Book Review: Sex and Stigma: Stories of Everyday Life in Nevada’s Legal Brothels by Sarah J. Blithe, Anna W. Wolfe, and Breanna Mohr

Abstract

Is the decision to work in brothels made of free will? Can the work experiences in brothels be transferred to other occupations and, to what degree, can sex workers successfully integrate into society? These are some of the thought-provoking questions explored in the book, Sex, and Stigma: Stories of Everyday Life in Nevada's Legal Brothels.This book uses organizational principles and management theories to explore the secret lives of sex workers in the legal brothels of Nevada. A distinguishing feature of this book is that one of its authors (Breanna Mohr) is herself a sex worker. As such, she is in a position to provide first-hand accounts into the experiences of sex workers inside and outside of brothels.The book uses data collection methods that include life story interviews of five women who had left the industry. Additional interviews were conducted with those currently working as sex workers. This methodological approach made an engaging read with enriching conclusions. For Mohr herself, she acknowledges the emancipatory role this book project played in making sense of her own life. The very prospect of speaking about her life experiences and her career choices helped to remove the deeply embedded fears of disgrace and shame associated with her occupation and aided her in psychologically normalizing her job within the stigmatized profession.The book is divided into three parts, with three chapters constituting each part. The first part of the book lays the essential theoretical foundation of the prostitution business and the stigma associated with it. Besides offering a historical background of Nevada's legal brothels, this section addresses the divide between feminism and prostitution. The focus of this section is to nuance the perception of prostitution by showing that all cases of prostitution are not acts of injustice toward women. Prostitution can also be a profession made by choice because, among other things, it generates income while maintaining some balance between work and life. The book provides sufficient research support to clarify the misinformation that sex work can only be an act that is forced, and that entails trauma for those who engage in it. For instance, anti-trafficking organizations carry the unidimensional view that prostitution is, by its nature, exploitative. A career in prostitution can be an informed choice and not always a decision made out of desperation.The second part of the book is exciting since it has stories of sex workers, including an autoethnography of one of the authors (Prasad, 2019). This section discusses the work-life considerations of the sex workers once they decide to leave brothels and move into non-sex work careers. The skill sets acquired during careers in prostitution -such as selling skills, negotiating skills, social media and promotion skills, communication skills, creative direction (marketing skills), client management skills, event planning skills, and administration skills -are not easily transferrable to Book Reviews