Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Sarah Jane Blithe ◽  
Anna Wiederhold Wolfe ◽  
Breanna Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Communicative Constitution Of Organizations ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Communicative Constitution ◽  
Legal Prostitution

In Chapter 1, the authors argue that legal sex workers in Nevada experience significant oppression and unfair labor practices. They move beyond traditional feminist arguments about whether or not prostitution is a choice to a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of sex work as an occupation. This chapter explains how the book serves as both an updated resource about the laws and policies which guide legal prostitution in Nevada, and also an intimate look at what life and decision-making is like for women doing sex work. Chapter 1 includes background information on the theoretical lenses which guide the project: the communicative constitution of organizations and feminist standpoint theory. The authors explain how these lenses allow them to privilege the voices of sex workers, and give unique insight into life in the brothels.

Life after the Brothel

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-127
Author(s):  
Sarah Jane Blithe ◽  
Anna Wiederhold Wolfe ◽  
Breanna Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Vulnerable Population ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Legal Prostitution ◽  
Legal Sex

This chapter focuses on the voices of ex-legal sex workers and their narratives about their time in brothels, why they decided to leave, and how they view their past lives. The perspectives of former sex workers are often different from the women currently working in the brothels, and thus these reflections present an even more nuanced understanding of life in and out of the brothels. This is a particularly vulnerable population; some of the women have moved on to illegal prostitution while others are currently in non sex-work jobs, trying to conceal their past. The women share detailed stories and perspectives about their lives in the brothels and their current realities after leaving legal prostitution. Rather than presenting their words broken apart into themes, we present each woman, her story and her experiences together so that readers can begin to see what life is like for a few women as holistic beings.

What Is the Relationship between Online Sex Workers and Cybersecurity?

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 762-766
Author(s):  
Stephanie Do ◽  
Dan Nathan-Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Work Safety ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Theory Application ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
The Relationship

Although online sex work has become more accessible to people of all socio-economic statuses, labor practices and work safety have not improved since the widespread use of the internet. One way that we can help empower sex workers is to understand their motivations and experiences when using the internet. In a survey conducted by Sanders et al. (2017), the highest crime that 56.2% sex workers experienced was being threatened or harassed through texts, calls, and emails. Because there is no theory application to date on this marginalized group, three theories were proposed. This literature review highlights the need to explore why sex workers, as end-users, should be included in the user cybersecurity defense conversation, such as the cybercrimes that they face, their relationship with law enforcement, and what other factors affect their safety.

Discontented and Jack of all trades: Revisiting male survival sex workers through modern sex work lenses

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110264
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Trudeau
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
African American Male ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Survival Sex ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Researchers have been moving toward understanding sex workers as agentic and career-based social actors for some time. However, while these modern sex work lenses are readily applied to a variety of high-end and emerging forms of sex work, the field has often been reluctant to frame impoverished and potentially exploitative sex work in the same manner. Here, I ask whether and how the frameworks of “agency” and “career” can be applied to a population of poor male-identified survival sex workers. I use data from an innovative mixed-methods community-based approach that yields a broad sample of majority African American male survival sex workers from a large US city. I argue that by privileging respondents’ own interpretation of their lives, it is possible to construct a nuanced understanding of sex work as a “career” and to conceive of their work as both a profession and a source of disadvantage. I conclude that we should continue to focus on the voices of sex workers themselves in defining what sex work means and how it affects their lives.

scholarly journals The Double-Edged Sword of Health and Safety: COVID-19 and the Policing and Exclusion of Migrant Asian Massage Workers in North America

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Elene Lam ◽  
Elena Shih ◽  
Katherine Chin ◽  
Kate Zen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The State ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
Sexual Services

Migrant Asian massage workers in North America first experienced the impacts of COVID-19 in the final weeks of January 2020, when business dropped drastically due to widespread xenophobic fears that the virus was concentrated in Chinese diasporic communities. The sustained economic devastation, which began at least 8 weeks prior to the first social distancing and shelter in place orders issued in the U.S. and Canada, has been further complicated by a history of aggressive policing of migrant massage workers in the wake of the war against human trafficking. Migrant Asian massage businesses are increasingly policed as locales of potential illicit sex work and human trafficking, as police and anti-trafficking initiatives target migrant Asian massage workers despite the fact that most do not provide sexual services. The scapegoating of migrant Asian massage workers and criminalization of sex work have led to devastating systemic and interpersonal violence, including numerous deportations, arrests, and deaths, most notably the recent murder of eight people at three Atlanta-based spas. The policing of sex workers has historically been mobilized along fears of sexually transmitted disease and infection, and more recently, within the past two decades, around a moral panic against sex trafficking. New racial anxieties around the coronavirus as an Asian disease have been mobilized by the state to further cement the justification of policing Asian migrant workers along the axes of health, migration, and sexual labor. These justifications also solidify discriminatory social welfare regimes that exclude Asian migrant massage workers from accessing services on the basis of the informality and illegality of their work mixed with their precarious citizenship status. This paper draws from ethnographic participant observation and survey data collected by two sex worker organizations that work primarily with massage workers in Toronto and New York City to examine the double-edged sword of policing during the pandemic in the name of anti-trafficking coupled with exclusionary policies regarding emergency relief and social welfare, and its effects on migrant Asian massage workers in North America. Although not all migrant Asian massage workers, including those surveyed in this paper, provide sexual services, they are conflated, targeted, and treated as such by the state and therefore face similar barriers of criminalization, discrimination, and exclusion. This paper recognizes that most migrant Asian massage workers do not identify as sex workers and does not intend to label them as such or reproduce the scapegoating rhetoric used by law enforcement. Rather, it seeks to analyze how exclusionary attitudes and policies towards sex workers are transferred onto migrant Asian massage workers as well whether or not they provide sexual services.

scholarly journals HIV and STI positivity rates among transgender people attending two large STI clinics in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
pp. sextrans-2020-054875
Author(s):  
Susanne Drückler ◽  
Ceranza Daans ◽  
Elske Hoornenborg ◽  
Henry De Vries ◽  
Martin den Heijer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Hiv Prevalence ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Sexually Transmitted

BackgroundGlobal data show that transgender people (TGP) are disproportionally affected by HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs); however, data are scarce for Western European countries. We assessed gender identities, sexual behaviour, HIV prevalence and STI positivity rates, and compared these outcomes between TGP who reported sex work and those who did not.MethodsWe retrospectively retrieved data from all TGP who were tested at the STI clinics of Amsterdam and The Hague, the Netherlands in 2017–2018. To identify one’s gender identity, a ‘two-step’ methodology was used assessing, first, the assigned gender at birth (assigned male at birth (AMAB)) or assigned female at birth), and second, clients were asked to select one gender identity that currently applies: (1) transgender man/transgender woman, (2) man and woman, (3) neither man nor woman, (4) other and (5) not known yet. HIV prevalence, bacterial STI (chlamydia, gonorrhoea and/or infectious syphilis) positivity rates and sexual behaviour were studied using descriptive statistics.ResultsTGP reported all five categories of gender identities. In total 273 transgender people assigned male at birth (TGP-AMAB) (83.0%) and 56 transgender people assigned female at birth (TGP-AFAB) (17.0%) attended the STI clinics. Of TGP-AMAB, 14,6% (39/267, 95% CI 10.6% to 19.4%) were HIV-positive, including two new diagnoses and bacterial STI positivity was 15.0% (40/267, 95% CI 10.9% to 19.8%). Among TGP-AFAB, bacterial STI positivity was 5.6% (3/54, 95% CI 1.2% to 15.4%) and none were HIV-positive. Sex work in the past 6 months was reported by 53.3% (137/257, 95% CI 47.0% to 59.5%) of TGP-AMAB and 6.1% (3/49, 95% CI 1.3% to 16.9%) of TGP-AFAB. HIV prevalence did not differ between sex workers and non-sex workers.ConclusionOf all TGP, the majority were TGP-AMAB of whom more than half engaged in sex work. HIV prevalence and STI positivity rates were substantial among TGP-AMAB and much lower among TGP-AFAB. Studies should be performed to provide insight into whether the larger population of TGP-AMAB and TGP-AFAB are at risk of HIV and STI.

It’s Not Just Sex: Relational Dynamics between Street-Based Sex Workers and Their Regular Customers

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110217
Author(s):  
Sharon S Oselin ◽  
Katie Hail-Jares
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Boundary Setting

Establishing regular customers is an integral aspect of any service industry since they can increase profits and referrals. Most research on regulars within sex work focuses on indoor, high-end workers, who cultivate them through relational work practices. Yet very little is known about whether street-based sex workers employ these same tactics or even seek out regulars. This article draws upon interviews with 36 street-based sex workers in Washington, DC, USA. Sex workers dedicate considerable time and effort in order to retain regulars via relational work, noting such customers offer greater economic stability and fewer risks. Relational work also has disadvantages, exacerbated by the illicit and illegal nature of this work. Street-based sex workers navigate boundary setting and slippage as a part of retaining or rejecting regular clients. These findings have implications for policies that can reduce harms for sex workers and enhance their protections.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on the Health and Social Needs of Sex Workers in Singapore

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayner Kay Jin Tan ◽  
Vanessa Ho ◽  
Sherry Sherqueshaa ◽  
Wany Dee ◽  
Jane Mingjie Lim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Permanent Resident ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractWe evaluated the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the sex work industry and assessed how it has impacted the health and social conditions of sex workers in Singapore. We conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods study amidst the COVID-19 pandemic from April to October 2020, including in-depth interviews with 24 stakeholders from the sex work industry and surveyor-administered structured surveys with 171 sex workers. COVID-19 had a substantial impact on sex workers' income. The illegality of sex work, stigma, and the lack of work documentation were cited as exclusionary factors for access to alternative jobs or government relief. Sex workers had experienced an increase in food insecurity (57.3%), housing insecurity (32.8%), and sexual compromise (8.2%), as well as a decrease in access to medical services (16.4%). Being transgender female was positively associated with increased food insecurity (aPR = 1.23, 95% CI [1.08, 1.41]), housing insecurity (aPR = 1.28, 95% CI [1.03, 1.60]), and decreased access to medical services (aPR = 1.74, 95% CI [1.23, 2.46]); being a venue-based sex worker was positively associated with increased food insecurity (aPR = 1.46, 95% CI [1.00, 2.13]), and being a non-Singaporean citizen or permanent resident was positively associated with increased housing insecurity (aPR = 2.59, 95% CI [1.73, 3.85]). Our findings suggest that COVID-19 has led to a loss of income for sex workers, greater food and housing insecurity, increased sexual compromise, and reduced access to medical services for sex workers. A lack of access to government relief among sex workers exacerbated such conditions. Efforts to address such population health inequities should be implemented.

scholarly journals Unfinished Decriminalization: The Impact of Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 on Migrant Sex Workers’ Rights and Lives in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Calum Bennachie ◽  
Annah Pickering ◽  
Jenny Lee ◽  
P. G. Macioti ◽  
Nicola Mai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Fear Of Deportation ◽  
Permanent Residency ◽  
The Impact

In 2003, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) passed the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA), which decriminalized sex work for NZ citizens and holders of permanent residency (PR) while excluding migrant sex workers (MSWs) from its protection. This is due to Section 19 (s19) of the PRA, added at the last minute against advice by the Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective (NZPC) as an anti-trafficking clause. Because of s19, migrants on temporary visas found to be working as sex workers are liable to deportation by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Drawing on original ethnographic and interview data gathered over 24 months of fieldwork, our study finds that migrant sex workers in New Zealand are vulnerable to violence and exploitation, and are too afraid to report these to the police for fear of deportation, corroborating earlier studies and studies completed while we were collecting data.

scholarly journals Sex Work in Slovenia: Assessing the Needs of Sex Workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110184
Author(s):  
Leja Markelj ◽  
Alisa Selan ◽  
Tjaša Dolinar ◽  
Matej Sande
Keyword(s):  
Needs Assessment ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Distress ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
The Law ◽  
Client Relations ◽  
Insight Into

The research comprehensively identifies the needs and problems of sex workers in Slovenia from the point of view of three groups of actors in a decriminalized setting. The objective of the rapid needs assessment was to identify the needs of sex workers as perceived by themselves. In order to gain a deeper insight into this topic, we analyzed the functioning of the organizations working with the population, and examined the perspective of the clients. The results of the study show that no aid programmes have been developed for sex workers, even though organizations from various fields often come in contact with this population. Sex workers express the need to be informed about various topics (health, the law, legal advice) and emphasize client relations as the primary issue. The findings indicate the need for the development of a specialized aid programmes to address the fields of advocacy, reducing social distress and providing psychosocial assistance.

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

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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