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Sex Work
Sex Work: Writings By Women in the Sex Industry
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 15, 2011
Yes. This book showed up in my recommended readings when I was shopping for the required texts for my TransFeminism class and I fell in love after the first few essays. It offers personal experiences, fictional accounts, and academic analysis of the sex industry and the women who work in it, from their feelings on the work to the way that they're treated to the overall public perception of sex workers. There are feminist accounts, lesbian accounts, poetic accounts, fictionalized accounts, research accounts, and more. I thought this book was absolutely fascinating and I had a very difficult time putting it down, something that isn't always true of collections like this one.
May 9, 2018
Really interesting - sex work is like a weird four-dimensional thing but this looks at it from a wide range of angles, albeit all sex workers themselves . You get a clear idea of what makes the lives of sex workers difficult/hellish and how their lives could be made easier. Of its time, when the women organizing were just getting started and very idealistic, before the digital era accelerated and changed the industry.
October 1, 2016
I thought the first half of the book, the first-person narratives, was great. I gave up reading the second half--it was dry and uninteresting to me as I was already familiar with the subject matter.
April 5, 2024
When reading a book, the most important thing to me is to be able to extrapolate value; this doesn't mean a book shouldn't be entertaining, but the most important part is that you are able to take away something from the reading. With "Sex Work", the first of these extrapolations becomes very clear very quickly: that sex workers are just that, workers. Forget the pornographic representation of these (usually) women performers being 24/7 whores, we can clearly see here that these women tend to just see this as work. There are some accounts here of female prostitues/pornstars saying they never reached climax when performing, that it wasn't even sexual to them, just cold work. I think, in my pursuit against the mental corruption of pornography, this is an important takeaway, as many habitual porn viewers come to feel that these women want it, are asking for it, etc. It's really tragic, because on one side, the viewer's, their perception of reality is being distorted to where they hardly function on a substantial level, they live in a constant simulation, if you will, in an imagined ecosystem. On the other hand, the performer, generally female, is degraded in their base, everyday state. Unfortunately, this has also shown itself to manifest as a negative feedback loop as we progress further into the technological age, as there are now (still a minority of) young women who feed on this perception from young men, and in effect turn themselves into these whores until they become a shell of the real self. It's as if the "shadow-self" clouds the real self for these individuals, and as high speed internet communication continues to set its seeds in the brains of the youth, I only forsee the problem getting worse. "Sex Work", unfortunately, having been published a few decades ago, does not explore this topic, because of course why would it. For that reason, there does seem to be a slight feeling of this being "outdated", as there is new, modern info to interpret with.
I think a good example of what I'm talking about with the impressionability comes from page 55:
"I had considered myself a whore from the time I had became sexually active, even before I became sexually active. From that time on, I had thought of myself as a whore and it was like, well, I'm gonna make money at it, and, sure, try to get paid for it."
The only problem with this, my takeaway, is that there really isn't room for one. As you could expect from a book of so many different anecdotes, there really is no coherent message here. Just as many stories that corroborate my sentiments, there are many others that just as well showcase women who found prostitution to be empowering, or stripping to be "good fun", or otherwise feeling as if they've benefited from it. Now, I could sit here and say "well, the body may benefit, but not the spirit" or I could point out that those accounts could very well be coping mechanisms, lies that one tells themselves in order to avoid facing reality, but really I have no basis to make any claim whatsoever, as we are left with nothing more than the simple stories of these various women.
A big issue I have too is the fact that these are not all real accounts. There is plenty of fiction dispersed throughout the book, but really it serves no true purpose, it supplies no truth.
The only real takeaway I have from these various accounts is, and I realize some will chalk this up to sexism though it's completely unrelated to sex, is that many of these women are surprisingly stupid. I don't know how else to put it, between ignorantly vague statements against "society" without a single thought to the fact that they directly contribute to what they complain about. Seriously, it's like those democrats that "don't believe in the two party system" yet continue to straight ticket vote anything with the color blue, because "muh lesser evil". There's another account of a 55 year old woman who became a prostitute after 5 failed marriages in which she complained that she always had to think about what her partner wanted rather than just thinking about her own needs. Lmao, I can see why you divorced five times. Sadly, there are just not many "deep" thoughts in this book, mostly just surface level drivel. Half of the accounts don't seem to be written for any purpose. It's like asking me if I think the walking dead was a good show or a bad show and I respond with "oh I remember watching that."
Totally irrelvant to the rest of my review, but you'd be surprised to know that the use of the phrase "herstory" can be found all the way back in 1987 from this book (page 148).
Part II:
Though I didn't much care for the second section either, it did at some point make a good point about moral development, even if unintentionally so. In speaking of stigma to sex work, they mention that countries with strict laws against prostitution have more violence against sex workers, and less strict countries have far less viviolent. I think it goes to show that stunted moral development where people essentially think the kaw itself totally dictates good or bad, with no room to allow for any law to be considered unjust.
The rest of the second section, though having quite a bit of substace, is none too agreeable. It goes into law a lot, but really a lot of it isn't really worth mentioning. I don't care about the Thailand economic collapse after they stopped being very open with attracting sexual tourism. The most egregious example, however, would probably be the tidbit on polic abuse and whatnot. A lot of it is sound, don't get me wrong, there are certainly a lot of injustices being layed out here, but they address it in probably the most ineffectual way possible. They talk about entrappment, and how in certain states, a police officer can essentially proposition YOU and it's very easy for you to get taken as a prostitute for vaguely agreeing, but this is a horrible point to make. If the book wasn't a compilation of actual, you know, sex workers, then mayber it would be more justified, but from a pragmatic standpoint, it's no different from a drug dealer going "man, why tf can a police officer ask me for drugs and I get arressted?". My point here is that regardless of the fact that you were "entrapped", it doesn't change the fact that prostitution is illegal. Now, this is not me saying it SHOULD be illegal, but practically speaking, it makes no sense to bring up this point of contention. I actually agree, despite its immoral nature, that prostitution should be legal, and that should obviously be the approach here, to argue for its legalization, attacking the root of the issue, rather than taking two or three steps down the line and talking about how you get arressted for said crime. In doing so, its as if you implicity accept/aknowledge and even agree that it should be illegal in the first place.
I will say, though, they do soon thereafter make a decent point in advocating for the legalization of prostitution. They disparage the notion that Prostitution begets drug addiction, and somehow, without any awareness whatsoever, they go "um actually, according to these studies we did, most women become drug addicts before they go into prostitution". Dude. So you're telling me that prostitution is actually a further step of degeneration than drug addiction? Great argument. Anyways, they then go after the notion that prostitutes are disease ridden, saying most never have an STD in their careers because they're overtly cautious about it. They bring up some statistics the show that the worse the conditions of the brothel/whorehouse/escort service/etc., the greater the std rate, and vice versa. This is actually a decent point they make here about STDs. While I don't like the implication, that legalization would lead to government regulation (yuck), and make things more "official" or "safe", I do agree about its legalization, and it is true that STD rates would most certainly plummet given that sort of oversight.
Another essay goes into the perceived similarities of prostitutes and lesbians, but, despite the fact that the correlations drawn seem to be true, they also feel mostly superficial, or just pointless to bring up, outside of the obvious that they are two groups that have been historically marginalized. The problem here comes toward the end, however, as a very stupid contrast is pointed out that is portrayed as wrong, but said notion is clearly disparaged by things the author themselves stated earlier. They point out that even lesbians have begun to take public office, while there are no people in public office that are (openly) prostitutes, or were sex workers in some degree. What a stupid point to bring up. Obviously, even though our politicians are popularly seen as liars and crooks, there is a moral line that voters draw. This line has gotten increasingly lax, hence lgbt members in public office, in spite of homosexuality historically being seen as immoral. Prostitution is clearly a step further. It has been stated countless times that the typical user of escort services is a middle class married man, and so one can easily draw the conclusion that prostitution is directly disparaging to the family model and family values. Recall that the family model is the smallest micro-chasm of a hierarchical authority structure, like that which we see in government, and so if you destroy the family, in the eyes of the voter, you would clearly destroy the state you are aiming to run.
Part III:
Part 3, another collection of essays, in particular regards to various organizations and movements concerned with the advancement of prostitution, suffers from just that problem: it's a vast collection of various accounts on the same issue. My main problem here, which is honestly just comical form my point of view, is that all of these different essays use the term "we". We want this, we fight for that, etc. The hilarity comes when these calls of "we" contradict each other, and so we seemingly don't have a homogenized mission statement between these various essayists.
I will say, though, that this section, particularly the chapter/entry titled: "Coyote/National Task Force on Prostitution" was admirable in that it had many action steps included. Actual tangible things (contact your DA, inquire x about your local governance, etc.) that I've found to be missing in similar books this year. Rather than a bloated call for change that's really just hot air, there seems to be actual substance here. The chapter has an entire section called "sample projects" that goes over just that: actionable steps to achieving these goals of codifying prostitution, providing AIDs screening, changing the stigma and how they're treated by the judicial system, all of which I can admire.
On the other hand, there is a persistent theme or entitlement, in which, for example, these people want to institute public education changes to stop the stigma against prostitution. A stigma is not always a bad thing. There is and should be a stigma against pedophilia, and they wouldn't argue against that, would they? Even in the countries where prostitution is legal, such as Holland, they acknowledge themselves that there is still quite the stigma over there, that parents are ashamed and young women hide their profession from their family. Does this not tell them something? Again, they have such a low level of moral development, that they think that the state of legality is 100% correspondent to the morality of the action. This is so juvenile, and is certainly not the case. With that all said, they get real bold in trying to push their agenda in public education.
"Support educational programs to change social attitudes which stigmatize and discriminate against prostitutes and ex-prostitutes of any race, gender or nationality.
Overall, aside from some enviable action steps toward the end of the book, which should be a model for many other such works, and the occasionally vaguely entertaining tidbits of the first section (though it's hard to tell at times which is fiction and non-fiction, almost making me want to discard the whole collection as being unreliable), this book really doesn't have much substance to offer in terms of arguing the morality (or lack thereof) of sex work. It more so presupposes its morality, and pushes its agenda accordingly, but honestly many of the accounts inadvertently make the practice seem even worse, in my opinion. I am personally all for legalizing prostitution, but for the exact opposite reason these people are. With that in mind, there are some interesting actionable steps to be found here, even if these women are highly, and I mean HIGHLY dependent on the state and authority figures. You could certainly reach some conclusions in the field of psychology about that last part, but that is a can of worms that I will NOT be opening!
I think a good example of what I'm talking about with the impressionability comes from page 55:
"I had considered myself a whore from the time I had became sexually active, even before I became sexually active. From that time on, I had thought of myself as a whore and it was like, well, I'm gonna make money at it, and, sure, try to get paid for it."
The only problem with this, my takeaway, is that there really isn't room for one. As you could expect from a book of so many different anecdotes, there really is no coherent message here. Just as many stories that corroborate my sentiments, there are many others that just as well showcase women who found prostitution to be empowering, or stripping to be "good fun", or otherwise feeling as if they've benefited from it. Now, I could sit here and say "well, the body may benefit, but not the spirit" or I could point out that those accounts could very well be coping mechanisms, lies that one tells themselves in order to avoid facing reality, but really I have no basis to make any claim whatsoever, as we are left with nothing more than the simple stories of these various women.
A big issue I have too is the fact that these are not all real accounts. There is plenty of fiction dispersed throughout the book, but really it serves no true purpose, it supplies no truth.
The only real takeaway I have from these various accounts is, and I realize some will chalk this up to sexism though it's completely unrelated to sex, is that many of these women are surprisingly stupid. I don't know how else to put it, between ignorantly vague statements against "society" without a single thought to the fact that they directly contribute to what they complain about. Seriously, it's like those democrats that "don't believe in the two party system" yet continue to straight ticket vote anything with the color blue, because "muh lesser evil". There's another account of a 55 year old woman who became a prostitute after 5 failed marriages in which she complained that she always had to think about what her partner wanted rather than just thinking about her own needs. Lmao, I can see why you divorced five times. Sadly, there are just not many "deep" thoughts in this book, mostly just surface level drivel. Half of the accounts don't seem to be written for any purpose. It's like asking me if I think the walking dead was a good show or a bad show and I respond with "oh I remember watching that."
Totally irrelvant to the rest of my review, but you'd be surprised to know that the use of the phrase "herstory" can be found all the way back in 1987 from this book (page 148).
Part II:
Though I didn't much care for the second section either, it did at some point make a good point about moral development, even if unintentionally so. In speaking of stigma to sex work, they mention that countries with strict laws against prostitution have more violence against sex workers, and less strict countries have far less viviolent. I think it goes to show that stunted moral development where people essentially think the kaw itself totally dictates good or bad, with no room to allow for any law to be considered unjust.
The rest of the second section, though having quite a bit of substace, is none too agreeable. It goes into law a lot, but really a lot of it isn't really worth mentioning. I don't care about the Thailand economic collapse after they stopped being very open with attracting sexual tourism. The most egregious example, however, would probably be the tidbit on polic abuse and whatnot. A lot of it is sound, don't get me wrong, there are certainly a lot of injustices being layed out here, but they address it in probably the most ineffectual way possible. They talk about entrappment, and how in certain states, a police officer can essentially proposition YOU and it's very easy for you to get taken as a prostitute for vaguely agreeing, but this is a horrible point to make. If the book wasn't a compilation of actual, you know, sex workers, then mayber it would be more justified, but from a pragmatic standpoint, it's no different from a drug dealer going "man, why tf can a police officer ask me for drugs and I get arressted?". My point here is that regardless of the fact that you were "entrapped", it doesn't change the fact that prostitution is illegal. Now, this is not me saying it SHOULD be illegal, but practically speaking, it makes no sense to bring up this point of contention. I actually agree, despite its immoral nature, that prostitution should be legal, and that should obviously be the approach here, to argue for its legalization, attacking the root of the issue, rather than taking two or three steps down the line and talking about how you get arressted for said crime. In doing so, its as if you implicity accept/aknowledge and even agree that it should be illegal in the first place.
I will say, though, they do soon thereafter make a decent point in advocating for the legalization of prostitution. They disparage the notion that Prostitution begets drug addiction, and somehow, without any awareness whatsoever, they go "um actually, according to these studies we did, most women become drug addicts before they go into prostitution". Dude. So you're telling me that prostitution is actually a further step of degeneration than drug addiction? Great argument. Anyways, they then go after the notion that prostitutes are disease ridden, saying most never have an STD in their careers because they're overtly cautious about it. They bring up some statistics the show that the worse the conditions of the brothel/whorehouse/escort service/etc., the greater the std rate, and vice versa. This is actually a decent point they make here about STDs. While I don't like the implication, that legalization would lead to government regulation (yuck), and make things more "official" or "safe", I do agree about its legalization, and it is true that STD rates would most certainly plummet given that sort of oversight.
Another essay goes into the perceived similarities of prostitutes and lesbians, but, despite the fact that the correlations drawn seem to be true, they also feel mostly superficial, or just pointless to bring up, outside of the obvious that they are two groups that have been historically marginalized. The problem here comes toward the end, however, as a very stupid contrast is pointed out that is portrayed as wrong, but said notion is clearly disparaged by things the author themselves stated earlier. They point out that even lesbians have begun to take public office, while there are no people in public office that are (openly) prostitutes, or were sex workers in some degree. What a stupid point to bring up. Obviously, even though our politicians are popularly seen as liars and crooks, there is a moral line that voters draw. This line has gotten increasingly lax, hence lgbt members in public office, in spite of homosexuality historically being seen as immoral. Prostitution is clearly a step further. It has been stated countless times that the typical user of escort services is a middle class married man, and so one can easily draw the conclusion that prostitution is directly disparaging to the family model and family values. Recall that the family model is the smallest micro-chasm of a hierarchical authority structure, like that which we see in government, and so if you destroy the family, in the eyes of the voter, you would clearly destroy the state you are aiming to run.
Part III:
Part 3, another collection of essays, in particular regards to various organizations and movements concerned with the advancement of prostitution, suffers from just that problem: it's a vast collection of various accounts on the same issue. My main problem here, which is honestly just comical form my point of view, is that all of these different essays use the term "we". We want this, we fight for that, etc. The hilarity comes when these calls of "we" contradict each other, and so we seemingly don't have a homogenized mission statement between these various essayists.
I will say, though, that this section, particularly the chapter/entry titled: "Coyote/National Task Force on Prostitution" was admirable in that it had many action steps included. Actual tangible things (contact your DA, inquire x about your local governance, etc.) that I've found to be missing in similar books this year. Rather than a bloated call for change that's really just hot air, there seems to be actual substance here. The chapter has an entire section called "sample projects" that goes over just that: actionable steps to achieving these goals of codifying prostitution, providing AIDs screening, changing the stigma and how they're treated by the judicial system, all of which I can admire.
On the other hand, there is a persistent theme or entitlement, in which, for example, these people want to institute public education changes to stop the stigma against prostitution. A stigma is not always a bad thing. There is and should be a stigma against pedophilia, and they wouldn't argue against that, would they? Even in the countries where prostitution is legal, such as Holland, they acknowledge themselves that there is still quite the stigma over there, that parents are ashamed and young women hide their profession from their family. Does this not tell them something? Again, they have such a low level of moral development, that they think that the state of legality is 100% correspondent to the morality of the action. This is so juvenile, and is certainly not the case. With that all said, they get real bold in trying to push their agenda in public education.
"Support educational programs to change social attitudes which stigmatize and discriminate against prostitutes and ex-prostitutes of any race, gender or nationality.
Overall, aside from some enviable action steps toward the end of the book, which should be a model for many other such works, and the occasionally vaguely entertaining tidbits of the first section (though it's hard to tell at times which is fiction and non-fiction, almost making me want to discard the whole collection as being unreliable), this book really doesn't have much substance to offer in terms of arguing the morality (or lack thereof) of sex work. It more so presupposes its morality, and pushes its agenda accordingly, but honestly many of the accounts inadvertently make the practice seem even worse, in my opinion. I am personally all for legalizing prostitution, but for the exact opposite reason these people are. With that in mind, there are some interesting actionable steps to be found here, even if these women are highly, and I mean HIGHLY dependent on the state and authority figures. You could certainly reach some conclusions in the field of psychology about that last part, but that is a can of worms that I will NOT be opening!
October 6, 2019
An integral collection of essays and personal narratives by current or former sex workers. Must-read for anyone interested in sex work politics, but also anyone interested in intersectional feminism in general. The pieces represent a multitude of points of view from workers of different races, classes, and types of sex work, which means not all pieces agree totally with one another, but that’s one of the strengths of this collection. I found the discussion of the intersections of queerness and sex work to be particularly interesting. There is one well-researched essay that delves into the overlap between sex workers and lesbian history.
I disagree with reviewers that found this book to be totally bleak and depressing. While it does paint some hard truths, it offers ideas for a better world too. If you read this book and came out with the feeling that the sex industry constitutes nothing but exploitation and misery, and is totally unlike any other industry, you weren’t listening. It doesn’t help sex workers like myself when you paint us all as hapless victims (as was iterated numerous times in the book). Instead, listen and take concrete action to make the world safer and better for all people regardless of gender and profession.
I disagree with reviewers that found this book to be totally bleak and depressing. While it does paint some hard truths, it offers ideas for a better world too. If you read this book and came out with the feeling that the sex industry constitutes nothing but exploitation and misery, and is totally unlike any other industry, you weren’t listening. It doesn’t help sex workers like myself when you paint us all as hapless victims (as was iterated numerous times in the book). Instead, listen and take concrete action to make the world safer and better for all people regardless of gender and profession.
March 11, 2023
I absolutley loved this book from start to finish! I picked it up not knowing what to expect - as a sex worker, I'm just endlessly curious and thirsty for other sex worker's experiences and perspectives. I feel like it greatly enriches my own, and creates a powerful sense of camraderie as well. I want to feel close to others, like I understand them, and this compilation really does that for me. This collection features analysis, poetry, prose, and various other literary delights. There's something here for everyone, something beautiful - or sometimes ugly, yet true, to connect with. It's so important for sex workers' voices to be heard and for us to have our own space in the literary sphere, and I'm so glad that I picked up this collection. I believe this book endeavors to bring people together, and it really succeeds at that.
December 11, 2018
Prostitution is super depressing. The woman in it are fucked literally and figuratively. It took me so long to read cuz I didn't want to read something so bleak. My favorite chapter was Massage Parlor.
August 14, 2019
There's alot to go thru but it's worth it. The stories shared run the gamut; the analysis in the second section hits lots of excellent points. Comprehensive guide that gives room for so many sex worker voices. If I had to pick one book on the subject to read, this would be it!
March 13, 2019
A complex and diverse exploration of the economic, legal, social, political, racial, medical, and personal dimensions of sex work from the ladies who lived it.
August 3, 2022
Poorly written fabricated stories. Utter rubbish. 1⭐️
Read
April 28, 2021This was a collection of stories and interviews of women who worked in the sex industry. It was a really fascinating look at the variety of stories there are. The first two thirds are stories and narratives from sex workers and the later third is more scholarly, cerebral essays about sex work. Feel free to read what appeals to you out of this collection, which for me was the first part.
The book is from the 80s, many stories pre-AIDS crisis. I mistakenly thought it would feel old fashioned. I guess every generation thinks they invented sex, or activism. Some of the terminology was out dated- prostitute instead of sex worker for example- but I was surprised by the sex positiveness of the women. It was also really interesting to see a range of attitudes about sex and relationships.
I feel like we don't get hear the voices of these women often and it was helpful and refreshing to hear what they had to say about their profession.
The book is from the 80s, many stories pre-AIDS crisis. I mistakenly thought it would feel old fashioned. I guess every generation thinks they invented sex, or activism. Some of the terminology was out dated- prostitute instead of sex worker for example- but I was surprised by the sex positiveness of the women. It was also really interesting to see a range of attitudes about sex and relationships.
I feel like we don't get hear the voices of these women often and it was helpful and refreshing to hear what they had to say about their profession.
September 15, 2023
Unfortunately, I had to stop reading this book. I think it would be really important to be able to dialogue around this in an academic setting as the content can be triggering and upsetting by design. I really. believe these stories are impactful and vibrant, but I am simply not in a place to take in these narratives.
February 26, 2017
This book was a really slog to get through. Do not read this book if you are looking for erotica, or something exciting. An interesting read though showing the wide variety of sexual workers - many do not fit the usual "mold" of a sex worker. Every time that I read true details of women (I've yet to read anything from men engaged in sex work) I am usually dismayed, disgusted, and repulsed all at once. The damage to the soul that sex work causes to the women is terrible. I am no Captain-save-a-ho, but I wish there were other venues for the ladies to get work. In other countries were most sex work is now legal, they have found that human trafficking has not decreased, but in some cases actually increased. I am all for legalizing most forms of sex work, as I believe that having the people engaged in sex work able to go to the police without fear is a good thing. In Australia, where most sex work is legal, the workers have the ability to call the police without fear of arrest. However, some people in the law enforcement arena, feel that sex workers are less than human, often joking "no humans were harmed" or otherwise ignoring violent crime perpetrated against sex workers. A depressing read in many aspects so do not read if you are not prepared for the dirt you will slog through.
November 7, 2019
The first-person perspective of many of the stories allows great insight into the taboo subject of the oldest profession. It's amazing how many of the sex workers purport to represent the entire industry but how often the perspectives and stories tend to contradict one another.
The reason I'm giving it 3 stars is that I didn't enjoy the "Scarlot Harlot" narratives which were almost every other story in the book. The writing style seems to be embellished or glorified, like the person writing was describing what they thought an empowered sex worker should sound like rather than the actual thing. A sex worker can be empowered, of course, but it didn't feel genuine; almost like I was reading a cheesy detective romance novel.
Some other parts are a bit laughable, like the idea that sex workers should be as revered as medical doctors. I would love to hear some justifications for that perspective. Massage therapist, maybe, but a medical doctor?
The distinction between raping a sex worker and simply not paying them after the sex is difficult to define. The police are not going to enforce prostitution while it is illegal so the sex workers accuse their Johns of rape because payment was a part of the consent. There isn't a clear answer to this dilemma and I hadn't even considered it until this book.
The reason I'm giving it 3 stars is that I didn't enjoy the "Scarlot Harlot" narratives which were almost every other story in the book. The writing style seems to be embellished or glorified, like the person writing was describing what they thought an empowered sex worker should sound like rather than the actual thing. A sex worker can be empowered, of course, but it didn't feel genuine; almost like I was reading a cheesy detective romance novel.
Some other parts are a bit laughable, like the idea that sex workers should be as revered as medical doctors. I would love to hear some justifications for that perspective. Massage therapist, maybe, but a medical doctor?
The distinction between raping a sex worker and simply not paying them after the sex is difficult to define. The police are not going to enforce prostitution while it is illegal so the sex workers accuse their Johns of rape because payment was a part of the consent. There isn't a clear answer to this dilemma and I hadn't even considered it until this book.
September 11, 2007
It's been awhile since I read this book so I may be fuzzy on the details. I do remember finding it refreshing that women, in their own words, told their stories about working in the sex industry whether by circumstance or by choice. Mostly it was the idea that there were (are) women who not only have chosen to work in the sex industry but who are satisfied and enjoy the work they do.
Yes, I'm sure feminists would dispute the idea that women of their own choice would prefer to do this type of work. I don't believe the various perspectives in this book demean the experiences of those who have been victimized by predators or forced into the business by social forces. I found it to be sensitive and quite balanced.
If you've formed opinions about the sex industry and want the story first hand - read this book and hear what these women have to say.
Yes, I'm sure feminists would dispute the idea that women of their own choice would prefer to do this type of work. I don't believe the various perspectives in this book demean the experiences of those who have been victimized by predators or forced into the business by social forces. I found it to be sensitive and quite balanced.
If you've formed opinions about the sex industry and want the story first hand - read this book and hear what these women have to say.
June 5, 2012
I think this is a good book to whet the mind for more discussion and research on sex workers, feminist perspectives, and social policy. Since this was written in the late 1990s I wonder what changes have come about. It was broken up into 3 sections: section 1-stories from sex workers, section 2-a bit of history and policy regarding sex workers/nonsex workers, and section 3-sex workers organizations and policies out there.
June 24, 2013
So, often, depictions about sex work are from a male perspective. Here, women who work in the sex industry have the opportunity to speak about their lives and their work and it reveals that women get into sex work for any number of reasons. This is a book about power, privilege, and the way men and women view sexual fantasy.
July 20, 2007
This is a rough subject- hard to grasp the morality of working in the sex industry, especially as a prostitute. What's great about this book is that you get all sorts of individual perspectives and experiences- both positive and negative- and now I am not so quick to judge.
April 9, 2012
Good read and a good quick look at women in different aspects of the sex industry, some were negative, some positive but the sharp cynicism was evident in everyone. Left me with more questions than answers.
April 7, 2007
I loved referring to this as my Sex Workbook.
August 9, 2007
Poems, memoirs, stories, vignettes, essays on sex work written by present and former sex workers. Many different perspectives.
September 7, 2007
Incredibly inconsistent--there are some really good pieces in here, but also some real clunkers. Could have used a better editor.
Read
August 16, 2012like new
February 28, 2013
This book was extremely informative and had a wide variety of perspectives. Although the book came out a while ago, I found it to be very relevant.
August 6, 2008
This sounded more fascinating than it was. It was more like a manifesto.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews