Sex Work Matters brings together sex workers, scholars and activists to present pioneering essays on the economics and sociology of sex work. From insights by sex workers on how they handle money, intimate relationships and daily harassment by the police, to the experience of male and transgender sex work, this fascinating and original book offers new theoretical frameworks for understanding the sex industry. The result is a vital new contribution to sex-worker rights that explores the topic in new ways, especially its cultural, economic and political dimensions. Readers weary of the sensational and often salacious treatment of the sex industry in the media and literature will find Sex Work Matters refreshing.
Author(s): Melissa Hope Ditmore, Antonia Levy, Alys Willman
Publisher: Zed Books
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 320
Cover
......Page 1
About the editors......Page 2
Contents
......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Permissions......Page 9
Foreword......Page 10
Note......Page 12
Introduction: Beyond the Sex in Sex Work......Page 14
Part A | Beyond Divides: New Frameworks for Understanding the Sex Industry......Page 20
1 Sex Work Now: What the Blurring of Boundaries around the Sex Industry Means for Sex Work, Research, and Activism......Page 22
The sexualization of culture......Page 23
Mainstreaming of the sex industry......Page 26
Implications for sex workers, sex businesses, scholars, and activists......Page 29
Conclusions......Page 34
Notes......Page 35
2 The (Crying) Need for Different Kinds of Research......Page 36
How can we understand these stories?......Page 37
Why do we do research, anyway?......Page 38
Migration as a research framework......Page 39
3 The Meaning of the ‘Whore’: How Feminist Theories on Prostitution Shape Research on Female Sex Workers......Page 41
Examining agency and researcher positionality......Page 42
Terms of debate......Page 44
Feminist theory and sex work research......Page 48
Feminist theories on sex work influence policy on trafficking......Page 49
Moving beyond ‘consent’ v.‘force’......Page 53
Researching the wellbeing of sex workers......Page 55
Beyond trauma: exploring sex workers’ coping strategies......Page 61
Sex work and mental health: comparing sex workers to non-sexworkers......Page 67
Sex work as middle-class occupation and leisure activity......Page 72
Linking methodology with ideology......Page 74
Conclusion......Page 75
Part B | Managing Multiple Roles......Page 78
4 To Love, Honor, and Strip: An Investigation of Exotic Dancer Romantic Relationships......Page 80
Findings......Page 82
Discussion......Page 94
Note......Page 97
5 Sex and the Unspoken in Male Street Prostitution......Page 98
Five lives, five experiences......Page 103
Space and the material underpinning of street life......Page 110
Street families and emotional instrumentality......Page 114
Violence and the self-management of identity......Page 119
Conclusions......Page 126
Notes......Page 128
Let’s start with fix(a)tion......Page 130
Conditioning of an/other......Page 133
Conditions of an/other......Page 138
Gazing at an/other......Page 142
Chheley nachano: performing an/other......Page 145
Figure 6.1 The socio-economic status of the Dhuranis......Page 146
‘Sex work as liberating alternative’......Page 147
Being hermaphroditus......Page 150
Notes......Page 151
Part C | Money and Sex......Page 154
7 Let’s Talk About Money......Page 156
Note......Page 159
8 Show Me the Money: A Sex Worker Reflects on Research into the Sex Industry......Page 160
9 Selling Sex: Women’s Participation in the Sex Industry......Page 168
‘I did it …’......Page 169
The manufacturing of identity......Page 171
The sex work floor......Page 172
Separate and unequal......Page 176
‘… for the money’......Page 178
Conclusion......Page 180
Notes......Page 182
Part D | Sex Work and the State......Page 184
Sex, neoliberalism, and the state......Page 186
Becoming a sex worker......Page 188
Obligadas, mantenidos, and independientes......Page 189
Conclusion: the state as pimp......Page 193
Notes......Page 196
Uniquely progressive: a law that failed......Page 197
Reconstructing internal discourses......Page 200
Two administrative cultures, two different outcomes......Page 203
Differing realities......Page 213
Notes......Page 215
The socio-legal context in the UK......Page 216
Beyond binaries: creative consultation, project-led multi-agency approaches, and social justice......Page 219
Participatory research involving sex workers: problems and issues......Page 221
Local service provision and policy: reflecting the views of sex workers......Page 222
The value of participatory and collaborative methods of research: outcomes from the two studies......Page 226
Conclusion: the importance of genuine participation and inclusion in public policy research and safe spaces for dialog and knowledge production......Page 230
Notes......Page 231
Part E | Organizing Beyond Divides......Page 232
13 Sex Workers’ Rights Activism in Europe: Orientations from Brussels......Page 234
The Conference......Page 235
A politics of alliances......Page 239
Beyond ‘helpers’......Page 241
Choosing allies, producing collective truth......Page 243
Questions for the future......Page 247
Notes......Page 250
14 Conclusion: Pushing Boundaries in Sex Work Activism and Research......Page 252
Contributing authors......Page 256
Bibliography......Page 260
Index......Page 279
