Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century

A cutting-edge volume on current trends in sex work, from sugar relationships and cyber brothels to financial domination, sex worker activism, and feminist porn

Sex is for sale in more ways than ever. It can be bought and sold online, in sex clubs, on the street, and around the world. As with many industries, discrimination, exploitation, and inequality persist in sex work. Yet it also offers autonomy, job satisfaction, and even pleasurable experiences for those involved. Sex Work Today explores these contradictions, offering an intimate look at the benefits and challenges of sex work across geographic contexts.

Featuring thirty-one original essays by sex workers, advocates, researchers, and activists, Sex Work Today is the first compilation of research on new forms of digital sex such as camming, sugar dating, and AI sex dolls. Providing a lens to understand contemporary labor dynamics and the nature of sex work itself, this collection captures formerly ignored aspects of the sex industry including: fatphobia and disability; transmasculine and nonbinary sex workers; racialized emotional labor in the digital sex industry; high job satisfaction among professional dominatrixes; and sex worker scholars.

With federal policies ostensibly aimed at combating sex trafficking-affecting all sex workers-understanding this industry is more vital than ever. Decentering Western, white, cisgender voices, Sex Work Today underscores the global repercussions of these misaligned policies, which make sex work more challenging and less safe, and provides valuable insights for those seeking to shape policies, challenge prejudices, and foster a safer and more equitable world for all.

Author: Bernadette Barton
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 11/19/2024
Pages: 440
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781479821341

About the Author
Angela Jones (Editor)
Angela Jones is Professor of Sociology at Farmingdale State College, SUNY. They are the author Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry and African American Activism and Political Engagement.

Barbara G. Brents (Editor)
Barbara G. Brents is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is the co-author of Paying for Sex in a Digital Age: US and UK Perspectives and The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland.

Bernadette Barton (Editor)
Bernadette Barton is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Morehead State University. She is the author of The Pornification of America: How Raunch Culture is Ruining Our Society, Stripped: More Stories from Exotic Dancers, and Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays.