Selling Sex: Experience, Advocacy, and Research on Sex Work in Canada

by Emily van der Meulen (Editor), Elya M. Durisin (Editor), Victoria Love (Editor)

Despite being dubbed "the world's oldest profession," prostitution has rarely been viewed as a legitimate form of labour. Instead, it is often criminalized, sensationalized, and polemicized across the socio-political spectrum by everyone from politicians to journalists to women's groups. In Selling Sex, Emily van der Meulen, Elya M. Durisin, and Victoria Love present a more nuanced, balanced, and realistic view of the sex industry. They bring together a vast collection of voices -- including researchers, feminists, academics, and advocates, as well as sex workers of differing ages, genders, and sectors -- to engage in a dialogue that challenges the dominant narratives surrounding the sex industry and advances the idea that sex work is in fact work. Presenting a variety of opinions and perspectives on such diverse topics as social stigma, police violence, labour organizing, anti-prostitution feminism, human trafficking, and harm reduction, Selling Sex is an eye-opening, challenging, and necessary book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Science, Sex Work

365 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 20, 2013

Reviews

[Kate Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some chapters in this that I didn't really like, but overall I'm really glad that I read it for two reasons: 1) I feel like I have a much stronger understanding of current and historical laws relating to sex work in Canada, and 2) It does some really great storytelling about sex worker organizing that's been happening in different cities across Canada for the last couple of decades. I'd recommend it!