Sex Work

In the early twentieth century, abolitionists sought to stamp out sex work by penalizing all involved. In the generation that followed, neo-abolitionists looked at the sex industry from a feminist perspective, claiming that workers were victims caught in a patriarchal matrix. Yet both groups agreed that the industry was a destructive and corrupting force that should be eliminated. In this radical volume, five academics and activists convey their vision of prostitution as work through chapters that explore the nature of the sex industry, the legal framework that seeks to control it, historical debates over its existence, the spectre of human trafficking, and community-based activism. The authors not only reclaim the place of sex workers in discussions of their lives and work but also oppose discourses that position sex workers as merely victims without agency.