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Prostitution and Sex Work

Psy3666: Human Sexuality
Spring 2006
No Reproduction Without Permission.
What is a Prostitute?
What is a Sex Worker?
What is your image of a prostitute?
What is your image of a sex worker?
Now were just haggling over the
price.
Pheterson (1990) argues that the social category prostitute
represents a value judgment, and is not valid for scientific inquiry.
She argues that the activities of women labeled prostitutes who
have sex for money must be placed on a continuum of sex for
economic exchange.
Also on the continuum, she argues, are
mistress or other romantic relationships where sex and attention is
provided by women, whereas men provide gifts and/or meet some
economic needs.
marital relationships where long-termeconomic maintenance is
provided to wives in exchange for social, sexual, and emotional services
provided to husbands.
She argues that men involved in prostitution as either hustlers (male
prostitutes serving other men) or johnsare not as stigmatized as
women by researchers or society, and also that they are not
assumed to have prostitution as their identity as women are.
What do you think?
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Sex Work
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics does not
maintain statistics on legal sex workers or prostitutes.
Most psychological research examining the prevalence
of prostitution looks at child, adolescent, or male sex
workers.
Little research compares the experience of female, male,
and transgender sex workers.
Little research compares sex work to other professions.
North American Task Force on Prostitution (an advocacy
group for prostitutes) estimates that 1% of American
women have worked as prostitutes as some time.
Gender Comparisons in Sex Work
Most research on sex workers has looked at only one gender.
Compared to female prostitutes, male prostitutes and transgendered
prostitutes
spend fewer hours at work,
see fewer clients,
are more likely to have another job,
are less likely to have dependents,
spend more time with each client and enjoy sexual activity with their
clients more,
are less likely to be arrested, raped, or robbed while working,
and are less likely to use hard drugs regularly.
Prostitutes of all genders:
report enjoying sex with their romantic partners to a similar degree
are about equally likely to say that they are very dissatisfied with their
work, to believe it would be easy to get a job outside of sex work, and to
report that they would take a squarejob if it offered the same pay.
Comparisons Between Sex Work
and Other Types of Work
Streetwalkers (prostitutes who solicit sex outdoors) face the greatest
risks of arrest and violence, and often earn less, than other sex
workers or prostitutes.
Exotic dancers often face the worst working conditions of any sector
of sex work.
Several researchers have compared prostitutes to hospital workers
(aides and orderlies) in similar areas and from a similar
socioeconomic class.
Prostitutes and hospital workers face similar levels of workplace stress.
Hospital workers are twice as likely to be assaulted by their patients as
prostitutes by their clients, but prostitutes rely on friends or personal
rules to manage risks, whereas hospital workers handle risk using their
workplaces and institutions.
Prostitutes report lower job satisfaction than hospital workers, and are
less likely to rate their work as important.
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Effects of Prostitution
Prostitutes are much more likelyto use drugs and to acquire a sexually transmitted disease
than the average person.
However, this varies by:
type of prostitution (streetwalkers are at much greater risk than escorts, call girls, or women
who work in brothels, who may be at average risk of STIs),
byregulations affecting prostitution (where prostitution is legalized, some cities require
prostitutes to use condoms),
byeducation campaigns (risk reduction campaigns successfullyincrease safer sexpractices
byprostitutes),
and bygeographic location (drugs and STIs are a greater problemin some areas than
others).
Some prostitutes are forced into sexwork against their will; a CIA-State Department Report
estimates that 50,000 women and children are essentially slaves in the U.S. sexindustry.
Women in countries where women are less valued are at even greater risk of sexual
enslavement.
Most prostitution arrests are of female prostitutes, not male prostitutes or johns.
When prostitutes are the victims of crime, they are less likelythan other women to report it,
since theyrisk arrest.
Most research suggests that prostitutes who work off the street (in brothels, massage
parlors, etc.) are less likely to use drugs, have lowself-esteem, or acquire a sexually
transmitted disease than street workers.
Sex Worker Activism
Some prostitutes and other sex workers are beginning to
organize to raise awareness of prostitutes needs,
humanity, and even the value of the service they
provide, and to decriminalize prostitution.
The San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution
represented one citys efforts to collect interested
citizens viewpoints and create sound public policy on
prostitution.
The task force recommended decreased enforcement of anti-
prostitution laws that adversely affect prostitutes, but did not
recommend legalization or decriminalization.
What do you think?
Web Resources
** ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG (40 reasons whores are her heroes)
** Prostitutes Education Network http://www.bayswan.org/penet.html (links
to most of the prostitute activist groups I mentioned, and lots of information)
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/ Prostitution Research and Education,
a feminist, anti-prostitution organizing agency
http://www.bayswan.org/NTFP.html About the North American Task Force
on Prostitution
http://www.iswface.org/linkpge.html International Sex Worker Foundation for
Art, Culture and Education; link is to a list of all non-sexual prostitution-
related groups on the web; a ton of information.
http://www.stjamesinfirmary.org/ St. J ames Infirmary; health care for sex
workers
http://www.walnet.org/csis/mainmenu Commercial Sex Information Service,
a Canadian sex workers rights group
http://www.bayswan.org/2execsum.html Executive summary of the
recommendations made by the San Francisco Prostitution Task Force; the
full text of their report is also available on the site.
NOTE! ** =SexuallyExplicit Material; Websites Restrictedto 18+Viewers