Son of a Whore: Difference between revisions

A character whose mother is a sex worker, most likely a [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]. [[Bonus Points]] if the father was one of her customers. Sometimes the character was merely raised in a brothel, without either of his/her parents working there, or being born of a [[Sex Slave]]. Expect either [[Wangst]] or angst over their origin. More common amongst [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroes]] than others. Possible [[Heroic Bastard]].

 

 

For some reason, this character is almost [[Always Male]], even though a sex worker's offspring is just as likely to be female. If the character is a ''Daughter'' of a Whore, however, there's the added baggage that she is expected to follow in her mother's footsteps, which may or may not be a [[Berserk Button]] for the character in question.

See also [[Single Mom Stripper]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Roy Mustang's (foster)}} mother was revealed to be one Madame Christmas, proprietor of a brothel/pub. It's stated in one of the guidebooks that {{spoiler|she's really his aunt, his biological parents died when he was young}}.

** Seta Soujiro exemplifies this trope straight, as his mother was the mistress of a rich man. When his parents died, he was taken in by his evil stepsiblings, and [[It Got Worse]].

* Kai of ''[[Piano No Mori]]'' fits this trope exactly. He still lives in the red light district with his mom.

* In Osamu Tezuka's ''[[Apollo's Song]]'', Shogo's mother is a bar hostess who often sleeps with her customers, leading to [[Primal Scene|many jarring moments]] in his childhood.

 

 

== Comic Books ==

** About the only known instance of Rorschach showing mercy was when he refused to take revenge on his landlady for lying about him to the TV reporters. When he called her a whore she begged him not to say ''that'' in front of her children: "they... they don't know". He let the matter drop, after a short silence in which he may well have been thinking that at least she was a better mother than his.

* ''[[Blade]]'', at least the comic version. Spending a chunk of his childhood in a whore house didn't have any lasting affects on his psyche surprisingly. He has issues, but more from having his mom, father figure, childhood friends and girlfriend all murdered by vampires as he grew up. ''[[The Tomb of Dracula]]'' actually has him console another character on her sexual insecurities.

* In the adults-only comic ''[[Betty By The Hour]]'', Betty's son Pepito qualifies.

* [[Anti-Hero|John Difool]], the main character in ''The Incal'' series by [[Moebius]] was born in the red light section of a [[Crapsack World|soulless]] [[Single Biome Planet|world-encompassing city]] in a [[Dystopia|dystopian future]].

 

 

* This is why Scott in ''Day of Anger'' is [[All of the Other Reindeer|mistreated]] by the whole town he lives in.

* [[Mel Gibson]]'s character in ''[[What Women Want]]'' was the son of a [[Las Vegas]] [[Show Girl]] of the Ostrich Feather variety, but still about the same story.

* The title character of the 1961 Biblical epic ''Barabbas''.

 

* Phedre from ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' describes herself as a "whore's unwanted get."

* Cosette from ''[[Les Misérables]]'' is the illegitimate ''daughter'' of Fantine and a man who abandoned her. After her birth her mother became a prostitute and Cosette never explicitly finds out her mother's story.

* Mary Brown's medieval fantasy novel ''Pigs Don't Fly'' has the rather memorable opening line "My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much." Obviously, the heroine has fewer issues with her mother's profession than most characters of this sort do.

* The protagonist of John Burdett's ''Bangkok'' novels is the son of a Thai prostitute who works her way up to becoming the madam of her own brothel. The protagonist is a cop who also works part-time as an organizer/benevolent pimp in his mother's business.

* Brutus in Conn Iggulden's ''Emperor'' series. Though if memory serves, his mother became a prostitute after he was born. Still, she pretty much abandoned him in order to pursuit that career, so that ought to be pretty scarring.

* Daine, in the ''[[Tortall Universe|Wild Mage]]'' series. While her mother isn't a ''whore'', it is implied throughout the series that she was rather loose, sexually. (Daine says at one point, "Ma had a lot of men friends" or something similar.) Daine's real sore point, however, is in her last name: Sarrasri - meaning "Sara's daughter" in Daine's home country; it's a statement that Daine's mother never married, and Daine doesn't find out who her father is until halfway through the last book. There are several quiet hints scattered throughout the earlier books, though, that Daine's father is {{spoiler|at least a minor god. Not just anyone can get a badger god to watch over their kid, after all.}} It turns out that Daine's father is {{spoiler|a god of the hunt from her home region - which rather neatly explains just ''why'' she's so filled with Wild Magic that animals see her as one of their own.}}

* Otto Stahl, the [[Anti-Hero]] protagonist of the [[WW 2]] action-comedy novels by Leo Kessler.

* [[The Riftwar Cycle|Riftwar's]] Jimmy The Hand. His father was {{spoiler|the Upright Man}}, which Jimmy wasn't supposed to ever know, but eventually found out or figured out on his own.

* In one of the ''[[Circle of Magic]]'' books, there is a serial killer killing performers and dumping them in highly-respected places, which really causes problems because of that city's superstitions about death. It turns out the killer was the son of a whore and a noble.

* Shakur of ''[[The Sovereign Stone]]'' trilogy is this; with the addition of his mother ''allowing her clients to pay for his services when he was a young boy''. Perhaps one of the only examples of actually pitying a bad character for a horrific background.

* Felix and Mildmay of ''[[Doctrine of Labyrinths]]'', though technically she didn't become a prostitute until after Felix's birth. But she ''was'' a bit... free with her affections even then. Neither knows who their either of their fathers is, it never becomes a plot point despite Felix's remarkably strong magical abilities, and neither particularly cares.

"Since the day I was born." }}

* John the Savage in ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'' was an outcast among his peers because he was born to a stranded outsider woman who offended the locals with her [[Free-Love Future|open sexual mores]].

* Drefan Rahl in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series.

* The protagonist of the Chinese classic ''[[wikipedia:Duke of Mount Deer|Duke of Mount Deer]]'' (adapted countless times into movies and serials), Wei Xiaobao, rises through a series of misadventures from the mere son of a whore (one adaptation even shows an altar to ''seven men'' suspected of being his father) to the chief confidante and best friend to the Emperor himself.

* Molly Bolt, the protagonist of Rita Mae Brown's ''[[Rubyfruit Jungle]]'', finds out from her adopted mother that she's the daughter of local whore during an argument:

"Your real mother, that's who and she was a slut, you hear me, Miss Molly? A common, dirty slut who'd lay with a dog if it shook its ass right." }}

** The series also has a female example in the form of Obara Sand, whose mother was also an Oldtown whore. But as she is one of the Dornish prince's brother's acknowledged bastards (and lives pretty well in the Dornish palace), she doesn't seem too bothered by it.

* [[Belisarius Series|Belisarius' stepson]] Photius started his life as this, and when he was [[A Child Shall Lead Them|formally adopted by]] Empress Theodora this aspect of his status did not in fact change.

* ''[[In Death]]''

** John Blue from ''Visions In Death''. His mother was a hooker who abused him, and when he got older and refused to give him anything in her will, he responded by raping and murdering her, and then raping and murdering women who resembled his mother.

* In ''Iron Dawn'', the villain is the son of a small-town prostitute and the heir to the throne of Egypt. Unusual in that it's the ''latter'' connection that led to his being spoiled rotten, as prostitution wasn't as demonized in ancient Egypt as today; his half-brother and chief henchman plays it straight, having been forced to work in the brothel from an early age.

* A huge theme in ''[[East of Eden]]'' is that {{spoiler|Aron and Cal}} are this trope. {{spoiler|They've been told that their mother is dead. Cal finds out the truth, but he keeps the knowledge hidden from Aron, since he know his brother wouldn't be able to take the news. In a moment of fury, he leads Aron to the brothel to meet their mother, effectively breaking him}}.

* The unnamed son of Belle Watling {{spoiler|and Rhett Butler}} in ''Rhett Butler's People''.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* [[Sharpe|Richard Sharpe]]. Sgt. Harper's son might or might not count.

* Barney from ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. His mother wasn't a prostitute, but she was definitely a slut. When Barney was a kid and asked who his father was, she couldn't tell him because she didn't know who of the many men she had been with was his dad. So since ''The Price Is Right'' was on, she randomly pointed to Bob Barker and said "him." From then on, Barney grew up believing Bob Barker was his father. Yeah, Barney has issues.

** The most obvious being that he takes after her in that respect.

* Jin of ''[[Lost]]''. It's unclear if he knows. But when Sun spoke to her, she made it very clear that if Jin were to ever find out his mother was alive, she wouldn't be for long.

* Patsy from ''[[Absolutely Fabulous]]''.

* Connor from ''[[Angel]],'' technically. Darla was a prostitute dying of syphilis (and not the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|funny kind]]) in Colonial Virginia when The Master (not [[Doctor Who|that one]]) turned her. Of course, by the time he was born Darla had been a mass murdering psychotic Vampire for a couple centuries, so her previous occupation probably rated low on his list of concerns.

* According to the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' book ''Go Ask Malice,'' [[Dark Action Girl|Faith]]'s mom did some hooker work. Faith's father was not a customer. He was a convicted murderer who rotted in prison since Faith's childhood. [[Parental Substitute|No wonder she preferred]] [[Family Values Villain|the Mayor]].

* On ''[[Dark Angel]]'', Max compares the surrogate mothers paid by Manticore to carry her and the other X5s to term to "working girls."

* Buck Wilmington of ''[[The Magnificent Seven (TV series)|The Magnificent Seven]]'' is entirely angst-free about it; it just makes him even fonder of prostitutes [[Chivalrous Pervert|than he would be otherwise]]. (And god help you if you mistreat one in his presence.)

* Pops up from time to time in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', given the association of this trope with [[Serial Killer|serial killers]]. Two prominent examples are Frank and [[Freudian Excuse|The Prince of Darkness]].

* Jimmy Darmody in ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]''. Gets really squicky when you factor in that Gillian was ''fourteen'' when she had him, Nucky was the one who pimped her out, and that his father is {{spoiler|the Commodore (who had to have been in his ''sixties'' even then}}. And no, [[Berserk Button|you should not say a single ill word about his mother]].

 

 

* In Randy Travis's ''Three Wooden Crosses'', it turns out that {{spoiler|the preacher telling the story to his congregation is the son of the hooker who survived the crash, who read the Bible that the preacher who died gave her to him}}.

* OC Smith's ''Son of Hickory Hollow's Tramp''.

* In the Dear Hunter's Acts I, II and III, the eponymous Dear Hunter was the son of one Ms. Terri, a whore, and one of her patrons.

 

* The late Johnny Winter from ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' applies. Before his death it's implied he constantly stood up for his mom when her profession was brought up. {{spoiler|In one of the epilogues, his mother avenges him}}

* [[Dragon Age|Zevran's]] past has him raised in the brothel until sold to the Crows.

** Though the accuracy of it regarding Jack is debatable, since by then, his mom and dad had settled down and she had given up the trade.

** It's still used as a taunt by the Bureau toward Marston though.

'''Edgar Ross''': As I recall, it is ''you'' who is the son of a whore, Marston. }}

* According to [[All There in the Manual|supplementary materials]], Nero of ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'' is the son of a prostitute and Dante's twin brother Vergil.

* Drirr from ''[[Albion]]''. He doesn't like to talk about his past for this reason until he gets to know the protagonist better, but that's about all it ever amounts to.

 

 

* Homer [[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpson]]'s half-brother, Herb Powell, had a mom who worked at a carnival and did things Grampa Simpson's wife never did (i.e., have sex for money). When Grampa found out that he had a son with the carnie lady, Herb was given up for adoption and Grampa moved on, marrying Homer's mom (who knew about Grampa's affair with the carnie lady) and promised Grampa never to tell Homer about it. [[Captain Obvious|It didn't work]].

** Frank Grimes, Jr., who tried to kill Homer to avenge his father's death. When Homer expresses surprise at the fact that [[Embarrassing Nickname|Grimey]] had a child, he replies "My father happened to like hookers, okay?"

* Skwisgaar Skwigelf from ''[[Metalocalypse]]''. Sadly, his mother seems to be lacking the heart of gold.

 

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:The Oldest Profession]]

[[Category:Son of Trope, Daughter of Index]]