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Basic Trope: The main victim / victims of a violent criminal are sex workers, and are usually treated in a disposable fashion by the narrative.

  • Straight: Dave murders Alice, a stripper.
  • Exaggerated: Dave is a Serial Killer who only ever targets sex workers, and Alice is his latest victim.
  • Downplayed: Alice was one of the prositute victims injured by Dave. She got better, although the news did not cover much on her.
  • Justified:
    • The sex industry is, in many ways, a violent and dangerous world for those who operate in it, and often exists within a grey area commonly overlooked or disregarded by law enforcement. This makes those within it easy prey for a violent criminal.
    • Dave is a violent misogynist with numerous issues about women, and women who work in the sex industry particular. He consequently tends to dehumanize them, making it easy for him to murder them.
  • Inverted:
    • Alice is a murderer who lures her male victims in by posing as a sex worker and promising sex.
    • Dave is a Serial Killer who targets women EXCEPT for sex workers. Alice, a crude prude, is his latest victim.
  • Subverted:
    • The scene is set up to make it look as if Dave will murder Alice. Instead, he leaves her alone.
    • Alice was not a stripper, but Dave mistook her for one.
  • Double Subverted:
    • Dave changes his mind and murders Alice anyway.
    • It turns out Alice was a stripper, but the people that knew her did not know this because she kept it secret and / or used an assumed name for her business.
    • Although she momentarily escapes, Dave chases Alice down and kills her anyway.
  • Parodied:
    • The heroes learn that the serial killer is soon to operate in their town. The first thing they do is to hide every sex worker in said town.
  • Deconstructed: Alice is a important character, generally liked despite being a sex worker. Her violent death is a big deal for the heroes.
  • Reconstructed: Alice was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. After finding out the heroes decide that she isn't worth angsting about.
  • Zig Zagged: Dave's victims are murdered as a result of convenience rather than him targeting certain people; some are sex workers, some not.
  • Averted: Dave does not target sex workers.
  • Enforced: The author wishes to establish Dave as a violent serial killer without having him murder anyone the audience is intended to care about, and selects a sex worker for this purpose.
  • Lampshaded: "These sickos always target the girls on the street..."
  • Invoked: Dave explicitly decides to attack sex workers under the justification that he is cleaning up the streets.
  • Exploited: Dave murders Alice and several other sex workers in order to conceal another crime, both to draw attention from his other crime and because he believes that no one will concern themselves greatly over the deaths of sex workers.
  • Defied:
    • Alice and her friends, fearing the risks of working the streets with potential violent killers, take measures to defend themselves and each other from those who threaten them.
    • Dave, realizing how pitiful Alice's life is that resulted her into a prositute, decided to spare her.
  • Discussed:
    • "We're cops. We're going to deal with a dead sex worker one of these days, you'll see."
Cquote1

 Detective Carol: "Why is it when a sex worker dies, nobody cares, but when it's anyone else, it's a big deal?"

Detective Bob: "People like distancing themselves from the vics. They don't like thinking it can happen to them. They like the idea that 'if you're not a streetwalker, you'll be ok.'"

Cquote2
  • Conversed: "Betcha the Victim of the Week is a sex worker this time."
  • Played For Laughs: Dave murdered Alice the stripper, but it took him 3,423 tries (of which we're shown 17). The only time Alice comments on this is during try #159, when Dave runs up to her while she's stripteasing and attempts to shoot her. The gun misfires, and Alice just says "You could've hurt me." The funny part was that she mistakened the gun for a lighter.

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