Personally for me female characters have been part of the game since I first got the red box and read about the adventures of that nameless fighter and his lovely cleric companion Aleena.
Sure. There's never been any bar on having female characters in the game. (Though framing them as "lovely companions" might bring along some baggage.)
But this particular line of conversation is about the books, and the sort of gameworld they portray and (thereby) the sort of audience they seem to assume they are speaking to.
Wait so wenching is sexist? Dang! Honestly having a table that lists a type of prostitute a randy adventurer may encounter as he looks to spend his hard earned gold has got to be a different thing than REH racism.
The discussion about whether prostitution, as an institution, is sexist or not has been going on more-or-less non-stop for at least 50 years now, both in mainstream public forums and in academic forums. I assume you're at least somewhat familiar with it. Because I think it's a discussion that falls outside permissible topics for the board, I won't go any further than pointing to it.
But when we talk about the random harlot table we're not primarily talking about whether or not prostitution is sexist. Nor about whether sex with groupies is sexist. We're not even primarily talking about whether an orientation towards women which sees them primarily as providers of sexual gratification to men is sexist. (Though all those things might well be in play.)
The main thing we're talking about is whether a
fictional depiction of women as objects of sexual gratification is sexist.
That general proposition is debated. I have memories of reading, a long time ago, an essay by Susan Sontag defending (at least in some respects or to some extent - it's been a while) The Story of O. But the Story of O does give its female protagonist a voice within the story, and motivations - even if they're motivations of self-subordination to the men who want to have sex with her.
I don't think this is true of the harlot table. The literary function of the harlot table is no different from the literary function of swooning women and heaving bosoms in the pulps. Whether you treat it as pseudo-pornographic or as a source of humor, either way I don't think it can be characterised as an inclusive or welcoming or reciprocal depiction of women in the gameworld. It's about imagining them as available to have sex with the male protagonists.
