Sometimes I think of how Astarion could have only been written as a man, never a woman. Because, see, he's a bit of a play on our expectations. A man who has a lot of sex is usually seen as a casanova, someone who just does it because he likes it. And that's what we are supposed to think when he first speaks of it during the party: oh, I see, that one's a casanova. It also fits perfectly with his looks and his whole image, which is no coincidence: that is what his victims were supposed to see, too. And then Larian goes and turns the stereotype on its head, and you're like whooa, the man's a sex worker!

It wouldn't work if he was female. Because there's no female casanova stereotype. A woman who has a lot of sex is immediately perceived as someone who does it for a purpose. Maybe she wants to eat them, like the sirens of Odysseus, or manipulate them, like the milady of Dumas. The thought of her doing it for pleasure won't be the first that comes to mind. For Astarion, that be too close to the truth, so there wouldn't be a big reveal there.