Basic Information
The Soiled Dove is a Western Character that is a saloon girl or brothel worker. The trope refers most commonly to a prostitute who's shown in some favorable light, the archetypical "hooker with a heart of gold" aka Pretty Woman.
Often the Soiled Dove will become a love interest for another character in the setting. Turns out, underneath the sex kitten exterior there's a sweet, innocent flower that needs nurturing. If only some gentleman caller where able to take her away from her angry pimp and the trying rigors of frontier life, she'd be all set to become a Determined Homesteaders Wife.
Alternately, she may be shown as a feisty, liberated woman who stands up for (and shelters) the other gals working at the saloon. This "avenging angel in a strumpet's dress" will get herself into and out of all sorts of trouble with the local outlaws and her uncouth clientele, but slowly earn the respect of her patrons, and evolve in to the Miss Kitty role. Julia Bulette was a real-life example of this type.
Sources
TV Tropes Wiki page on Pretty Woman archetype
TV Tropes Wiki page on Miss Kitty archetype
Game and Story Use
- Soiled Doves can be found at all your better whore houses and saloons in all the larger settlements of the Old West.
- An entire whore house full of them might need saving from the local Rail Baron or Big Bad Evil Guy.
- A single Soiled Dove amidst a cathouse full of temptresses (and perhaps run by Miss Kitty's evil counterpart, aka The Baroness) could be a good informant contact to fill the PCs in one the bad guys latest plans. She would (or so the trope goes) sometimes get in over her head and need saving.