Portal:Sex work

Introduction

Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to voluntary sexual transactions; thus, the term does not refer to human trafficking and other coerced or nonconsensual sexual transactions such as child prostitution. The transaction must take place between consenting adults of the legal age and mental capacity to consent and must take place without any methods of coercion, other than payment. The term emphasizes the labor and economic implications of this type of work. Furthermore, some prefer the use of the term because it grants more agency to the sellers of these services. (Full article...)

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Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but generally aim to legalize or decriminalize sex work, as well as to destigmatize it, regulate it and ensure fair treatment before legal and cultural forces on a local and international level for all persons in the sex industry.

The term sex work, coined in 1978 as a linguistic labor organizing tool, refers primarily to prostitution, but also encompasses adult video performers, phone sex operators, webcam models, dancers in strip clubs, and others who provide sexually-related services. Some extend the use of the term to include "support personnel" such as managers, agents, videographers, club bouncers, and others. The debate over sex work is often characterized as an issue of women's rights, especially by those who argue that prostitution is inherently oppressive and seek to criminalize it or keep it illegal, but in fact, there are also many male and non-binary individuals engaged in providing sexual services. Most sex workers do not wish to be branded as criminals and regard laws against prostitution, pornography, and other parts of the sex industry as factors contributing to violence and thus violating their rights.

Since the use of red umbrellas by sex workers in Venice, Italy, in 2001—as part of the 49th Venice Biennale of Art—a red umbrella has become the foremost internationally recognized symbol for sex worker rights. (Full article...)

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Selected images

Image 1Tart cards in a British phone box advertising call girls, 2005 (from Prostitution)
Image 2An Ancient Greek urn depicts a prostitute and her client. (from Sex work)
Image 3A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes (from Prostitution)
Image 4Fresco from the Pompeii brothel (from Prostitution)
Image 5An oiran preparing herself for a client, ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Haronubu (1765) (from Prostitution)
Image 6A prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district talks with a potential customer. (from Prostitution)
Image 7Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
Image 8A detail from plate 1 of William Hogarth's (1697–1764) The Harlot's Progress, showing brothel-keeper Elizabeth Needham, on the right, procuring a young woman who has just arrived in London (from Prostitution)
Image 9Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City (from Sex work)
Image 10Boat based window prostitute in Utrecht (from Prostitution)
Image 11News report about three brothels operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were raided by police in 1922 (from Prostitution)
Image 12Stickers affixed to a payphone in São Paulo, 2006 (from Prostitution)
Image 13Prostitute c. 1890. (from Prostitution)
Image 14A sex worker in Berlin in 2001 (from Sex work)
Image 15Brothel scene; Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Prostitution)
Image 16World map of prostitution laws
  Decriminalization – No criminal penalties for prostitution
  Legalization (regulation) – Prostitution legal and regulated
  Abolitionism – Prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated
  Neo-abolitionism (Nordic model) – Illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex
  Prohibitionism – Prostitution illegal in all aspects (selling and buying)
  Legality varies with local laws
(from Sex work)
Image 17
  Legalization – prostitution legal and regulated
  Decriminalization – No criminal penalties for prostitution
  Abolitionism – prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated
  Neo-abolitionism – illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex
  Prohibitionism – prostitution illegal
  Legality varies with local laws
(from Prostitution)
Image 18Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan (from Prostitution)
Image 19A prostitute and her customer illustrated on an ancient Greek wine cup; the act of prostitution is indicated by the coin purse above the figures. (from Prostitution)
Image 20Statue to honor the sex workers of the world. Installed March 2007 in Amsterdam, Oudekerksplein, in front of the Oude Kerk, in Amsterdam's red-light district De Wallen. Titled Belle, the inscription to the piece says "Respect sex workers all over the world." (from Prostitution)
Image 21Kisaeng women from outcast or slave families. (from Prostitution)
Image 22A liberated Chinese girl who had been forced in to sexual slavery by the Japanese military sits on a stretcher and speaks to a Royal Air Force officer. (from Prostitution)
Image 23Women in an early San Francisco bordello in 1870 (from Prostitution)
Image 24The red light district in Amsterdam (from Sex work)
Image 25The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622) (from Prostitution)
Image 26Femmes de Maison, painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, c. 1893—1895 (from Prostitution)

Related portals

Selected general sex worker

Image 1
Theresa Berkley or Berkeley (died September 1836) was a 19th-century English dominatrix who ran a brothel in Hallam Street, just to the east of Portland Place, Marylebone, London, specialising in flagellation. She is notable as the inventor of the "chevalet" or "Berkley Horse", a BDSM apparatus. (Full article...)
Image 2

Chippendales dancers in Las Vegas with fans

Chippendales is a touring dance troupe best known for its male striptease performances and for its dancers' distinctive upper body costume of a bow tie, collar, and shirt cuffs worn on an otherwise bare torso with jeans and undergarment.

Established in 1979, Chippendales was the first all-male stripping troupe to make a business performing for mostly female audiences. The company produces Broadway-style burlesque shows worldwide and licenses its intellectual property for select consumer products ranging from apparel and accessories to slot machines. The Chippendales perform at The Linq in Las Vegas. (Full article...)
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Valérie Tasso is a French writer, lecturer, research worker, and sex therapist, currently living in Barcelona, Spain. She has several university degrees (Economical Sciences, Foreign Applied languages), and in 2006, she graduated in Sex Therapy from The Institute of Sexology (IN.CI.SEX El Instituto de Sexología,) in Madrid.

In 1999, she worked as a prostitute for six months, out of curiosity. In 2003, she wrote her sexual experiences in the book Insatiable – The sexual adventures of a French Girl in Spain. This first book has been an international best-seller, and is the basis of the script for the film Diary of a Nymphomaniac directed by Christian Molina. She has written three more books. (Full article...)
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Portrait by Tintoretto, ca. 1575

Veronica Franco (c. 1546–1591) was an Italian poet and courtesan in 16th-century Venice. She is known for her notable clientele, feminist advocacy, literary contributions, and philanthropy. Her humanist education and cultural contributions influenced the roles of courtesans in the late Venetian Renaissance.

In her notable works, Capitoli in Terze rime and Lettere familiari a diversi ("Familiar Letters to Various People"), Franco uses perceived virtue, reason, and fairness to advise male patricians and other associates. She exercised greater autonomy in her authorship than any other traditional Venetian woman due to her established reputation and influence. (Full article...)
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Juanita Dale Slusher (July 6, 1935 – December 30, 2005), better known by her stage name Candy Barr, was an American stripper, burlesque dancer, actress, and adult model in men's magazines of the mid-20th century.

During the 1950s, she received nationwide attention for her stripping career in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, her encounters with the law, shooting her second husband, and her sentence to a prison term for drug possession. Barr was also in relationships with Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby. (Full article...)
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Portrait of Lizzie, taken in Shelby, Ohio, circa 1903, Burt Mossholder Studio

Lizzie Lape (August 15, 1853 – sometime after Thanksgiving 1917) was a mid-Ohio madam who owned and operated multiple bordellos at the end of the 19th century and early into the 20th. (Full article...)
Image 7

Daniels in January 2015

Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford (born Stephanie A. Gregory; March 17, 1979), known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, director and former stripper. She has won many industry awards and is a member of the NightMoves Hall of Fame, AVN Hall of Fame, XRCO Hall of Fame, and Vanity Fair Hall of Fame. In 2009, a recruitment effort led her to consider challenging incumbent David Vitter in the 2010 Senate election in her native Louisiana.

Daniels became involved in a legal dispute with U.S. president Donald Trump in 2018. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 in hush money to silence her about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. Trump denied the affair and accused her of lying. He was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to Daniels, and was convicted on May 30, 2024. (Full article...)
Image 8

Julia Bulette (c. 1832 – January 19/20, 1867) was an English-born American prostitute in Virginia City, Nevada, a boomtown serving the Comstock Lode silver mine. She was murdered in 1867, and a French drifter named John Millain was quickly convicted and hanged for the crime. Subsequent legends surrounding Julia's life and status as a sex worker and a madam have grown over time and become a part of Virginia City's folklore. (Full article...)
Image 9

Film Quarterly (FQ), published by University of California Press, is a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media. When FQ was launched in 1945 (then called Hollywood Quarterly), it was considered "the first serious film journal in the United States, with those most interested in the subject at the helm."

In addition to providing scholarly analysis of international, Hollywood, and independent cinema, FQ (according to its website) "also revisits film classics; examines television, digital, and online media; covers film festivals; reviews recent books; and on occasion addresses installations, video games, and emergent technologies." Over the decades, the journal's contributors have included many distinguished film artists, critics, historians and theorists. (Full article...)
Image 10

Tequila in October 2008

Nguyễn Thị Thiên Thanh (born October 24, 1981), better known by her stage name Tila Tequila, is an American model, singer, television and social media personality. She has also used the names Tila Nguyen, Miss Tila and Tornado Thien. Born in Singapore and raised in Houston, Texas, Tequila moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to pursue her modeling career. She first gained recognition for her active presence on social networking websites. After being featured as a model in numerous men's magazines (including Playboy, Stuff and Maxim), she made her reality television debut on the VH1 show Surviving Nugent (2003). After becoming the most popular person on Myspace, Tequila was offered the opportunity to star in her own reality television series. Her bisexuality-themed dating show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (2007), aired for two seasons and became MTV's second-highest-rated series premiere of that year.

In addition to her career in modeling and television, Tequila also pursued her career as a recording artist. She was the lead singer of the bands Beyond Betty Jean and Jealousy, before launching a solo career. Her debut single "I Love U" was released in 2007 to mixed reviews. Despite having strong online sales, the song failed to enter any charts. Tequila followed with several independently released singles, including "Stripper Friends" and "Paralyze". In 2010, she released her second EP, Welcome to the Dark Side. Her book, Hooking Up With Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success, and Being the Life of the Party, was published in 2008. (Full article...)
Image 11

Thaïs of Athens with Torch (1781)
by Joshua Reynolds

Thaïs (/ˈθaɪs/; Greek: Θαΐς; fl. 4th century BCE) was a Greek hetaira who accompanied Alexander the Great on his military campaigns. Likely from Athens, she is most famous for having instigated the burning of Persepolis, the capital city of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, after it was conquered by Alexander's army in 330 BCE. At the time, Thaïs was the lover of Ptolemy I Soter, who was one of Alexander's close companions and generals. It has been suggested that she may also have been Alexander's lover on the basis of a statement by the Greek rhetorician Athenaeus, who writes that Alexander liked to "keep Thaïs about him" without directly classifying the nature of their relationship as intimate; this may simply have meant that he enjoyed her company, as she is said to have been very witty and entertaining. Athenaeus also states that after Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Thaïs married Ptolemy and bore three of his children. (Full article...)
Image 12
Francisca da Silva de Oliveira (c. 1732–1796), known in history by the name Chica da Silva and whose romanticized version/character is also known by the spelling Xica da Silva, was a Brazilian woman who became famous for becoming rich and powerful despite having been born into slavery. Her life has been a source of inspiration for many works in television, films, music, theater and literature. She is popularly known as the slave who became a queen. The myth of Chica da Silva is often conflated with the historical accounts of Francisca da Silva de Oliveira. (Full article...)
Image 13

Storm at the Miss Exotic World Pageant, 2006

Tempest Storm (born Annie Blanche Banks; February 29, 1928 – April 20, 2021), also dubbed "The Queen Of Exotic Dancers," was an American burlesque star and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr, Sally Rand and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best-known burlesque performers of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Her career as an exotic dancer spanned more than 60 years and she was still performing in the early 21st century. (Full article...)
Image 14
Isabella de Luna (died 1564) was an Italian (originally Spanish) courtesan of Renaissance-era Rome. She was known as amusing company, having a kind heart but also a foul tongue. She was an accomplished musician. Amongst her patrons were members of the nobility and cardinals. (Full article...)
Image 15
Bernie Barker (July 31, 1940 – March 21, 2007) was recognized in July 2003 by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest male stripper. The former nuclear power plant worker and insurance salesman had taken up erotic dancing in 2000 at the age of 60 to keep in shape after surgery for the prostate cancer that would eventually cause his death. Over his stripping career, Barker titled in 42 stripper contests. He appeared on the first season of America's Got Talent in 2006.

Barker's quest to place in Guinness began in 1978 with an unsuccessful bid to claim a record in swimming.
He died after finally losing his battle with prostate cancer on March 21, 2007. (Full article...)
Image 16

Hollander in 2008

Xaviera Hollander (born 15 June 1943) is a Dutch former call girl, madam and author. She is best known for her best-selling memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story. (Full article...)
Image 17

Missy Malone

Missy Malone is a Scottish burlesque performer currently based in central England. (Full article...)
Image 18

Mortuary photograph of Mary Ann Nichols

Mary Ann Nichols, known as Polly Nichols (née Walker; 26 August 1845 – 31 August 1888), was the first canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered and mutilated at least five women in and around the Whitechapel district of London from late August to early November 1888.

The two previous murders linked to the Whitechapel murderer are unlikely to have been committed by Jack the Ripper. When the murder of Mary Ann Nichols was initially linked to this series, it increased both press and public interest into the criminal activity and general living conditions of the inhabitants of the East End of London. (Full article...)
Image 19
Jeanne Brécourt, sometimes written Bricourt, (born 8 April 1837), was one of France's most notorious courtesans. Using dishonesty and blackmail, she ruined some of her lovers. She was sentenced 15 years' penal servitude for having one of her lovers blinded. (Full article...)
Image 20

Metairie Cemetery tomb originally of Josie Arlington

Josie Arlington (1864 – February 14, 1914) was a brothel madam in the Storyville district of New Orleans, Louisiana. Arlington started her life as a prostitute at 17–18 years old as a means to support her family. Arlington used her experience to open a brothel in 1890, which she named "Chateau Lobrano d'Arlington". Shortly after Storyville was established as the red-light district for New Orleans, Arlington moved her business into this area. After her building was destroyed by fire in 1905 she moved her business into a saloon owned by Tom Anderson, which was known as 'The Arlington Annex'. Josie retired from the business in 1909 and sold her assets off to Tom Anderson. Arlington died in 1913 and was buried in Metairie Cemetery, where her grave had to be moved because it had become such a tourist attraction. (Full article...)
Image 21

Baker in 1940

Freda Josephine Baker (née McDonald; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in its 1927 revue Un vent de folie caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting only of a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the "Black Venus", the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess". Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became a French national after her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937. She raised her children in France. (Full article...)
Image 22
Jennie Lee (born Virginia Lee Hicks, October 23, 1928 – March 24, 1990) was an American stripper, burlesque entertainer, pin-up model, union activist, and a minor role movie actress, who performed several striptease acts in nightclubs during the 1950s and 1960s. She was also known as "the Bazoom Girl", "the Burlesque Version of Jayne Mansfield", and "Miss 44 and Plenty More". (Full article...)
Image 23

Portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1782

Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (28 August 1744 – 8 December 1793) was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution. She is also known as "Mademoiselle Vaubernier".

In 1768, when the king wished to make Jeanne maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier, so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The certificate made Jeanne appear younger by three years and obscured her poor background. Henceforth, she was recognized as the king's official paramour. (Full article...)
Image 24

Favor in 2016

Suzy Favor Hamilton (born August 8, 1968) is an American former middle-distance runner and escort. She competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics. (Full article...)
Image 25
Louise Fitzgerald Wightman (née Johnson), also known as Lucy Wightman (born June 18, 1959) is an American former exotic dancer who performed in Boston and Providence during the 1970s and 1980s, using the stage name Princess Cheyenne. The juxtaposition of her education and class background with her career attracted media attention. In the spring of 2007, she again attracted public interest, this time for being convicted of being a practicing psychologist without a license in two South Shore Massachusetts communities. Since then she has worked as a writer, photographer, and blogger. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that Lea Ackermann, a German nun of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, fought against forced prostitution and sex tourism in East Africa?
... that Indonesian politician Sanusi's parents discouraged him from becoming a government employee, because his salary would be paid partly from taxes on alcohol and prostitution?
... that An Amorous History of the Silver Screen has been read as a biographic metafilm, paralleling its lead's rise from prostitution into film stardom?
... that the posthumously released documentary Clean centered on the life of Sandra Pankhurst, a former sex worker, drag queen, and crime scene cleaner?
... that a Harvey's franchise known for being a hub for sex work was described by one artist as a "legendary Toronto icon"?