Sex Work: Rethinking the Job, Respecting the Workers

By Colette Parent, Chris Bruckert, Patrice Corriveau, Maria Nengeh Mensah & Louise Toupin; Translated by Kathe Roth

In the early twentieth century, abolitionists sought to stamp out sex work by penalizing all involved. In the generation that followed, neo-abolitionists looked at the sex industry from a feminist perspective, claiming that workers were victims caught in a patriarchal matrix. Yet both agreed that the industry was a destructive and corrupting force that should be eliminated.

In this radical volume, five academics and activists convey their vision of prostitution as work, reclaiming the place of sex workers in the discussion of their lives and their work, and opposing discourses that position them as merely victims without.