infected on the job... but her employer has prepared for this sort of thing and has the appropriate antibiotics.
36	** Alice is not officially a prostitute, just a stripper, escort, whatever... but while sex isn't officially part of the deal, she's happy to sleep with her customers if they catch her interest and/or if it gets her a nice bonus under the table.
37	** It's "only" chlamydia, and easily cleared up with antibiotics.
38	** She is easily able to get an abortion
39	*** Or, if she chooses to keep the baby, she can afford to take care of a baby, she gets time off to recover from the birth, and she is able to get decent childcare while she's working.
40	* '''Parodied''':
41	** Alice has GRatedSex with her clients, and [[ReadyForLovemaking the bedroom is prepared]] by DisneyCreaturesOfTheFarce.
42	** Alice sometimes offers to pay people for small services with sex even when off work. While they occasionally refuse because they're not in the mood, nobody calls her out on it.
43	* '''Zig Zagged''': Some sex workers have good working conditions and experiences, others not so much. Even for those in good conditions, attitudes vary by temperament, the shy college student trying to make ends meet will feel ashamed, while the ridiculously lazy girl with few sexual taboos figures it's good money for a job that doesn't require much talent or effort and has shorter hours than a desk job in some cubicle.
44	* '''Averted''':
45	** There ''is'' no prostitution in this setting.
46	** Prostitution is portrayed as [[DisposableSexWorker dangerous]], immoral, etc.
47	** Alice works at a SoulCrushingDeskJob.
48	* '''Enforced''':
49	** SexIsGood
50	** MyGirlIsASlut
51	** "We don't want to portray something as nuanced as the lived experiences of sex workers as a monolith; ''all'' of them are not victims of violence or exploitation, or immoral, or people with "Daddy Issues," and it would be insensitive to suggest that all of them are."
52	** EternalSexualFreedom or a FreeLoveFuture
53	** OneHourWorkweek
54	* '''Lampshaded''': ???
55	* '''Invoked''':
56	** Alice begins working for a pimp or madam who genuinely cares about the well-being of his/her employees, in a place where prostitution is legal and regulated.
57	** Alice becomes a priestess in the name of a LoveGoddess, and part of her job is sacred prostitution and/or other ritual sex acts in the shrine or temple. Because of her status as a priestess (maybe even a {{High Priest}}ess), she is held in ''extremely'' high esteem by her society.
58	* '''Exploited''': Bob engages in SexTourism in places where this trope is in full effect, because he believes that happy hookers = better sex.
59	* '''Defied''':
60	** Alice is offered to become a prostitute with hefty benefits, but she refuses due to considering sex something special. Nobody forces her to accept the offer.
61	** The government refuses to make prostitutionwork legal on the grounds that only "degenerates" would engage in it, which ironically makes the working conditions for the decent people forced into prostitution much harder.
62	* '''Discussed''':
63	-->'''Alice's friend''': "Alice, do you really have no problems with whoring yourself out?"
64	-->'''Alice''': "It's called [[DistinctionWithoutADifference offering my body for a price!]] ... And yes, my clientele is good enough for me."
65	* '''Conversed''': "Alice prostituting herself and enjoying it feels like a middle finger aimed at [[MoralGuardians my parents]] specifically... I love it."
66	* '''Implied''':
67	** Alice's job is never outright stated, but the series shows Alice accepting men (and some women) to her office - whose contents are obscured by camera angles et.c. - every day. Some of her friends discuss if she should switch jobs before she grows too old to keep it, and she simply responds that she wants to keep it as long as she is fit enough.
68	** Alice considers working as a prosititute for fun, and nobody in the series finds that strange.
69	----
70	Go back to UnproblematicProstitution if you want a lovely time, darling.
71	----
72	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
73	%%
74	%%* '''Deconstructed''': ???
75	%%* '''Reconstructed''': ???
76	%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

Context PlayingWith / UnproblematicProstitution