Book review: Melissa Hope Ditmore, Antonia Levy and Alys Willman (eds), Sex Work Matters: Exploring Money, Power, and Intimacy in the Sex Industry

Sex work has long been of interest to a variety of fields, among them anthropology, sociology, public health, and feminist theory, to name but a few. However, with very few exceptions, sociolinguistics seems to have ignored the fact that commercial sex, as an intersubjective business transaction, is primarily negotiated in embodied linguistic interaction. By reviewing publications in distinct social scientific areas that directly or indirectly discuss the role of language in the sex industry, this chapter critically assesses the analytical affordances and methodological challenges for a sociolinguistics of sex work. It does so by discussing the “tricks” played by sex work, as a power-infused context of language use in which issues of agency (or lack thereof) are paramount, on sociolinguistic theory and methods. The chapter concludes that the study of language in commercial sex venues is sociolinguistically promising and epistemologically timely.

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Labouring in the Sex Industry: A Conversation with Sex Workers on Consent and Exploitation

Social Sciences ◽

10.3390/socsci10030086 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 86

Author(s):

Francine Tremblay

Keyword(s):

Sex Work ◽

Sex Workers ◽

Service Industry ◽

Sex Industry ◽

Cultural Symbol

Sex work in all its forms is an occupation that belongs to the service industry, and like any other work, sexual labour is open to exploitation. However, the reason why sex work is seen to be different from other forms of labour is that it betrays the socially accepted rules of love and intimacy and is exercised within a criminalised environment. As a cultural symbol, sex work remains steadfastly linked to aberration and dangerousness. This article juxtaposes the legal and lay definitions of consent and exploitation based on conversations with fourteen Canadian sex workers. The objective of this exploratory article is to delve within two ill-defined and highly contested notions related to the sex industry—consent and exploitation.

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Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industry

Sociological Research Online ◽

10.5153/sro.4136 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 173-187 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Alice Orchiston

Keyword(s):

Sex Work ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Sex Workers ◽

Sex Industry ◽

Labour Law ◽

Industry Regulation ◽

Regulatory Model ◽

And Control ◽

The Relationship ◽

Legal Sex

Decriminalising (or legalising) sex work is argued to improve sex workers’ safety and provide access to labour rights. However, there is a paucity of empirical research comparing how different regulatory approaches affect working conditions in the sex industry, especially in relation to venues that are managed by third parties. This article uses a mixed methods study of the Australian legal brothel sector to critically explore the relationship between external regulation and working conditions. Two dominant models of sex industry regulation are compared: decriminalisation and licensing. First, the article documents workplace practices in the Australian legal brothel sector, examining sex workers’ agency, autonomy and control over the labour process. Second, it analyses the capacity of each regulatory model to protect sex workers from unsafe and unfair working conditions. On the basis of these findings, the article concludes that brothel-based sex work is precarious and substantively excluded from the protective mantle of labour law, notwithstanding its legality. It is argued that the key determinant of conditions in the legal brothel sector is the extent to which the state enforces formal labour protections, as distinct from the underlying regulatory model adopted.

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Del paradigma higienista a las teorías de la interseccionalidad. La construcción social de la ocupación de trabajadoras sexuales

La Manzana de la Discordia ◽

10.25100/lamanzanadeladiscordia.v8i1.1548 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 7

Author(s):

Teodora Hurtado Saa

Keyword(s):

Sex Work ◽

Sex Workers ◽

Alternative View ◽

Sex Industry ◽

Industrialized Countries ◽

The Social ◽

Colombian Women ◽

Las Mujeres ◽

Trabajadoras Sexuales ◽

Sex Market

Resumen: Este artículo versa sobre el actual estado de la teorización, de la terminología y del conocimien- to empírico relativo a la producción social y ejercicio del trabajo sexual, con atención especial a las teorías y conceptos que estructuran el tema de la participación diferenciada de las mujeres en general, y de las muje- res con características étnicas/raciales subalternizadas en particular, en el mercado del sexo. Se delinea una postura alternativa a los planteamientos convenciona- les higienistas, criminalistas o victimistas desde donde tradicionalmente se ha analizado la cuestión. Adicio- nalmente, se reflexiona sobre el crecimiento, expansión y modernización de la industria del sexo, en la que algu- nos países post-industrializados asumen la condición de demandantes y los países en vía de desarrollo, la de ofer- tantes de mano de obra para el consumo de experiencias sexuales de diferente índole. De igual modo, se delibera sobre la importancia que tiene la comercialización del sexo, para el desarrollo económico de algunos países y el trabajo sexual como estrategia de “rebusque” frente a los embates de la vida cotidiana. Asimismo, describimos las formas de explotación y de ejercicio del oficio de tra- bajadoras del sexo.Palabras claves: Mercado global del sexo, construcción de la ocupación, interseccionalidad, trabajo sexual, mu- jeres afrocolombianas, sexualidades disidentesFrom the Hygienist Paradigm to Intersectionality. The Social Construction of Sexual WorkAbstract: The present article deals with the current state of the theorizing, the terminology and the empirical knowledge about the social production and exercise of sex work, with special attention to theories and concepts that structure the subject of the different participation in the sex trade of women in general, and of women with subalternized ethnic/racial features in particular. It de- lineates an alternative view to conventional hygienist approaches, or criminal or victimization approaches, traditionally used to analyze the issue. In addition, this paper reflects on the growth, expansion and moderniza- tion of the sex industry, in which some post-industrialized countries provide the demand and developing countries provide the supply of labor for the consumption of sexual experiences. Similarly, it discusses the importance of the commercialization of sex for the economic development of some countries and of sex work as a strategy of look- ing for informal work while coping with the ravages of everyday life. It also describes the forms of exploitation of sex workers in the exercise of their profession. Key words: global sex market, occupation, intersection- ality, sex work, Afro-Colombian women, dissident sexu- alities

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Female Subversion through Sex Work: Transgressive Discourses

Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej ◽

10.18778/1733-8069.14.1.06 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 114-137

Author(s):

Marta Olasik

Keyword(s):

Sex Work ◽

Sex Workers ◽

Sociological Theory ◽

Gender And Sexuality ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

The Other ◽

Sex Industry ◽

Female Sex ◽

Lesbian Studies ◽

The One

The main objective of this article is to provide a multi-faceted and spatially-sensitive reflection on sex work. Taking as a point of departure subversive feminist politics on the one hand and the much contingent notion of citizenship on the other, I intend to present various forms of prostitution as potentially positive and empowering modes of sexual and emotional auto-creation. Informed by the leading research of the subject, as well as inspired and educated by Australia-based Dr Elizabeth Smith from La Trobe University in Melbourne, who had researched and presented female sex workers as self-caring and subversive subjects who make own choices and derive satisfaction from their occupation, I wish to seek academic justice for all those women (and men or trans people, for that matter) in the sex industry who feel stigmatized by political pressure and ultra-feminist circles across Europe. Translating Dr Smith’s significant research into European (and Polish) social realities would be a valuable contribution to the local discussions on gender and sexuality, and axes they intersect with. More importantly, however, a framework of a conceptual interdisciplinary approach needs to be adopted—one in which a specific queer form of lesbian feminist reflection is combined with human geography, both of which have much to offer to various strands of sociological theory and practice. Therefore, as a queer lesbian scholar based in Poland, I would like to diverge a bit from my usual topic in order to pay an academic and activist tribute to the much neglected strand of sociology of sex work. However, my multi-faceted and interdisciplinary academic activity allows me to combine the matter in question with the field of lesbian studies. Both a female sex worker and a lesbian have been culturally positioned through the lens of what so-called femininity is, without a possibility to establish control over their own subjectivities. Hence, on the one hand the article is going to be an academic re-interpretation of sex work as such, but on the other, methodological possibilities of acknowledging and researching lesbian sex workers will be additionally considered with special attention to feminist epistemologies and praxis. While a sensitivity to a given locality is of utmost importance when dealing with gender and sexuality issues, I would like to suggest a somewhat overall approach to investigating both female empowerment through sex work and lesbian studies inclusive of sex workers. Importantly, the more common understandings of the sex industry need to be de-constructed in order for a diversity of transgressive discourses to emerge.

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