Prostitution in Eorzea

[ObsidianFire]

Banditry varies from region to region. In La Nosca, there isn't a lot of banditry based FATES (most FATEs are wild beast related), and the few that are specify that the bandits are pirates that have lost their pirate ships. I'd assume most La Noscian banditry happens on the water where we can't participate in FATEs. In Gridania, a lot of the bandits are people who don't want to follow the Elemental's laws in addition to those who are just normal bandits. Ul'dah seems to feature the most typical bandits of the lot.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

Banditry varies from region to region. In La Nosca, there isn't a lot of banditry based FATES (most FATEs are wild beast related), and the few that are specify that the bandits are pirates that have lost their pirate ships. I'd assume most La Noscian banditry happens on the water where we can't participate in FATEs. In Gridania, a lot of the bandits are people who don't want to follow the Elemental's laws in addition to those who are just normal bandits. Ul'dah seems to feature the most typical bandits of the lot.

In Gridania I remember working with bandits in the South Shroud at the tavern. Some Bandits did come to your aid when you are following the Twin Adder that is spying for Gridania that later joins the Crystal Braves. The archer quests pre-bard also touch on this very much too, as defeating the lead bandit brings it to a conclusion and you find was the reason one of the guild elders was no longer in the military.

[Alacran]

The problem isn't really the prostitution itself, but the human trafficking that tends to fuel it, such as Yotsuyu's case. It's one thing to go into the profession either because you have no other options or of your own free will; it's another to be forced into it, either through being abducted or sold to a brothel. We do fight against human traffickers, and that practice does seem to be illegal and rejected by society, regardless of whether or not people get away with it.

Aye, glad to see someone making that distinction. Human trafficking and forced slavery are introduced early in the game as early as the first dungeon Sastasha, again similar themes are brought up in the Arcanist questline. Leaving Limsa, one need only look to lore of Dark Knights to understand depravity some members of the Ishgardian clergy adhered to, to say nothing of what happened in false investigations carried out during Inquisitions, see the quest for entry to Dusk Vigil: For all the nights to come. Focusing on War crimes committed/ atrocities by both Garlemald and the Corpse Brigade (former Ala Mhigan royal army and personal butchers of the king of ruin), one can say the people of Gry Aabnia know all to well this disgusting and tragic distinction.

Prostitution chosen as an occupation is rarely done so willingly, but being kidnapped, sold, and held against ones will is a whole other abhorrent issue especially so when it involves children.

I for one think Hien was very much in the wrong, and it greatly lessened him in my eyes. Gosetsu was in the right to ask. "You speak of sins my lord, but at who'a feet do those sins lie?"

[Keramory]

I haven’t seen much AGAINST prostitution within itself actually. Just against overall abuse that sometimes tied into it.

I do miss the 1.0 prostitutes though. They had no problem letting people know they ran a legit prostitute ring, pimp and all in the miners guild.

I do like though they never went out of hand with it, the only thing kind of going a little too flirty being the 1.0 companion. That cat girl slept with ALOT of beastmen

[FJerome]

The problem isn't really the prostitution itself, but the human trafficking that tends to fuel it, such as Yotsuyu's case. It's one thing to go into the profession either because you have no other options or of your own free will; it's another to be forced into it, either through being abducted or sold to a brothel. We do fight against human traffickers, and that practice does seem to be illegal and rejected by society, regardless of whether or not people get away with it.

There's a slight cultural/historical dissonance going on here in that prostitution didn't carry the same stigma in Historical Japan that it did in Historical Europe and a daughter going into the sex trade to pay a family's debts was seen as a filial sacrifice and actually somewhat respectable. If she managed to pay off the debt she could transition into the "normal" life of a wife and mother without much issue.

Her family selling Yotsuyu to a brothel wasn't that much worse than their earlier act of selling her into a very young marriage to an abusive spouse.

[Moogly]

You can find the same girls as the one you find in Ala Ghiri in Lower La Noscea, behind the building at 20.9, 29.5
A roe is actually negociating some business with them.

In satasha, in the storage rooms where nobody ever goes, if you come close enough to some miqotes, they will say something about losing all their dignity...

And of course, we all have escorted that miqote girl in Costa del Sol fate...

How do I even end up in such shady places...?

[Cilia]

Prostitution chosen as an occupation is rarely done so willingly, but being kidnapped, sold, and held against ones will is a whole other abhorrent issue especially so when it involves children.

I agree on the latter point, but some women did choose to be prostitutes during certain time periods. While this isn't reflected on Hydaelyn, oftentimes single women had little choice but to be a prostitute or a nun in the approximate equivalent real-world time period. Hydaelyn is very gender-equal compared to what the real world was like - craftswomen and female soldiers abound - but it wasn't like that in the real world. Patriarchy was real back then, not the silly issues people complain about these days... but I digress.

Point is, unmarried women often did enter sex work before prostitution was outlawed, since it was the one of the few ways they could support themselves, and sex workers weren't looked down upon until religious reforms pushed for its outlawing.

I for one think Hien was very much in the wrong, and it greatly lessened him in my eyes. Gosetsu was in the right to ask. "You speak of sins my lord, but at who'a feet do those sins lie?"

As I recall the context of that was more or less Gosetsu using flowery language to persuade Hien not to kill [Yo]Tsuyu by telling him the soldiers who carried out her orders are just as guilty as she. You raise a valid point, but that's an inherent flaw of collectivist cultures - the needs and desires of the individual are set aside in favor of the needs and desires of the collective (family, community, country, etc).

Her family selling Yotsuyu to a brothel wasn't that much worse than their earlier act of selling her into a very young marriage to an abusive spouse.

The ultimate problem with that is that is still made a monster - one whose trauma and reason for being can be sympathized with, but who needed to be stopped all the same. As long as cultural practices like that exist, Doma will simply remain a breeding ground for the next Yotsuyu, waiting for an opportunity to seize power and rain down their revenge because its culture dehumanized them.

Now I'm not saying that Doma is at fault for Yotsuyu - that's mostly her family - or that individualism is strictly better than collectivism - it comes with its own host of problems one need look no further than Ul'dah to see, but had someone simply asked Yotsuyu what she wanted... perhaps that tragedy could have been avoided. But, y'know... patriarchy, the real kind, and cultural stuff. What's done is done, and it just needs to be learned from.

[LineageRazor]

While I think that it's stretching things to say that prostitution is something that no woman would engage in willingly in Eorzea, it does seem to be the case that it's considered a profession that is "beneath" a proper young lady. The prostitutes you actually talk to in the game seem, generally, to be fine with their line of work; they do not seem to be ashamed of what they do for a living, or wish they were doing something else. On the other hand, many quests allude to women who have barely escaped prostitution, painting it as some kind of dire fate worse than death.

The same kind of split in attitudes exists in real life. I've interacted with woman who've actually reminisced fondly of their days as prostitutes, who considered it to have been a positive experience. At the same time, it's considered to be a "dirty" profession, to the point that it's actually illegal; no parent wants their daughter (or son, for that matter) to become a prostitute. Unfortunately, making it illegal doesn't stop it from happening, but it does encourage human trafficking to keep the brothels full, and it does discourage prostitutes from seeking legal protection when they encounter dangerous or unpleasant clients.

[Cilia]

While I think that it's stretching things to say that prostitution is something that no woman would engage in willingly in Eorzea, it does seem to be the case that it's considered a profession that is "beneath" a proper young lady. The prostitutes you actually talk to in the game seem, generally, to be fine with their line of work; they do not seem to be ashamed of what they do for a living, or wish they were doing something else. On the other hand, many quests allude to women who have barely escaped prostitution, painting it as some kind of dire fate worse than death.

Naturally... nobody wants their child to grow up to be a prostitute, and it's not likely something to aspire to even in Eorzea. That said, it does seem to be legal, and there's no shame in doing what you have to in order to survive. Those who choose to be prostitutes... well, that's their choice, but those who barely escape it are likely would-be victims of human trafficking.

The same kind of split in attitudes exists in real life. I've interacted with woman who've actually reminisced fondly of their days as prostitutes, who considered it to have been a positive experience. At the same time, it's considered to be a "dirty" profession, to the point that it's actually illegal; no parent wants their daughter (or son, for that matter) to become a prostitute. Unfortunately, making it illegal doesn't stop it from happening, but it does encourage human trafficking to keep the brothels full, and it does discourage prostitutes from seeking legal protection when they encounter dangerous or unpleasant clients.

In all fairness, prostitution does tend to be a dirty profession. Due to the nature of their work prostitutes can easily become vectors for venereal diseases; this is the most likely reason why attitudes toward prostitution shifted in Europe towards disfavor and disrepute (everyone remembers the excellent works of art that came out of the Renaissance, but nobody ever brings up the syphilis zombies that wandered the streets) until it became illegal. Making something illegal doesn't stop it from happening, but (not to be cold) legal protection is something people forfeit when engaging in illegal activities. Drug dealers will be arrested for dealing drugs if they call in that they were shot during a deal, for instance. Lawbreaking is risky business.

Human trafficking would likely still be around even if prostitution were legal. From a business standpoint it's always better to get something for free or will return its investment in dividends, and there will always be people willing to take advantage of others.

[UAnchovy]

It might be legal in some areas but not others. Off the top of my head I can't think of any examples in Gridania or Ishgard so it may not be legal there. Even where prostitution and slavery are legal there seem to be laws regulating the practice. It's seems illegal to kidnap people and sell them, but proving that someone was kidnapped and not forcibly sold to pay their or their parent's debts may be difficult.

Right. The impression I get is that it exists in some places in Eorzea, particularly the relatively lawless Limsa Lominsa and the corrupt and exploitative Ul'dah. If there's anything limiting it in Limsa, it's probably that human trafficking and slavery occur in the underworld instead. Still, with Limsa making some effort to clean up its act, circumstances may be improving. As for Ul'dah... well, we've seen erotic entertainment there, and indeed some problems resulting thereform. Ul'dah is sufficiently amoral when it comes to money that it's easy to imagine Ul'dahn brothels, though from what we've seen directly, they may be considered inappropriate for the upper class.

There are no signs of anything of the sort in Gridania, which would fit with Gridania's portrayal as probably the 'nicest' of the core three city-states, and as for Ishgard, it seems extremely unlikely to be legal there. There's structural sexual abuse in Ishgard - we've seen enough in the way of nobles' bastards to indicate that - but I suspect that actual prostitution, in the form of currency directly exchanged for sex, would be limited to the poorest classes.