That's bollocks, because we never see the sadness beneath the smiles (maybe the actors playing the prostitutes aren't very good). They don't convey the hardship you'd expect these women to be suffering. They're always smiling and joking, which is the precise opposite of what I'd imagine and understand is life for the average prostitute.
They're not robots. Even if their whole life is about pretending, there's no way they're not going to break at some stage.
Instead Benioff and Weiss make prostitution look like a fun career choice. These woman are portrayed as healthy, sexy, well-fed and glamourous, whereas the reality for real prostitutes, give or take a small minority of high-class callgirls, is the precise opposite. They're often unhealthy (invariably drug addicted), browbeaten, emaciated and poor.
Basically 'male feminists' Benioff and Weiss are simply pandering to the reassuring male fantasy of prostitution.
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BreakbeatSavant (413)
5 years ago
I disagree. Their livelihoods are dependent on how good they look and the prostitutes featured on the show cater to the nobles that pay in gold. Littlefinger is not going to be trafficking prostitutes that look like riff raff in his harem. His prostitutes are going to be the equivalent of high class call girls.
But the show has not shied away from showing less glamorous prostitutes either, like the one we see Theon bragging to in season one. She was clearly of a lower class plying her trade in a tavern brothel in Winterfell and one who you could easily imagine having lived a sad and pitiable life.
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[deleted]
5 years ago
Most real-life high-class call girls don't have pimps, like Littlefinger. Thus, they have some degree of autonomy and control over their profession, whatever the rest of us may think about it.
But I don't see how women who are under control of a slime-ball like Littlefinger can truly be happy and content with their lot in life. After all, they're being exploited by men. They don't have the freedom that a self-employed high-class call girl would have.
Benioff and Weiss are basically glamourizing the trade, and it's all the more pernicious because it's under the guise of a 'Girl Power' feminist narrative.
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BreakbeatSavant (413)
5 years ago
Whether they have pimps or not is immaterial to the fact that high class prostitutes are eponymously going to be catering to the high classes and will appear glamorous to be worth the money they are being paid.
Quite honestly, you actually sound kind of delusional if you think Benioff and Weiss are "glamorizing the trade" by depicting high class prostitutes as looking hot and tavern harlots as looking skanky. I say they're being accurate.
I also think your memory must be faulty or in severe decline if you think they depicted Littlefinger's prostitutes as "happy and content with their lot in life". Quite the opposite they were terrified of the man as I recall a scene in which he was coaching them to look and appear happy, eager, and satisfied. Any less was met with corporal punishment or getting rid of them as they weren't earning their keep by bringing in money he felt they could fetch. The prostitute with the biggest role in the series, Ros, was FAR from "happy and content with their lot in life". If you think otherwise, then I suggest you need a re-watch.
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[deleted]
5 years ago
You're 100% right about the earlier seasons. But in the last episode the prostitutes were presented as happy and jocular.
What's the show saying? That Littlefinger was the only nasty pimp in Westeros?
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BreakbeatSavant (413)
5 years ago
Oh you mean with Bronn? Well they were with a client. They are paid actors, that's when they're supposed to have their happy face on.
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sslssg (31645)
5 years ago
Exactly what I was going to say. We don't see the prostitutes when they aren't with the "client" so we don't know what they're actual state of mind is. They wouldn't get paid well or get tips if they were sad and pathetic with the men they sleep with.
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[deleted]
5 years ago
There's no sadness in their eyes, so I'm guessing these prostitutes must be Meryl Streep-level Academy Award winning actors, or else Benioff and Weiss are implying that they actually enjoy having sex with customers.
But the implication of your argument, assuming you still disagree with me, is extremely problematic from a feminist and humane perspective. What you seem to be implying is that people are so good at hiding their emotions, it's pointless even attempting to ascertain them.
If a woman expresses the exact same emotions and actions when she is fully consenting to sex as when she is acting under some form of duress or is simply feeling compelled to satisfy a customer, then how can anyone be sure of the difference?
Like I said, this is an extremely problematic and highly-misogynist concept that truly needs to be stamped on.
There is a WORLD of difference between a person who is enjoying sex, and a person who is only pretending to. To suggest otherwise is frankly disgusting.
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sslssg (31645)
5 years ago
Have you ever met a prostitute? Why would you say that they are not consenting? Not everyone who works in the sex trade does so because they are forced to. I'm not just talking about the high class escorts either, although more than a few of them have talked about being empowered by it. There also doesn't seem to be much opportunity for women to earn a living. I would suggest that those prostitues are better off than a lot of other women in westeros.
I would also suggest that most women have faked enjoying sex more than once in their life. Especially if they are married. Sorry if you find it disgusting.
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[deleted]
5 years ago
Thats okay. I'm not married.
But I do feel bad for all the women who are having to fake sexual pleasure, and I feel bad for the men who must be, at least, vaguely aware that their wives are faking.
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sslssg (31645)
5 years ago
I should clarify that I don't think that every prostitute is happy. In fact I think that there are quite a few that are trafficked or forced into it and live miserable existences. However, Littlefinger's brothel did appear to be high end, and is fiction.
Consider though the life of women before the 20th century. We either belonged to our fathers or our husbands. I've read complaints on one of the Jane Austen boards that the characters talk so much about finding husbands. Well that's because that was a woman's only option. So if you really want to look at it in a not so nice way, until we were able to get out of house and earn our own way, women have always been prostitutes of a sort.
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[deleted]
5 years ago
That's entirely fair, and I agree with the sentiment. I just find it odd to see the common struggling folk who are literally having to fuck their way to survive, all happy and smiley, in comparison to the much more privileged aristocrats.
I feel like saying to the Highborns "You think you have problems..."
Sorry, but in reality, money does alleviate hardship and misery, even if you’re a woman (although I do readily accept that no woman, no matter how high born, is free from sexism).
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sslssg (31645)
5 years ago
Is it really that different than someone going into a job that they hate in today's society and putting on a happy face because they need to keep that job or lose the house? Especially in retail?
No woman in GoT is free from sexism, I'd agree to that, but I think if they were I wouldn't believe the story as much.
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