Sex Workers and Their Clients

In Their Own Words

Jerald L. Mosley

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030615512
• eBook ISBN: 9783030615529
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Social Sciences

This book draws on the voices of sex workers and their clients to critically assess the criminalization of prostitution in favour of decriminalization. It does so by contrasting their voices with the claims made by prohibitionists: those advocating the prohibition of prostitution or, at least, the prohibition of the purchase of sexual services, and notes scholarly research that gives context to those accounts and claims. Eachchapter is dedicated to a particular issue which is given currency in academic and public debates on sex work. The first part of each chapterreviews the state of research and publicly-aired contentions and the second part compares sex workers' voices withclaims from prohibitionists. Ithighlights the gap between what many sex workers have to say about themselves and what theorizing prohibitionists say about all prostitution. It argues that there is oftena striking contrast in attitude, perspective, interpretation and valuation.This books speaksprimarily to prohibitionist thinking and sex work stereotyping and, secondarily, to the debate on decriminalization of sex work.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

J. L. MosleySex Workers and Their Clientshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61552-9_2

Begin Abstract

Chapter 1: Subjective Lives

Jerald L. Mosley¹

(1)

Pasadena, CA, USA

Abstract

The Background section of this chapter notes much empirical research that reflects a broad range of subjective experiences of sex workers. Included in that range is a surprising degree of satisfaction and wellbeing. Research also reflects omnipresent stigma and the threat stigma poses to a sex workers’ subjective wellbeing. The Voices section reproduces prohibitionist claims of endemic abuse, loss of dignity, degradation, humiliation, and domination. But the section also allows us to listen as sex workers express a normal attitude toward the positive and negative aspects of sex work as work, and, at times, they express considerable satisfaction with what they do. They also share intimate anecdotes giving us a quick look at their work as very human and humane.

Keywords

Mental healthWellbeingSelf-confidenceSelf-esteemShameGuiltStigmaIntimacy

End Abstract

Background

Quoted below are theorists’ descriptions of sex work as featuring self-contempt, loss of dignity, degradation, dehumanization, and trauma. These claims are paired with sex workers’ personal disclosures of their own feelings about their work, their subjective lives, and what affects their subjective lives. Some speakers are very positive, some talk about the personal effects of stigma, disapproval, and taboo, and some talk about the pros and cons and normalcy of their work.

These voices are heard against a backdrop of studies and social commentary probing sex workers’ personal lives. There are, for example, prohibitionists who pathologize women who sell sex with emphasis on mental disorder, instability, depression, and predilection for suicide (Levy 2015, 69). Rachel Moran, a former street worker in Dublin, now an ardent advocate for the abolition of sex work, offers an emotionally wrought account of her time in sex work. She relies on highly charged emotive vocabular in describing herself as having been offered up as “fresh meat” and referencing the “ritual degradation of strangers using [her] body to satiate their urges” (Moran 2015).

On the other hand, numerous studies offer a stark contrast to that bleak image of the sex worker. A Western Australia study of both street-based and indoor sex work found that sex workers were more likely than not to report that their work enhanced their wellbeing. They felt increased self-confidence as a result of their work, and many enjoyed the non-sexual interaction they had with clients (Selvey et al. 2017). A high proportion of UK internet-based sex workers reported they were satisfied or even enthusiastic about their work. A majority of the subjects studied worked in independent sex work/escorting, and a substantial proportion worked in webcamming (Sanders and Scoular et al. 2017, 5, 7, 12).

Ronald Weitzer cautions against overgeneralizing about sex workers’ lives as sex work is extremely varied, and simplistic generalizations based on best case examples are no closer to the norm than worst case samples (Weitzer 2005, 946). However, in Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business he lists surprising studies running counter to conventional negative stereotypes. A number of sex worker studies show that indoor sex workers fare much better on measures of mental health than do street workers (2012, 27); many indoor sex workers in developed countries are similar to non-sex workers in measures of mental health and self-esteem (2012, 27); a majority of indoor workers in several studies reported that they enjoy the job, feel that their work has at least some positive effect on their lives, or believe that they provide a valuable service (2012, 28); and 97% of California call girls studied reported an increase in self-esteem after beginning working in sex work with 50% of Nevada brothel workers and 8% of street workers reporting the same (2012, 28; see also Benoit et al. 2017).

A study of Chinese women who emigrated to a number of countries, including the United States, where they ended up in sex work offers another counter to a prevalent image, this time the image of sex workers suffering through service to countless strangers one after the other. One subject admitted that “sometimes we would cry and feel depressed.” But they would cry because there were not enough clients to service, and thus not enough money coming in. This concern with lack of business was generally true throughout the sample studied (Chin and Finckenauer 2012, 244).

A Zurich study published in 2010 offers a reminder that sex workers are individuals, and we should not be surprised if they present widely different attitudes and subjective experiences. The study uncovered an interesting contrast between shame and moral pride among sex workers: 30.7% of the sample of female sex workers reported feelings of shame and guilt, while 38.9% reported that a positive aspect of their work was being able “to help others” (Rossler et al. 2010, 5).

Living with stigma, however, is one thing that all sex workers do have in common. It cuts across all individuals and all work venues. It cannot be ignored when we ask about sex workers’ subjective lived experiences as stigma is a force bearing down on a sex worker’s self-perception, job satisfaction, and overall mental wellbeing. “Female sex workers in particular are stigmatized as having ‘a spoiled identity’” (Vanwesenbeeck 2013, 14.), and those who choose sex work and refuse to claim they are victims are the ones most likely to be treated with “disdain and loathing” (Vanwesenbeeck 2001, 275; Shaver 1994, 141).

The word “prostitute” has, historically, been used to brand a woman who transgresses contemporary standards of femininity and sexual modesty. In the early years of the twentieth century, the term described a woman whose sexual life was indiscriminate, whether or not she took money for sex (Law 2000, 525; United States v. Bitty 1908, 401). Later in the century the term came to define one who takes money for sexual intercourse, but the concept was limited to women who do so (Garner 1995; People v. White 1979, 89 Cal.App.3d 143, 149n2). Now, of course, the brand attaches to all genders who take money for sex.

Stigma, as Weitzer notes, is one of the most important problems in sex work. It is harmful to sex workers who must confront it on a regular basis as an occupational hazard (Weitzer 2017, 1, 3; see also Hester et al. 2019, 21). Sex workers’ emotional health is, to a large extent, shaped by stigma-related factors such as being discriminated against, difficulties combining work and home, and fear of being found out (Vanwesenbeeck 2017, 1634). In fact, a New Zealand study found that most sex workers felt that stigma was a greater risk to their health than violence, exploitation, and unsafe sex (Bass 2015, 195–196).

Stigma does not depress sex workers’ quality of life only because it affects how others treat and perceive them. There is also the danger that sex workers will internalize the stigma by accepting pejorative discourse and applying negative beliefs to themselves (Benoit et al. 2017, 2). There is reason to believe that self-stigmatization, along with shame, guilt, and low self-esteem, is a prevalent problem among female sex workers (Vanwesenbeeck 2013, 15).

The comparison with the historical treatment of gays and lesbians is hard to ignore. Pathologizing discourse in the latter half of the nineteenth century bred self-hatred among homosexuals (Berkowitz 2015, 63). The literature from the 1920s and 1930s tells us that they experienced guilt, regret, an increased disposition to depression, eating disorders, and insomnia, and suffered a significantly higher suicide rate than the rest of the population. Now, increasingly, we are seeing these problems as triggered not by sexual practices but by social treatment (Moen 2014, 74).

The voices below give a human face to the effects of stigma. As noted above, though, these sex workers also talk about positive aspects of their work, and, perhaps most surprising as against conventional thought, they talk about the normal, ordinary character of their work. They don’t give a simple yea or nay vote on sex work; instead, they give us a peek into their own unique emotional lives and the work that shapes their lives.

Voices

Theory and ideology

Life and work

Steven Wagner, founder of the anti-trafficking Renewal Forum and former director of the Human Trafficking Program at the US Department of Health and Human Services: “The life of the prostituted person is an unrelenting horror of serial rape, trauma, and violence.”

April Adams on talking to sex workers: “I have hard days sometimes, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes people are late. Sometimes I get two clients back to back who are vales of tears dressed as businessmen. Sometimes I get someone who stores cupcakes where his empathy for other humans should be, and I hate him, and I need to process that. And sometimes Gmail is screwy and I lose money and man, does that piss me off. If I bitch about these things, it’s OK. I’m still OK. You’re still OK. Everyone bitches about their job. It doesn't mean that to be...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Subjective Lives
• Chapter 2: Exploitation, Money, and Poverty
• Chapter 3: Coercion
• Chapter 4: Abuse and Harm
• Chapter 5: Commodification, Objectification, and Personhood
• Chapter 6: Power, Dominance, and Subordination
• Conclusion
• Back Matter