Hooker with a heart of gold

[1] According to Nell Damon Galles, the character is "the good girl who made one too many bad decisions—losing her virginity, becoming promiscuous, and eventually entering the dark world of prostitution.

[3] Prostitutes appear in ancient Greek literature as far back as the Archaic period, such as in the work of Archilochus, though initially with little focus on their moral qualities.

[8] In French literature, early appearances of the hooker with the heart of gold occurred towards the end of the 18th century, including Rousseau's The Loves of Milord Edouard Bromston (1780).

These 18th-century works generally had sad endings, showing that despite her heart of gold, the prostitute was typically unable to gain acceptance into mainstream society.

Following the conclusion of the French Revolution in 1799, there were a few years where various minor novelists published happier tales for prostitutes with a heart of gold, in the then prevailing spirit of egalitarianism.

According to Charles Bernheimer, a French work that most subverted the hooker with the heart of gold stereotype was Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's Contes cruels - there the prostitute was well regarded while she plied her trade in conventional fashion, but was derided once she fell in love.

[11] The character of Ophelia played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1983 comedy Trading Places also represents an example of a hooker with a heart of gold, according to some reviewers.