You know what would fix this plot right up? If the women in the story weren't being viewed as property. One problem in Violet's world is that she is subjected to fates against her will. In this case, she is unknowingly enslaved to Loyalty as a sex worker, and her child is bought and sold by a kidnapper. But that's not what Violet thought was happening while it going on—they lied to her and kept her deceived so she would comply. In other words, they stripped her of her free will by contorting her perception.
The reason why the men in this novel think that it is appropriate to manage their relationships to women this way is because the culture accepted it for a long time. There was never a spontaneous movement to change the public perception of women, and by the time the misbehavior had been repeated for generations, it was just commonly accepted. There were noble ladies who were treated with some dignity, but other women were treated like livestock, breeding humans like farm animals.
There is the center of this issue. Such a heinous, evil, hateful perception of humanity should never have been tolerated. Although women and men are different, they have this in common—their infinite worth comes from the inexplicable nature of human existence, and no person should ever be viewed as inherently less valuable than another person, either for race, creed, gender, orientation, or gender identity. In the meantime, Violet would probably have appreciated some heads up that her life was being enslaved to another person, so the novel is also a cry for honesty instead of manipulation.
