Effects of living, but not officially working, in a brothel on a young girl?
Hi, Little-Details!
My story is set in late 1300s (pre-Sengoku era) Japan, in medieval Kyoto. It's a historical fantasy work. My main character, O-Chie, is a prostitute, sold to the brothel at age 8 and working in that capacity since age 13. The girl these questions pertain to is her trainee, Hatsu. O-Chie is 18 when Hatsu is given to her; Hatsu is 7. O-Chie doesn't have a choice in the matter, and resents the girl's care and instruction being forced on her. Despite having once been in the exact same situation herself, her mentor treats her badly. She is emotionally neglectful much of the time, and physical punishment for infractions (or pretty much anything else) is standard within the environment. I'm not making any excuses for any of O-Chie's behavior towards the girl. It's detestable and outright abusive. It does improve with time.
Over the course of the next year, Hatsu is exposed to everything one would probably expect to find in a medieval brothel:
- Sex, obviously
- Violent customers
- Maltreatment and extortion
- Murder
- Suicide
- Addiction (primarily to alcohol)
- Rampant infighting and occasional actual fighting between the prostitutes
Now, with that said, my question boils down to this: What effects could all of this be expected to have on Hatsu, both in the short-term and the long-term? Primarily, I'm concerned with psychological and emotional effects, but anything else is welcome.
I have a number of books on prostitution, but none of them discuss the psychological or emotional impacts in any detail. I know about the long-term effects of sexual abuse on children, and I also know that this scenario does constitute sexual abuse, just not in the usual sense.
Terms searched include: "long-term effects of exposure to sexual abuse" and "psychological effects of a brothel environment". This is a difficult thing to find the proper terms for when searching.
Thank you for any help you can provide with this somewhat...strange question.