Talk:Comfort woman

Military prostitution
Although is fairly circumspect about the issue, it seems clear that the Bajoran "comfort women" were expected to provide sexual services to the Cardassian soldiers. In the real world, "comfort women" is a euphemism for a system in which local women are forced or coerced into prostitution for soldiers in occupied countries; it's associated most frequently with the Japanese occupations in East Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. I don't think that the article needs to go into the historical parallels in any depth — the Wikipedia link can take care of that — but the article should reflect the real meaning of the term, and note that it is a euphemism. I'm certain that the episode's writers chose it with full awareness of its real-world implications, and intended those implications to carry over to the fictional scenario.

However, in the episode as aired, the overtones of prostitution, though undeniably present, remain implicit rather than explicit. I think that we should spell it out a bit more than the article does currently, but I'm not sure of the best way to do that. Is it better to put it in the article's main body (in-universe), or to have a background note about the real-world meaning of the term? I see that one was removed earlier this year, and I understand the reasons for its removal; however, I think that the article as it stands is so euphemistic as to come close to misrepresenting what these women were supposed to do for the Cardassians. Ideas? —Josiah Rowe 01:42, September 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * Maybe we could add a "See also" for Prostitution. Between that and the Wikipedia link, I think we've got it covered. – Cleanse ( talk 03:33, September 27, 2010 (UTC)

I suppose that's better than nothing. Done. —Josiah Rowe 11:05, September 28, 2010 (UTC)