What is Sex Work?
Sex work is any type of labor where the explicit goal is to produce a sexual or erotic response in the client. Sex work includes prostitution, but it also includes a bunch of other things like erotic dancing, pro-dom/pro-sub work, webcam work, sensual massage, adult film, phone sex, being a sugar baby, etc.
-SWOP
Other notes
- About People Who Sell Sex Services (pdf)
- About People Who Buy Sex Services (pdf)
- Prostitute is a slur
- Sex Work 101
- Sex Work and Health (pdf)
- Stigma and Sex Work (pdf)
Further Reading
On the Conflation of SW & Trafficking, SESTA/FOSTA, and More
Trafficking
Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion; or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.
Labor trafficking in the adult industry involves exploitation in massage parlors, strip clubs and cam work. (link)
Additional Reading
Organizations
Myths
- Myth: 300,000 children are trafficked in the U.S. each year.Fact: This statistic, collected by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2001, is the high estimate of all male and female children not living at home, who are viewed as vulnerable to exploitation of any kind. -SWOP
- Myth: The average adolescent prostitute is a female who is virtually a slave to a pimp.Fact: According to a study of New York adolescents in the sex trade, nearly half of adolescents are male or transgender. Only 8% were coerced into entering the sex industry.
-SWOP - Myth: 68 percent of sex workers report post-traumatic stress disorder on the same level as those who served in military combat.Fact: This statistic refers to individuals in nine countries who were contacted via social service organizations, and the methodology behind this study has never been released to the public. The psychological effects of prostitution are remarkably variable depending on the sector, country, and individual worker. -SWOP
- Myth: The average age of entry is 13 or 14.Fact: This figure references informal knowledge of social workers working with adolescents and ‘survivor’ organizations. Indoor sex workers, who comprise over 80% of the industry, are significantly less likely to enter as adolescents. -SWOP
- Myth: The sex trade is inherently harmful.Fact: Violence, mental and physical health risks, and marginalization are not inherent to the sex trade, any more than they are inherent to sexual identity or orientation. Stigma and criminalization are the root causes of harm directly related to sex work. These harms are compounded by intersecting oppression for large numbers of sex workers. -SWOP
- Myth: Prostitution is violence against women (or gang rape, or slavery)Fact: Although violence, particularly against street workers, is common, most violence is perpetrated by non-clients, individuals who pose as clients, law enforcement officials, and a very small proportion of clients. The same goes for clients of indoor workers. While news reports frequently vilify clients of sex workers, even abolitionist organizations recognize diversity in what motivates clients to solicit prostitutes. -SWOP
- Ending Violence Against Sex Workers Means Abolishing Police and Prisons
- To End Sex Trafficking, Stop Arresting Sex Workers
- Why is Sex Work an LGBTQ Issue?
SESTA/FOSTA
- Congress Proposes to Fight Online Trafficking By Harming Sex Workers
- Coverage of the SESTA-FOSTA legislation must include sex workers’ voices
- Don’t Ask Sex Workers to Solve the Problem of Violently Angry Men
- Flawed “anti-trafficking” bill will endanger sex trafficking survivors
- FOSTA Backers to Sex Workers: Your Work Can Never Be Safe
- FOSTA backlash: How the anti-sex trafficking bill could harm sex workers
- House overwhelmingly passes a bill that conflates sex work and sex trafficking
- How Did My Rep Vote?
- New US laws targeting sex workers will harm autistic people
- Sex workers and advocates explain why the House’s online sex-trafficking bill is bulls**t
- Sex Workers Push Back Against the Controversial SESTA-FOSTA Law
- SESTA Won’t Stop Trafficking, But It Will Kill Sex Workers
- Sesta/Fosta means Sex Workers Will Die
- The Anti-Sex Trafficking Bill Sounds Good–Until You Look a Little Closer
- The Lies About Sex Trafficking that Brought Down Backpage
- The New Law That Transgender Sex Workers in Danger
- The Sex Trafficking Panic is Based on Myths
- Voiceless Again: FOSTA/SESTA and Censorship in the Age of #MeToo
- What the FOSTA/SESTA Bill Means for Sex Workers
- Why This Bill Won’t Stop Trafficking
Negative Impacts
- 6 Sex Workers Explain How Sharing Client Lists Saves Lives
- Sharing lists is something that's become more difficult due to the removal of sites that allowed SWers to share widely about dangerous clients
- Cloudfare: FOSTA was a very bad bill that’s left the Internet’s infrastructure hanging
- Documenting Tech Actions
- Erotica writers are finding their work stripped of rankings after Kindle policy change
- Pimps Are Preying on Sex Workers Pushed Off the Web Because of SESTA-FOSTA
- Quick Social Media Reads: SESTA, Sex Work, and Survival
- Removal of many of the tools folks used for Screening 101
- SESTA is Already Having Devastating Impacts on Sex Workers, Just Like They Predicted
- Sex Workers Say They’re Being Pushed Off Social Media Platforms
- It's also worth noting that 1) many SWers also do sex education, and, 2) these laws are affecting sex educators like me as well. Our work may disappear at any time as we discuss sex in a positive manner.
- The Impact of SESTA for Allies
- The Impact of SESTA for SWers
- The Internet made sex work safer. Now Congress has forced it back into the shadows
- This Bill is Killing Us: 9 Sex Workers on Their Lives in the Wake of FOSTA
- Why Decriminalization of Sex Work Matters: An Introduction to SESTA-FOSTA
Trafficking Victims Against SESTA/FOSTA
- Advocates for sex trafficking victims worry federal legislation could hurt their efforts
- Anti-Online Trafficking Bills Advance in Congress, Despite Opposition from Survivors Themselves
- Anti-Trafficking Legislation Shouldn’t Come at a Cost to Victims, Sex Workers
- Bills Cracking Down on Sex Work Won’t Help Trafficking Victims, but More Housing Will
- If You Care About Sex Trafficking, Trust People in the Sex Trades — Not Celebrities
- Sex Trafficking Experts Say SESTA Is the Wrong Solution
- Trafficking Survivors Don’t Want SESTA, We Want to not be Dying in Poverty
Experiences
- Dominatrix Empress Wu Explains How She Heals Others Through Her Work
- I’m a disabled escort living with chronic illness. Here’s why I love my job
- Sex workers’ rights & decriminalization debate
- The intersections of sex work and violence
- The Laws that Sex Workers Really Want
- We Need To Stop Making Assumptions About Sex Workers & Disabled Clients
- What This Male Sex Worker Wants You to Remember
What About The Nordic Model?
- Challenging the Introduction of the Nordic Model (pdf)
- Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Swedish Model (Aka The Nordic Model)
- No Nordic Model
- On The “Nordic Model”: The Ongoing Criminalization Of Sex Workers
- Open Letter Opposing the Nordic Model
- The false promise of the Nordic model of sex work
- The ‘Nordic model’ of prostitution law is a myth
- Three Ways the Nordic Model Falls Short
Decriminalization is Key
- Arrested for Walking While Trans: An Interview with Monica Jones
- ACLU Analysis Finds Decriminalizing Sex Work Improves Public Health and Public Safety
- All The Arguments You Need: to Convince People Sex Work Should Be Decriminalized
- #DecrimNow: What media should be telling you about the fight to decriminalize sex work
- Is Sex Work Decriminalization the Answer? What the Research Tells Us (pdf version)
- Prison Abolition Requires Decriminalizing Sex Work
- Sex Work is Real Work, and it's Time to Treat it That Way
- Tell Me More: Talking Anti‑Trafficking Laws and the Dignity of Sex Work With Kiran Deshmukh
- The Activists Fighting to Decriminalize Sex Work
- The Laws that Sex Workers Really Want
- The Movement to Decriminalize Sex Work, Explained
- Why Advocates Favor Decriminalization, Not Legalization, of Sex Work
- Why Decriminalization is Consistent with Public Health Goals
- Why Decriminalization of Sex Work Matters: An Introduction to SESTA-FOSTA
How Criminalization Hurts
- Criminalizing Advertising of Sexual Services: Impacts and Consequences (pdf)
- Criminalizing of the Purchase of Sex: Impacts and Consequences (pdf)
- Criminalizing Third Parties in the Sex Industry: Impacts and Consequences (pdf)
Further Reading
- Amnesty International. (2016). Amnesty International policy on state obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of sex workers.
- Criminalized Condoms Force China’s Sex Workers to Make a Difficult Choice
- It's Time to Decriminalize Sex Work
- Platt L, Grenfell P, Meiksin R, Elmes J, Sherman SG, et al. (2018) Associations between sex work laws and sex workers’ health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative studies. PLOS Medicine 15(12): e1002680. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002680
- Reducing HIV Transmission Requires Decriminalizing Sex Work
- The EARN IT Act is a Disaster for Online Speech and Privacy, Especially for the LGBTQ and Sex Worker Communities
- The Many Consequences of Violence against Sex Workers
Resources
For SWers
101s
- Breaking Up With a Regular Client
- Is The Customer Always Right? On Professionalism and Boundaries, Part 1 & Part 2
- Trade Secrets for Sex Industry Workers
- Tricks of the Trade Manual (pdf)
Equity Issues
- INCITE! talks about sex work and policing
- Meaningful Work: Transgender Experiences in the Sex Trade
- Platforms Which Discriminate Against Sex Workers
- We Belong: Addressing Service Inequity for Trans, Non-Binary, and Two-Spirit Sex Workers
Protecting Yourself
- Create A Safety Plan (interactive)
- Internet Safety
- Is Your Sexual Past Being Used Against You?
- KiteString
- Occupational Health & Safety Handbook (pdf)
- Post-SESTA/FOSTA Self-Censoring for Twitter, Reddit, and other Social Media
- Revenge Porn
- Safety Screening and Harm Reduction
- Safe Calls, Screening and Buddy Systems for Sex Workers (pdf)
- Spotting and Avoiding Bad Management
- Stealthing
- Surveillance Self-Defense
- Tactics of Abuse That May Affect Sex Workers
- Tech Safety Tips
- The Impact of SESTA for SWers
- Turn Location Services and GPS on or off on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Legal
- Arrest and Emergency Response Worksheet (pdf)
- Canadian laws and the sex industry (pdf)
- Know Your Rights: Law Enforcement
People & Social
- Miss Lola Hunt
- Switter, a mastodon instance
Organizations & Support
- Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services
- Assembly Four
- Deaf Services
- Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing Services
- Forge
- HIPS
- 24-hour hotline: 1 (800) 676-4477
- Native American Services
- Pandora's Project
- Pivot
- Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP)
- SWOP Local Chapter list
- Community Support Line: 877-776-2004
- The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP)
- St. James Infirmary
- Woodhull Freedom Foundation
Resources
Sites
Books
If you're purchasing a book (or a few!), consider doing so through Bookshop. As an affiliate with them, I get a little kickback - at no extra cost to you. Plus, they give proceeds to locally-owned bookstores to help them survive!
- Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Molly Smith, and Juno Mac
- Thriving in Sex Work: Heartfelt Advice for Staying Sane in the Sex Industry by Lola Davina
- Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work by Melissa Gira Grant
- Challenging Perspectives on Street-Based Sex Work by Katie Hail-Jares, Corey S. Shdaimah, and Chrysanthi S. Leon
- Coming Out Like a Porn Star Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy, edited by Jiz Lee
Please note: The majority of books links shared are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through links in this post at no additional cost to you.