Didn’t Carmen sometimes sleep with men for money? not necessarily all the time, but when she needed it?
Catwoman
Sister Sara
As immortalized by Chris Farley’s character in Almost Heroes:
Only mentioned tangentially, but she has become quite famous among my group of friends.
Sadie Thompson?
Sugar.
That’s who I came in here to mention.
Doll Tearsheet, close personal friend of Sir John Falstaff.
Sally Bowles in Cabaret (don’t know if this one counts…she wasn’t an official prostitute, but she did sleep with men for “gifts”)
Me, too. I loved that book.
How about Aldonza from “Man of LaMancha”? I have no idea if she is a character in Don Quixote.
Lady Louisa Dem Five, “Lou” to friends & customers, genetically-enhanced hooker & madam of The Velvet Fist House, from the online comic Buck Godot: Zap Gun For Hire.
Various “Slot Machine Girls” in Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
So called, because…ah hell, you know!!
Jan Brady in Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway.
O.K., not Jan. Eve Plum.
Lady Sally, from Callahan’s Lady and Lady Slings the Booze. Actually, again, I’m unclear on whether she counts…she runs the bordello but I don’t remember if she’s actually one of the “artists”…
Iris (Jodie Foster) in Taxi Driver
Would the titular character of “Memoirs of a Geisha” count? I know, I know–geisha are not prostitutes! they are educated companions, etc…but since a big part of the plot revolved around the protagonist having her virginity sold to the highest bidder, it’s kind of hard not to see it that way.
Mrs. Constance Miller from McCabe and Mrs. Miller, though she was semiretired and acted as the madam for McCabe’s brothel.
More disturbingly, Violet (and her mother Hattie, as well as all the other women in the brothel) from Pretty Baby.
Belle du Jour
Maggie Paul from Cinderella Liberty
Volpina in Amacord
Liz in Whore
Was she really a prostitute? I thought she was more of a kept woman or a professional mooch.
Mrs. Rogo from The Poseidon Adventure
Jenny Diver, Suky Tawdry et al from The Beggar’s/Threepenny Opera
Speaking of guys…Deuce Bigalow!