Rant on whores.

[limyaael]

And courtesans, harlots, streetwalkers, ladies of negotiable virtue, and other various hangers-on.

Comments

[baka_kit]

Now I'm getting inspired to pull out my NaNo from '05; the MC is a sometime whore who manages to save her native city and sleep her way to a comfortable position as the local Lord's mistress.

[sucrelefey]

Thank you!
Anything that helps stamp out teen boy fantasies, Mary Sueisms, and faux feminist propaganda cliches of whores, all the better.

[wikdsushi]

THANK YOU. I have a particular fondness for including prostitutes in my stories, but I'm the first to admit that I tend to forget or gloss over (depending on the story) some of the realities of the life

[amazon_syren]

I know you've got a slew of rants lined up, but at some point would you be willing to consider writing up a follow-up to this one, concerning pimps and madams? They're a major element of prostitution, but I can't honestly remember seeing anything in fantasy save the odd woman that owns a whorehouse (and doesn't really act like a madam--it's seen as fun or defiance rather than business and control). As a subset of that, something on johns and janes would be helpful, too.

Oo! :-D I second (or possibly third) this motion! :-D

[peadar]

consorts are not necesarilly whores. consorts if they have legal protection and standing in the society namely if the emporer could not dismiss them of hand or if there was a political rational for their existance that would make it difficult to put them aside. yes by fundementalists this could be seen as nothing more then whores by another name. but to take an example

[chipmunk_planet]

One of the Sword of Truth books (I can't remember which one, offhand), did a nice job of showing the things you're talking about. (It was the one with the plague, iirc)

This might be touchy and off-topic, but with the attitude of marriage for convenience, many women have been little more than legal prostitutes to their husbands, only there for sex and the production of heirs in exchange for status, room and board. Marrying for love is a very recent thing, in the vast scheme of things. I seldom see 'historic' fantasies deal with that. I think George RR Martin has come closest to touching on it in his story.

[tj_dragon]

Even now women use men for their sperm. I think it's despicable but it does happen. In the UK there are plenty of girls who realise that if they get pregnant when they leave school (or sometimes before they've left) they can get a council house and will get benefits for the next 16 years and don't have to work.

It happened to a guy I know, he assumed it was a proper relationship and she said she was on the pill. Then suddenly she's pregnant and has run back to her family and he's stuck paying child support for the rest of his life. He's never even seen the kid and doesn't know where they are. It's not even definite it's his.

[devilpony7]

I'm working with an STD-causing bacteria in my bio class right now... and I do believe chancroid is going to be at least mentioned in passing. I know it exists in my world now, since I've become rather fond of it (sounds sooo wrong... but Haemophilus ducreyi are cute little bacteria).

I'm thinking of including something like Japanese hostess bars. Where the main idea is entertainment, and getting clients to spend more money on drinks and things in the establishment, but what goes on after hours is kept pretty quiet.

[castiron]

(sounds sooo wrong... but Haemophilus ducreyi are cute little bacteria).

Are you familiar with Giant Microbes? They don't have that particular one, but they have several other adorable disease-causing critters.

[diatryma]

Giant Microbes! I went to the site last week and was stunned by how many they'd added since this time last year, when I bought them for my research honors committee. It's the flesheater's little knife and fork that gets me every time.

[devilpony7]

I don't think they have that one, either, but I do have a number of Giant Microbes. A mail-order company with a warehouse down the road from where my mom works sold them, and they had a big sale to clean out the inventory, so she picked some up for me! Apparently they went *really* fast. I like the... augh, what is it... the one with all the little cilia... some kind of stomach flu? The flesh-eating one sounds adorable!