Has there ever been a society that viewed prostitution as a prestigious vocation?

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Question: Has there ever been a society that viewed prostitution as a prestigious vocation?

I'm thinking of 16th century Renaissance Venice. Famous for their courtesans. There were two types of prostitutes. The "cortigiana onesta", the intellectual courtesan, and the "cortigiana di lume". The former, the so called intellectual courtesan were classically educated in the arts, sciences and latin. Such education was rare for most men of the age; exceptionally rare for women. These women were received at the highest levels of society in Venice.

I'm thinking specifically of Veronica Franco. A courtesan who achieved some fame as a poet beyond her primary vocation. She became the hero of the city when she successfully helped solicit the aid of the King of France, Henri III against the threat from the Ottoman Empire. Veronica Franco was a poet, lead a charity for children, and was a celebrated hero of the city for a time. She even had the political clout to withstand the attentions of the Counter-Reformation.

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In Japanese culture during the middle-late periods there was a specific type of courtesan called an oiran which held a middling social class, definitely not stigmatized though. Oiran were accorded special places in processions and parades apart from regular prostitutes and only socialized with the nobility. Also I seem to recall (but dont have a source) that some Oiran were daughters of minor nobility that had fallen onto hard times during the upheaval of the Tokugawa shogunate.

"Within the pleasure quarters, yūjo (遊女, "[women] of pleasure") – a term used to refer to prostitutes as a whole – were classified and licensed, the upper echelons of which were referred to as "oiran", a category with its own internal ranks, the highest of which being the tayū.

Though women in the lower ranks of yūjo did not provide as much artistic entertainment as they did sexual, oiran, whilst still prostitutes, also included the traditional arts as a key aspect of their entertainment, their practice of which differed considerably from those of geisha. As oiran were considered to be low-ranking members of the nobility, the instruments they played and the songs they sang were often confined to those considered "respectable" enough for the upper classes. Some were renowned poets and calligraphers as well; the development of the cultural arts of the pleasure quarters led to the rise in oiran being considered to be the celebrities of their day." link

"So the oiran were kind of the celebrities of their day, popular not just inside the yuukaku, but also outside. If a merchant wanted to spend time with an oiran it would set them back a year’s salary. Also, the higher the class the more say she had in who she saw. So, of course, it was the very upper classes who could afford them. They were even sometimes called keisei, castle topplers, because they were so intelligent and clever and charming that they could steal the hearts of upper class men and basically get them to do whatever they wanted." link

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