The Girls of Old Town

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The Girls of Old Town are fictional characters in Frank Miller's Sin City.^[1] Within the universe of Sin City, they are a group of self-governing prostitutes.

During the days of the Gold Rush, when the town of Basin City had just been settled, the Roark family "imported" a large number of women from across the globe into the open and uncontrolled area, turning a struggling mining camp into a thriving, bustling city and securing themselves a vast fortune and control over the city. These women ended up forming the district that would become Old Town, the prostitute quarter. In addition, the people charged with governing the city, most of them from the Roark line, remained in power for generations, running it as they saw fit. It is suggested by The Big Fat Kill that during this time, Old Town's female residents were subjugated and virtually enslaved under the combined malign influence of politics, pimps and mobsters.

Eventually, the women formed a truce with the police department, allowing the women to defend their own turf, drive out the pimps and mobsters and administer vigilante justice to those that wronged them. The cops get a slice of the profits and 'free fun' outside of work hours. If a cop tries to enter the boundaries of Old Town while on duty, he is sent back with his tail between his legs — usually after being humiliated by the girls —. Nevertheless, he is sent back alive; The Big Fat Kill illustrates the danger of what would happen if a cop were ever discovered to have been murdered on Old Town turf, and the lengths the mob were willing to go to in order to seize control of the neighborhood.

The girls themselves are portrayed fairly sympathetically in the series, usually as hookers with hearts of gold in a male-dominated metropolis, while not averse to issuing their own brand of justice on those who cross them. Many of the characters appear as caricatures of popular female stereotypes and pop culture icons, such as Old Town girls dressed as Wonder Woman, Zorro, Southern belles and cowgirls.