“Sexual Commerce: Troubling Meanings, Policies, and Practices” – Special Issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16(2), June 2019.

“Sexual Commerce: Troubling Meanings, Policies, and Practices” – Special Issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16(2), June 2019.

Crowhurst, Isabel. 2019. ‘The Ambiguous Taxation of Prostitution: The Role of Fiscal Arrangements in Hindering the Sexual and Economic Citizenship of Sex Workers’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 166–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0368-3.

Crowhurst, Isabel, Niina Vuolajärvi, and Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan. 2019. ‘Sexual Commerce: Troubling Meanings, Policies, and Practices’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 135–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-019-00390-4.

David, Marion. 2019. ‘The Moral and Political Stakes of Health Issues in the Regulation of Prostitution (the Cases of Belgium and France)’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 201–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0333-1.

De Lisio, Amanda, Philip Hubbard, and Michael Silk. 2019. ‘Economies of (Alleged) Deviance: Sex Work and the Sport Mega-Event’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 179–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0319-z.

Garofalo Geymonat, Giulia. 2019. ‘Disability Rights Meet Sex Workers’ Rights: The Making of Sexual Assistance in Europe’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 214–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-019-0377-x.

Kuhar, Roman, and Mojca Pajnik. 2019. ‘Negotiating Professional Identities: Male Sex Workers in Slovenia and the Impact of Online Technologies’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 227–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0330-4.

Outshoorn, Joyce. 2019. ‘Ward, Eilís and Gillian Wylie (Eds.), Feminism, Prostitution and the State. The Politics of Neo-Abolitionism’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 251–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0369-2.

Petrunov, Georgi. 2019. ‘Elite Prostitution in Bulgaria: Experiences and Practices of Brokers’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 239–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0353-x.

Pitcher, Jane. 2019. ‘Intimate Labour and the State: Contrasting Policy Discourses with the Working Experiences of Indoor Sex Workers’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 138–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0323-3.

Stapele, Naomi van, Lorraine Nencel, and Ida Sabelis. 2019. ‘On Tensions and Opportunities: Building Partnerships Between Government and Sex Worker-Led Organizations in Kenya in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 190–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0337-x.

Vuolajärvi, Niina. 2019. ‘Governing in the Name of Caring—the Nordic Model of Prostitution and Its Punitive Consequences for Migrants Who Sell Sex’. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 16 (2): 151–65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0338-9.

The Business of Prostitution in Early Renaissance Venice

Clarke, Paula C. “The Business of Prostitution in Early Renaissance Venice.” Renaissance Quarterly 68, no. 2 (2015): 419–64. doi:10.1086/682434.

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Abstract

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Between 1360 and 1460 the Venetian government established a system of legalized prostitution under the supervision of government officials and confined, in theory, to a limited area of the city. The authorities also attempted to concentrate the management of licit brothels in the hands of women, who thereby emerged as the effective entrepreneurs of the sex trade. This article describes the organization of Venetian prostitution in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries and the relations among government officials, brothel-keepers, and prostitutes. It illustrates the mechanisms of debt and credit used in the sex trade, which often kept the prostitutes subservient to the brothel-keepers and to their other creditors. An effort is made to assess the degree to which sex workers might become integrated into local society and to suggest the general trends in Venetian policy toward prostitution into the sixteenth century.

Men Selling Sex to Men in Sweden: Balancing Safety and Risk

Kuosmanen, Jari, und Annelie de Cabo. „Men Selling Sex to Men in Sweden: Balancing Safety and Risk“. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 9. April 2018, 0886260518762448. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518762448.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how men who sell sex to men perceive the risks in this activity and what experiences they have of actual denigration, threats, and violence in their relations with customers. We also discuss the self-defense strategies they have used to protect themselves. The study is based on an Internet survey on Swedish websites. Statistical analyses have been carried out, and in interpreting the results, Finkelhor and Asdigian’s revised routine activities theory has been used. The results show that the vulnerability of sellers of sex is greatest during the time when the sexual act is being performed, and that this is primarily linked to the customer’s antagonism and seeking gratification by overstepping agreed boundaries, particularly with regard to sexual services including BDSM. Their vulnerability was also connected to the seller’s diminished capacity for self-protection due to personal and external pressures. A smaller proportion of the men described risk prevention activities. These involved refusing a customer after an initial contact, protecting themselves from infection, being on their guard during the whole process, selecting the place, and deciding not to carry out certain sexual acts. An important implication concerns the occupational health and safety that men who sell sex to men can develop for themselves, while remaining within the law. International studies have demonstrated that selling sex in collective, indoor forms provides the greatest security. For decades, Swedish prostitution policy has had the ambition of reducing prostitution through targeting those who purchase sex, and those who promote prostitution in criminal legislation. This effectively prevents more systematic and collective attempts to create safer conditions for selling sex. In conclusion, it can be stated that while it is legal to sell sex in Sweden, this is done at the seller’s own risk.

Commodifying Intimacy in ‚Hard Times‘: A Hardcore Ethnography of a Luxury Brothel

Briggs, Daniel. „Commodifying Intimacy in ‚Hard Times‘: A Hardcore Ethnography of a Luxury Brothel“. Journal of Extreme Anthropology 2, Nr. 1 (26. April 2018): 66–88. https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.5621.

Abstract

This paper is a methodological reflection on an ongoing covert ethnography I have been undertaking in a luxury brothel in Madrid, Spain. By accident, this study became a research project when I was employed by the manager to review porn forums offering feedback on the women that worked there and taught English to him. For 18 months now, I have worked in the brothel a couple of nights a week doing these duties and have come to know the manager’s closest friends and family, the women who work there and the security staff. The context for the work is the expansion of the sex industry in an era of consumer society and self-gratification coupled with austerity politics which has disproportionately affected the opportunities for women in the formal labour market thus catapulting many into precarious situations in which selling sex becomes an option. This has crudely mixed with cultural change in Spain in the wake of increased neoliberal economics which have hollowed out notions of family, tradition and intimacy.

Sex Work, Sensory Urbanism and Visual Criminology: Exploring the Role of the Senses in Shaping Residential Perceptions of Brothels in Blackpool

Cooper, Emily, Ian R. Cook, und Charlotte Bilby. „Sex Work, Sensory Urbanism and Visual Criminology: Exploring the Role of the Senses in Shaping Residential Perceptions of Brothels in Blackpool“. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, o. J., n/a-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12581.

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Abstract

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Urban studies and criminology have much to offer each other, but the links between the two have so far been underexplored. This article is an illustration of how aspects of both can, and should, be brought into conversation: namely the literatures on sensory urbanism (in urban studies) and visual criminology. The benefits of doing so are evidenced by a case study exploring the ways in which the senses shape residents’ perceptions of brothels in Blackpool. Three key findings emerge from the case study. First, the residents interviewed tended to focus on the visual aspects of brothels rather than other sensory aspects. Nevertheless, touch and smell (and their interaction with the visual) also played small but important roles in shaping residential perceptions. Second, residential perceptions of sex work and brothels are linked to, and encompass, a plurality of emotional responses. Third, while the residents could see or hear little of what was happening inside the brothels, they often sought out sensory clues from outside, typically drawn from the architectural features of the brothels. Such insights, we argue, are made possible by, and highlight the possibilities of, the bringing together of urban studies and criminology.

Pitcher, Jane. „Intimate Labour and the State: Contrasting Policy Discourses with the Working Experiences of Indoor Sex Workers“. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2. März 2018, 1–13.

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Abstract

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Drawing on an interview-based study with indoor-based sex workers of different genders in Great Britain, this paper explores the disparity between dominant policy representations of sex workers and the working lives of people selling intimate services. I argue certain policy discourses reinforce narratives of vulnerability and coercion when discussing female sex workers and responses to perceived ‘problems’ of prostitution and neglect the needs of male and transgender sex workers. I contrast messages in policy discourses with the experiences of sex workers across indoor sectors. My study found considerable diversity in working experiences, influenced by factors such as work setting, personal circumstances and aspirations. While some people may view sex work as a short-term option, for others it represents a longer-term career. For some, sex work may offer greater job satisfaction and control over working conditions than other jobs available. Nonetheless, external constraints sometimes make it difficult for them to work safely. I argue state discourses fail to reflect the diverse experiences of sex workers and undermine their agency, perpetuating disrespect and excluding them from human and labour rights. I suggest the need to consider policy approaches shaped according to varied circumstances and settings, drawing on the expertise of sex workers.

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Policing roulette: Sex workers’ perception of encounters with police officers in the indoor and outdoor sector in England

Klambauer, Eva. “Policing Roulette: Sex Workers? Perception of Encounters with Police Officers in the Indoor and Outdoor Sector in England.” Criminology & Criminal Justice, May 16, 2017, 174889581770986. doi:10.1177/1748895817709865.

Abstract

The regulation of sex work continues to be a divisive topic in England and internationally. Policies governing the policing of the sex industry in England are continually revised and debated, but are seldom grounded in empirical evidence of sex workers’ experiences. Based on 49 qualitative interviews with sex workers in England, this article finds that indoor sex workers had far more positive experiences with the police than outdoor sex workers. Despite this difference, both indoor and outdoor sex workers perceive their interactions with the police through the lens of their stigmatized status as sex workers and do not expect respectful treatment by the police. This article presents compelling evidence that an enforcement-led approach to policing creates insuperable barriers to the success of protective policing.

Special Section: Exploitation and Its Opposite. Researching the quality of working life in the sex industries

Sociological Research Online 21(4), November 2016: Peer Reviewed Special Section: Exploitation and Its Opposite. Researching the quality of working life in the sex industries

Guest Editors: Stef Adriaenssens, Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and Laura Oso

Articles:

Quality of Work in Prostitution and Sex Work: Introduction to the Special Section
Stef Adriaenssens, Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and Laura Oso

On Our Own Terms: The Working Conditions of Internet-Based Sex Workers in the UK
Teela Sanders, Laura Connelly and Laura Jarvis King

Work Conditions and Job Mobility in the Australian Indoor Sex Industry
Fairleigh Evelyn Gilmour

€Too Much Suffering’: Understanding the Interplay Between Migration, Bounded Exploitation and Trafficking Through Nigerian Sex Workers’ Experiences
Nicola Mai

Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industry
Alice Orchiston

Transnational Social Mobility Strategies and Quality of Work Among Latin-American Women Sex Workers in Spain
Laura Oso

Ambivalent Professionalisation and Autonomy in Workers’ Collective Projects: The Cases of Sex Worker Peer Educators in Germany and Sexual Assistants in Switzerland
Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and P.G. Macioti

All articles are freely accessible here.

Going to Work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. Potentials of Rhetorical and Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Studies

Dunn, Jennifer C. “Going to Work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch Potentials of Rhetorical and Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Studies.” Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 16, no. 6 (December 1, 2016): 525–35. doi:10.1177/1532708616655822.

Abstract

Most studies of media focus on production, representation, or audience. Using rhetorical analysis and ethnographic field methods, my article offers one way to study media production contexts, representations, and audience interactions in relation to one another. For this project, I conducted a narrative rhetorical analysis of the reality docu-series Cathouse that takes place in a legal brothel in Nevada, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. In addition, I visited the brothel and used ethnographic field methods of participant observation and interviewing to investigate the lived experiences of the women working at the Ranch. My analysis revealed a web of intertextual discourses of prostitution that I could not have accessed had I not used these methods in conjunction with one another. By bringing perspectives from rhetorical inquiry, cultural and media studies, and ethnography into conversation with one another, I provide a framework for analyzing production, representation, and audience for the Cathouse series, while attending to both the content of the women’s stories and how these participants rhetorically constructed and performed their identities. Finally, my analysis offers insights into ethnographic and textual “crises of representation” in relation to the concept of “rhetorical authenticity” in media representations, the relationships between audience members, production, and representation in reality television, and material impacts for the women who work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch that I could not have accessed without using these methods together.

‘It’s better than daytime television’: questioning the socio-spatial impacts of massage parlours on residential communities

Cooper, Emily. “‘It’s Better than Daytime Television’: Questioning the Socio-Spatial Impacts of Massage Parlours on Residential Communities.” Sexualities 19, no. 5–6 (September 1, 2016): 547–66. doi:10.1177/1363460715616949.

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Abstract

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It has been shown that street sex work is problematic for some communities, but there is less evidence of the effects of brothels. Emerging research also suggests that impact discourses outlined by residential communities and in regulatory policies should be critiqued, because they are often based on minority community voices, and limited tangible evidence is used to mask wider moral viewpoints about the place of sex work. Using a study of residents living in close proximity to brothels in Blackpool, this article argues that impact is socially and spatially fluid. Impact needs to be evaluated in a more nuanced manner, which is considerate of the heterogeneity of (even one type of) sex work, and the community in question. Brothels in Blackpool had a variety of roles in the everyday socio-spatial fabric; thus also questioning the common assumption that sex work only impacts negatively on residential communities.