History Main / PlatonicProstitution

* The first NeverwinterNights had a...totally legitimate establishment... in the first chapter, where one could get a room with one of three prostitutes; a woman, a man, and [[TakeAThirdOption a halfling]]. None of them would have sex with you, and get offended when you ask.

* A short story by WoodyAllen, "The Whore of Mensa," depicts a call-girl service for frustrated intellectuals: instead of sleeping with their customers, the girls discuss literature and philosophy with them.

* Sam and his friend Laurie on ''TheWestWing'' make an odd example. The first time they meet, sparks fly and they end up having sex, and it's not until the next day that he finds out she's a HighClassCallGirl. It seems they never sleep together again, but they continue to hang out, and he occasionally worries about her/tries to "make her see the error of her ways."

* On ''DruinnMedicineWoman'' Horace the WesternUnionMan was in love with Myra, one of the prostitutes at the local bordello, and she with him. He paid the pimp to spend time with her, and they just talked. After she left the biz they got married.

These men - and they're almost always men -- visit prostitutes not to have sex with them, as one would expect, but for some other purpose. Perhaps he's religious and trying to reform her. Perhaps she's too young for the business and he wants to get her out of it. Perhaps he just wants conversation and can't think of another way to get it. Perhaps he wants information concerning one of her clients. Perhaps he's just creepy. He'll usually pay her anyway. If other characters find out, they will rarely believe that he's not in it for the sex.

This is TruthInTelevision -- in real life, it's rare, but far from unheard of.

* While not prostitution, this troper was friends with an exotic dancer who told stories about unusual situations with customers, the most notable being on 9/11 while she was working a club in New York. From how she tells it, customers either trickled in or swarmed in at odd times over the nights after that eventful day. They would arrange for private dances and [[HeroicBSOD completely break down]] inside those booths. The oddest of the bunch, she said, was a [[TheFundamentalist religious man]] who stopped by regularly to heckle/lecture the owners and the girls over their occupations, only to arrange for a private dance with her and bawl his eyes out because he had lost family on 9/11. This troper assumes prostitutes received similar treatment for a brief period after 9/11.

* Another phone sex operator variant in [[http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02112010.shtml this]] unspeakably depressing {{Something Positive}} strip.

* While making ''{{Bloodrayne}}'', UweBoll infamously hired actual Romanian prostitutes to play...well, prostitutes. Why? They were cheaper.

** Of course, he later gets a call stating that she's "blown them all away", which he notes kept forgetting to include the "away".

** Standards and practices at Fox, at the time, refused to allow the character to be a necrophiliac, so he is described in the episode as a "death fetishist", and he is shown collecting hair and body parts from corpses as memorabilia, later turning to murder to get fresher material. It is never explained how he is using these souvenirs, but explicit sexual behavior is not shown or even hinted at. Still, Donnie Pfaster is ''the scariest'' antagonist that this show has ever had (in this troper's opinion), and that's saying a lot.

* In the ''{{MacGyver}}'' episode "The Assassin", the titular assassin would hire call-girls to do small errands for him, such as picking up a suitcase in the park. He would later kill them.

* In an episode of ''{{Lie to Me}}'', the team discovers that a politician regularly visits a prostitute, but not for sex. [[spoiler: She turns out to be his daughter.]]

* Parodied in an episode of KidsInTheHall, where a nice man offers to take the prostitute away from her life of prostitution, and ends up marrying and having kids with her.. and then the money runs out and her pimp (now an old man) comes to hassle the guy.

* Inara in ''{{Firefly}}'' isn't strictly a prostitute, but it's the usual thing for her, though a few clients (like Atherton Wing) hire her for a primary role other than sex (though it was implied that sex was in the offing, at least before Mal went and got himself into a duel with Atherton).

* In an episode of ''SamuraiChamploo'', TheStoic Jin falls for a girl when he sees her staring off of a bridge and discourages her from jumping. (Characteristically enough, he does this by informing her that the water is too shallow and the drop too short - she'd most likely just wind up breaking a leg and a few ribs.) He later finds out that she was contemplating suicide because she'd been sold to a whore-house to cover her husband's gambling-debt, and after shaking down Mugen for cash, he buys his way in to see her - in order to try and convince her to leave her husband and run away.
** They eventually DO end up having sex, but only after it becomes clear that she's fallen for him as well.

* I'd have to watch it again to be sure, but I think Christian Bale's character in ''The Machinist'' is this.
** Somewhat. He does have sex with her, but also treats her as a loving companion on an emotional level as well. She was basically a girlfriend he pays.

** They eventually DO end up having sex, but only after it becomes clear that she's fallen for him as well. It all comes to a BittersweetEnding when she finally tells her husband to drop dead and escapes from the whore-house with Jin's help - but in order to gain a legal divorce, she has to stay in a temple for 5 years, so she won't be able to see Jin again for a long time. However, they make vows to meet again 5 years hence...

** Standards and practices at Fox, at the time, refused to allow the character to be a necrophiliac, so he is described in the episode as a "death fetishist", and he is shown collecting hair and body parts from corpses as memorabilia, later turning to murder to get fresher material. It is never explained how he is using these souvenirs, but explicit sexual behavior is not shown or even hinted at. Still, Donnie Pfaster is ''the single creepiest'' antagonist that this show has ever had (in this troper's opinion), and that's saying a lot.

* In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', Carrot is offered a [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean place to stay]] at Mrs. [[ADateWithRosiePalms Palm]]'s house of [[strike:ill]][[IfYouKnowWhatIMean very good]] repute after he rescues one of her "daughters" Reet. As he writes back to his parents, Reet woke him up during the night to ask him if there was anything he wanted, bu they didn't have any apples. So he stays. And pays for the first month up front. Because he thinks it's a boarding house. Many people are surprised and rather impressed to learn that he stays there every night. Carrot ended up being an unwitting Bouncer when 'The daughter's unruly gentlemen callers' get too rough.