To be fair, they did a very good job with Season 1. There really isn't that much gained by reading the first book.

Timur, do you mean "know"?

My old Ma, may she rest in peace, once said to me "if only I realised I was sitting on a fortune" - she thought it was a hilarious joke, I don't think she understood she was trivialising prostitution :(

@SYnapse: You really believe there's no one on the entire world who's doing just fine but wants more, and has sex for money?

When you think about it, people have sex for free, so it's really not that strange to do what you love for money. It's just turning a hobby into a job for some people I'd say :)

"know" as in the biblical sense.

@Synapse - as am I. In my visits to Scotland I have never met someone who thought Braveheart was an accurate depiction of William Wallace, starting with the fact that William Wallace was actually a nobleman.

I have a friend who got into that from her problems with addiction, sadly, she's a lovely person nonetheless. I don't think she would choose it though, that's just a male fantasy she exploits steephie

Jasbrum, okay, I get that, but don't you think there are people who would choose it then?

Just out of curiosity: does she hate it or anything? Or is it more like she just wouldn't choose for it, like I wouldn't choose to get a cat but don't hate them either?\

I don't mean to be disrespectful, so if you think I am please say so, I'll try to be more careful next time then.

Yeah I think it's pretty clear that women don't want to be prostitutes. They would rather have money and enjoy sex when they want, with whom they want, than have sex with anybody for a pittance.

SYnapse: maybe we're having different view on when someone is a whore then...

I consider someone a whore too who's just rather casual up to the moment she wants sex for money. So someone who can deny someone she doesn't want to have sex with.

Prostitutes don't have the luxury of saying no. They need the money. Anybody who has enough money does not need to resort to prostitution.

When you get around the concept that women don't enjoy sex with people they don't like, then it will all click into place.

Not all prostitutes are destitute victims you make them out to be. For some it really is a career choice. It can be very well paid. Some even take a view that they are providing a valuable social service. Not all prostitutes are desperate drug addicts. Sometimes they are escort girls who choose to take it a step further, or lap dancers who figure why not do a bit more and make a bit more money.

In Australia there is even a political party for sex workers which seeks to de-stigmatise the profession: The Australian Sex Party. Their leader Fiona Patten is quite articulate and is often interviewed on TV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Patten
http://www.sexparty.org.au/

'Also a criticism I have of GoT is that the characters are, well... too INTERESTING. I mean, the majority of people are not.'

It's so good that authors get to write stories, as opposed to restricting themselves to recording history. They can pick and choose only the interesting characters to write about, and in general you expect some small percentage of people to lead 'interesting' lives...

Along with the conversation regarding prostitution.

You seem to have a problem with suspending your disbelief - which if it destroys your enjoyment of the show/book is entirely your problem. Sucks to be you.

The prostitutes in the series are many and varied, and most of them don't seem to be entirely happy, i seem to recall Lord Baelish (at least in the tv series) threatening one of his prostitutes with rather cruel disfigurement (or at least that's how i read the scene) - meanwhile Dany is basically sold, but by modern standards it is an arranged marriage not prostitution - in the west, I know prostitution is looked down on, and nobody raised in the west wants to be looked down on, but in other cultures things are different, i know western males who have 'married' thai women it is a very different sort of thing to our western idea of a romantic relationship (which we have only had for a few hundred years)

I think GoT deals with several different morally grey issues and is anything but insulting or crude.

Just because don't have to resort to prostitution doesn't mean they won't, SYnapse.
Some people really like money.

Some people also dont like having sex with strangers.

Those people are called women who don't have histrionic personality disorder.

"I think GoT deals with several different morally grey issues and is anything but insulting or crude."

Marriage and prostitution are two of the biggest, and lets face it, the GoT world is very male-dominated to the point where the only power a woman can wield is sex. Cersei, for example, uses this to her advantage after her arranged marriage to King Robert, but then takes it too far and it ultimately gets her into pretty serious trouble when she tries to use sex against Margaery Tyrell. I think this is why Brienne is one of the more fascinating characters in the book, and even that comes with an asterisk because she rose to prominence under a gay usurper in Renly and the biggest danger she faces as a knight is rape instead of death.

I think the biggest moral issue ASOIAF deals with, especially in ADwD, is slavery.

SPOILER ALERTS

Many of the most important encounters in ASOIAF take place in whorehouses (think Ned meeting Catelyn in King's Landing, Tyrion getting kidnapped by Jorah in Volantis), but I'm torn as to whether GRRM is drawing parallels between the sex trade and the slave trade. What's clear, though, is that the main characters, as Westerosi, look down on slavery as essentially barbaric (except Euron and Victarion) but are entirely fine with prostitution. Despite what SYnapse claims, in the ASOIAF universe, prostitution isn't treated as a "last resort" for many girls. Quite the opposite - it's an escape from the drudgeries of the commoners. Like Cersei, sex is a woman's path to power, and you can see even how whores hold sway over several important characters and play a pretty significant role in the book (Tyrion spends all of ADwD trying to find out where it is "that whores go"). Slavery, though, is the biggest moral taboo in Westeros, not prostitution.

"Despite what SYnapse claims, in the ASOIAF universe, prostitution isn't treated as a "last resort" for many girls. Quite the opposite"

That's exactly what I'm critisizing. In reality, it is a last resort, and there is nothing fun about it.

There you go SYnapse. I don't know that disorder but apparently women with it don't mind having sex with strangers. And since I only said I believe there are SOME women who'd do that, I'm right.

SYnapse doesn't understand fantasy.

Why not criticize the fact that dragons are imaginary creatures and, in reality, there's nothing fun about them?

Because dragons don't exist in the real world, so there aren't any social implications of misconstruing them.

@2WL I think that there would be a genuine sense of fun surrounding dragons. We have plenty of exotic animals today that we are fascinated by; why not dragons?

So you're one of those people who think that young girls may see prostitution glorified in GoT and go become a prostitute?

Synapse, not sure whom you are trying to speak for, but I suggest reading at least two sides. Some people do enjoy sex for money; some in this thread wouldn probably jump at the chance.

You will find a bunch of good anecdotes in this web page: http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/

I live in Japan. Here prostitutes make much more money than the average salaries worker. And certain girls go to school to become geisha, which historically, was a high class prostitute position. Today the same thing occurs but under somewhat different guise.

There are always at least two sides to an argument.

Not particularly. It just ruins the show for me personally because it takes a real and devastating social problem and turns it into fun

Shigzeo I appreciate that but I've travelled most of Europe and seen prostitutes in Marseille, in East Berlin, in Eastern Europe and the old Yugoslavian countries. They are desperately poor, riddled with infections and prone to being murdered. I just don't think it's good to portray this as sexually liberation or fun times

@ Steephie, no offence taken, it's good to be curious and broaden horizons, I was gobsmacked when I found out more about it as time went on.

I wouldn't say "hate" more that she detests or pities the "punters", some of them fall in "love" or attempt to save her from it, often she has a great time with punters spending loads of cash on her, I've known her to break the bank balance of a pretty wealthy local business man - who eventually bought a russian bride :( - but her and quite a few of her colleagues she's made in the same line of work, that I've met, can't abide the punters and wish there lives could be different.

When I was training in Wales I knew a psychologist who took his learning disabled patient to the local "dirty gerty" maybe that was some kind of social service (maybe not very ethical?), I'm sure socially inept ordinary guys would benefit too? There's also that Linnet Liney movie recently about the sex therapist for the guy with the iron lung set in San Francisco?

I would chose it if I was young and good looking, but I'm a guy! I've been watching that US program about gigolos in las vegas... does any one else think they all seem effeminate?

I'm with SYn on this one

Laura Liney*

Sorry... it was Helen Hunt lol