Sexual Labors: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Toward Sex as Work

Abstract

What constitutes 'sex' and defines 'labor' has varied across time and space, we have learned over the last 35 years through an explosion of monographs and articles in the history and sociology of sexuality and labor studies. But rarely has the new labor studies, with its attention to gender, race, and ethnicity and its consideration of unpaid as well as paid work, put sexual labors at the center of its focus. Even the rich literature on prostitution more likely has come out of women's studies than labor studies. Similarly, scholarship on sexuality focuses more on sex acts and identities than on markets, work culture, labor standards, collective action, and occupational segregation -the stuff of labor studies. The referents and literature for these fields stand apart -despite the growth of LGBTQ caucuses in the labor movement, renewed feminist debates over sex work, and the commercialization and proliferation of sexual services and unionization of exotic dancers.To situate our discussion of sex work within discourses of labor studies, we insist on using the term 'sexual labor'. We move away from the term 'sex work', which is a politically laden concept that seeks to argue against the notion that prostitution is inherently harmful to women. By problematizing the term 'sex work', the essays in this volume refuse to fall prey to the debate on whether sex work is a legitimate form of labor or prostitution is a form of sexual slavery (

‘It's got to be about enjoying yourself’: young people, sexual pleasure, and sex and relationships education

“…They want sexualities and relationships education (as distinct from sex education) that is realistic and acknowledges the place of pleasure in sexual activity. This does not dispute that people are involved in sex for numerous reasons with many sex acts forced or non-consensual (Boris et al 2010) but young people are voicing that they want to know how to get the most from an intimate relationship (FPA 2010), make 'sex more interesting' (Coleman and Testa 2007, 299) and SRE that engages with sexual pleasure (Allen 2005a). Reports on educational standards and SRE and PSHE in England and Wales replicate these messages in relaying students' calls for more open dialogue on the positive and emotional implications of sexual relations (Ofsted 2002) and the need for this input before 'feeling sexual desire' (Ofsted 2007, 11).…”

Gendered Migrations and Global Social Reproduction

“…A number of feminist migration scholars have criticised the tendency to equate sex work with sex trafficking (Agustín 2005;Andrijasevic 2009;Boris et al 2010;Parreňas 2010). Although the Palermo Convention broadened the remit of trafficking to include other forms of labour, attention has continued to focus on sex work and to conflate it with sex trafficking with the effect of limiting women's mobility and, in some cases, actually forcing them to use informal routes instead of the previously available formal route.…”

How Israeli social workers perceive adolescent girls in prostitution

“…Throughout history and across cultures, the image of the prostitute has typically been female and socially disgraced (Almog, 2008;Roberts, 1993). Liberal ideas see prostitution as a legitimate barter transaction, in which sex is bought and sold on a consensual basis between the parties involved (Boris, Gilmore, & Parrenas, 2010;Weitzer, 2007). In recent decades, radical feminist scholars have defined prostitution as an act of violence that is perpetrated against a woman and establishes a relationship of exploitation, humiliation, oppression and control, which the victim experiences as extreme trauma (Almog, 2010;Farley, 2003;MacKinnon, 1989).…”