I get what you are saying. If your relationship is open/poly or has no set boundaries on partners, "faithful" has a very different context to it. I just don't like people saying that because Sam is a sex worker, he has to constantly be thinking/participating in sex. It's a very played out and boring stereotype and one that makes it seem more like an excuse for there to be wanton sex rather than just having a sexually liberated/seeking character.
Not to dismiss what you're saying, but there's another harmful stereotype about sex workers I try to be mindful of-- the idea that it's a terrible, desperate profession that folks are forced into because of hard times (aka the depiction you see in the Les Miserables musical).
A lot of women in the wild west and geishas in Japan found a new sense of agency and autonomy through sex work, and found themselves in economically stronger positions than they were used to. A lot of sex work was banned in parts of the world specifically as a reaction to women gaining political and monetary power through these means as a patriarchal response.
I didn't want to portray Sam's life as a sex worker as something miserable, even though he has a lot of cultural hangups and shame about doing it himself.
Sam likes sex, is good at it, and is making a living in a way he probably otherwise couldn't. I try to portray his work life and also write sex in a way that is meaningful to the plot-- but I also don't want to diminish the joy Sam has doing the act.
That's also a very important perspective, though I think what I and shylover were talking about specifically was people in the fanbase saying that because Sam is a sex worker, he is not and is not able to be a "faithful" partner, because again, "faithful" (still a bad word for this) means whatever the people in the relationship want it to mean. Not that "sex workers aren't faithful" was a problem present in the actual narrative of TSR (or at the least, that was not something I was communicating).
Yeah. It's kind of a strange thing to think about because "faithful" usually refers to religious institutions back in the day, and not breaking your vows. M/m and f/f relationships were often not seen as real or natural by these institutions.
A sex worker would generally want a lot of clients unless they could become a concubine to a rich patron.
-George
Sam hates the stigma attached to him, surrounding his job, moreso than most of the acts involved in the job. Like William, he has a lot of self-loathing that isn't necessary, that cultural hegemony has unloaded onto him. Howly did confirm to me that he loved having sex with clients since the beginning.
What Sam actually hates is struggling to scrape by with how little he's paid, and being demeaned for his reputation.
I don't think making a sex worker who loathes sex *itself* is necessarily a stronger narrative choice, or even a particularly unique one when it comes to how pop culture portrays sex workers vs. the frequent reality.
One of Sam's flaws is that he has good people in his life who he met through his sex work but is too bothered by the stigma to enjoy when good things are looking him in the face-- even if they're things that Sam loves.