New Sex Book Alert: Sex Work Today

Despite how long sex work has existed (after all, some refer to it as “the oldest profession in the world”), it is still heavily stigmatized. While sex worker stigma isn’t anything new, sex work itself has evolved and changed in myriad ways. A new edited collection titled Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century aims to contextualize “the current landscape of modern sex industries” via dozens of data-driven stories. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the stories in the edited collection and what readers can expect. 

Overview of Sex Work Today

Sex Work Today is a collection of 31 chapters from a host of authors. Many of them were written by individuals with work experience in the sex industry, and they cover a wide range of topics, including how sex work intersects with technology, criminalization, and social movements.

The book’s editors explain that there were three main goals in bringing together the stories in the collection. First, they wanted to ensure that the voices of sex workers and sex-working scholars were forwarded so that their expertise was highlighted throughout. Here, they remind us of the activist phrase “nothing about us without us.”

Second, the editors were focused on intersectionality, highlighting the ways that different dominant ideologies—including heterosexism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, as some examples—affect sex workers’ experiences navigating capitalist labor markets. The third goal was that each chapter highlight how these structural forces “pit marginalized members against each other.” Together, these goals ensure that all the chapters in the book illuminate the reality of modern sex work. 

Topics in Sex Work Today

The book is broken down into multiple sections, with the first half of the book highlighting different aspects of sex work, and the second half highlighting challenges of sex work, activism, and new perspectives on sex work. 

The first section titled, “The Internet Changes the Game,” explores how the evolution of technology has affected the very nature of sex work. These chapters delve into topics such as pornography, sugar dating, and online sex work. The second section, “Intersections,” includes chapters that discuss intersectional experiences within sex work, such as how racism, ableism, and fatphobia affect sex workers. Next, chapters in the third section, “The Work of Sex Work,” discuss how the practice of findom both challenges and reinforces patriarchal power differences, questions of authenticity among transfeminine porn performers, and job satisfaction among dominatrixes. 

The fourth section, “The State and Criminalization,” features chapters highlighting the harmful nature of rescue narratives, as well as how policing leads to harm for sex workers. “Sex Worker Activism,” the fifth section of the book, outline how legal tools and legal rights might be developed for sex workers. Finally, the sixth section, titled “New Directions and New Perspectives,” discusses the future of sex work research, trans joy within sex work, and how technology may continue to complicate and change sex work in the future. 

Listen to Authors Involved in Sex Work Today

If you’re interested in hearing some of the authors and editors behind Sex Work Today speak about their contributions to the book, we have a few podcast episodes that you should be sure to check out. 

First, we recorded two episodes with editor Bernadette Barton. In episode 350, Dr. Barton sits down with Dr. Lehmiller to talk about the rise of sugar dating. They discuss different sugaring arrangements that individuals have, as well as power dynamics in sugar dating relationships. In episode 351, they discuss “The Pornification of America,” a reference to how raunchy American culture has become. 

In addition, podcast episode 352 features Jessica Van Meir, who is a co-author of a chapter on findom alongside Hollie Anise, which is titled “Masturbating to Capitalism: How Findom Challenges and Reinforces Patriarchal and Capitalist Relations.” In this episode, Ms. Van Meir and Dr. Lehmiller discuss how findom is similar to or different from sugar dating, the erotic appeal of findom, and how findom may be a way for individuals to deal with financial precarity.

Interested in reading more? You can get 30% off  Sex Work Today when you input code NYUP30 at checkout on nyupress.org.

If you have a sex question of your own, record a voicemail at speakpipe.com/sexandpsychology to have it answered on the blog or the podcast. 

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