New Research Directions: The Cultural Study of Commercial Sex

Abstract

A paradoxical combination of moral revulsion and resigned tolerance has permitted the sex industry’s uncontrolled development in the underground economy and also impeded research on the phenomena involved. The gaze of researchers as well as government and non-governmental actors remains fixed on individual women who sell sex, while a range of other issues is neglected. In this article, ethnographic material from Spain illustrates how commercial sex is tangled up in culture, suggests a number of issues that open up once the field is defined as cultural and argues that efforts to propose new models of governance on ‘prostitution’ need the benefit of much more information than is now available.

La producción social del mercado del sexo y de la ocupación de trabajadoras sexuales en España

“…En la actualidad, este término coexiste junto con otros vocablos acuñados desde la academia y por algunos movimientos sociales de mujeres; es así que conceptos como trabajo sexual, servicios sexuales, sexo comercial y sexo de paga hacen su incursión en los discursos de académicos, políticos y de colectivos en defensa de los derechos humanos de las mujeres que ejercen la prostitución o como estrategia para dignificar y modificar, de manera sustancial, los modos en que social y políticamente se percibe esta actividad. En sus estudios, autoras como Kamala Kempadoo (1998Kempadoo ( , 2005, Laura Agustín (2000Agustín ( , 2005, Dolores Juliano (2002Juliano ( , 2004, Saskia Sassen (2003), Adriana Piscitelli (2005, 2007, Lin Lean Lim (2010), Teodora Hurtado (2015, entre otras, plantean la pertinencia del uso y significado diferenciado de los términos trabajo y prostitución. Por lo anterior, apelan al empleo de conceptos como trabajo sexual (sex work) y sexoservicio.…”

Sex Workers Who Provide Services to Clients with Disability in New South Wales, Australia

“…These include lived experiences, documentation of successful initiatives, the facilitation of sex worker run and led organisations and the degrees of discrimination and prejudice experienced by sex workers in their workplace, in the community and within legislations (Agustín, 2005;Allman & Ditmore, 2016;Ditmore, 2006;Kempadoo & Doezema, 1998;Pheterson, 1989;Weitzer, 2013).…”

Regulating Strip-Based Entertainment: Sexual Entertainment Venue Policy and the Ex/Inclusion of Dancers’ Perspectives and Needs

“…Hubbard (2009) notes how striptease has a problematic history in the UK, with opposition from religious and moral groups who express concern and outrage at the visible commercialisation of nakedness. Our research reported in this article addresses the call from Agustin (2005) to examine the everyday practices and experiences of dancers in order to understand the sex industry, dispel myths about stripping and strippers and address the current policy agenda around licensing strip venues. Our research reported in this article addresses the call from Agustin (2005) to examine the everyday practices and experiences of dancers in order to understand the sex industry, dispel myths about stripping and strippers and address the current policy agenda around licensing strip venues.…”