Portal:Sex work

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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...)

Selected article - show another

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...)

List of selected articles

Selected images

Image 1The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622) (from Prostitution)
Image 2De Wallen red-light district in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
Image 3An Ancient Greek urn depicts a prostitute and her client. (from Sex work)
Image 4Prostitute c. 1890. (from Prostitution)
Image 5A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes (from Prostitution)
Image 6Women in an early San Francisco bordello in 1870 (from Prostitution)
Image 7Fresco from the Pompeii brothel (from Prostitution)
Image 8Statue 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 9A 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 10Femmes de Maison, painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, c. 1893—1895 (from Prostitution)
Image 11Tart cards in a British phone box advertising call girls, 2005 (from Prostitution)
Image 12A prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district talks with a potential customer. (from Prostitution)
Image 13A sex worker in Berlin in 2001 (from Sex work)
Image 14Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan (from Prostitution)
Image 15World map of pornography (18+) laws
  Pornography legal
  Pornography legal under some restrictions
  Pornography illegal
  Data unavailable
(from Sex work)
Image 16Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City (from Sex work)
Image 17Brothel scene; Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Prostitution)
Image 18Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
Image 19
  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 20The red light district in Amsterdam (from Sex work)
Image 21Stickers affixed to a payphone in São Paulo, 2006 (from Prostitution)
Image 22A street prostitute talking to a potential customer in Turin, Italy, 2005 (from Prostitution)
Image 23A 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 24A liberated Chinese girl who had been forced in to sexual slavery by the Japanese military sits on a stretcher and speaks to a British military serviceman. (from Prostitution)
Image 25Kisaeng women from outcast or slave families. (from Prostitution)
Image 26An oiran preparing herself for a client, ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Haronubu (1765) (from Prostitution)
Image 27News report about three brothels operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were raided by police in 1922 (from Prostitution)
Image 28World 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)

Related portals

Selected general sex worker

Image 1

Minako Komukai at Asia Adult Expo 2010
Minako Komukai (Japanese: 小向美奈子, Hepburn: Komukai Minako, born April 27, 1985 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese gravure model, actress, erotic dancer and AV idol. (Full article...)
Image 2
Barbara Dare (born February 27, 1963) is an American former pornographic actress. She was one of the industry's initial contract performers with Essex Video and Vivid Entertainment and is an AVN and XRCO Hall of Fame inductee. (Full article...)
Image 3

Price at the AVN Expo in 2013

Kirsten Price (born November 13, 1981) is an American pornographic actress, model, and feature dancer. (Full article...)
Image 4

Asami at Weekend of Horrors,
in Germany, 2011

Asami Sugiura performed under the name Asami (亜紗美), is a Japanese actress, model, former gravure idol and AV idol. (Full article...)
Image 5

Welles at the 2013 AVN Awards

Tori Welles (born Brittania Carroll Paris on June 17, 1967) is an American former pornographic actress. (Full article...)
Image 6

Kane in January 2005

Candice Caleb (November 13, 1961 – May 6, 2016), known professionally as Candye Kane, was an American blues singer, entertainer and adult film star. She loved to sing as a young girl and even appeared on "The Gong Show," as a kid. She dreamed of a successful music career and did get some music gigs, but worked in the adult entertainment industry briefly in the early to mid 1980s during pornography's golden age to help finance her music career. Candye was recognized as an award-winning singer, songwriter, and performer in the blues and jazz genres. She was included in the books Rolling Stone Guide to Jazz and Blues, Elwood's Blues by Dan Aykroyd, The Blueshound Guide to Blues, AllMusic, and other blues books and periodicals. (Full article...)
Image 7
Emma Jane Evelyn Benton-Hughes (born 1964) known as Eve Vorley is an English football club director and former glamour model, pornographic actress and film director. She is the former partner of West Ham United owner, David Sullivan. Vorley was appointed to the board of West Ham United in January 2021. (Full article...)
Image 8

Wild in 2003

Katalin Vad, better known by her porn star name Michelle Wild [[vad literally means "wild" in Hungarian;]], (born 16 January 1980) is a Hungarian actress and former pornographic actress who worked mainly for Private Media Group (international) and LUXx Video (Hungary). (Full article...)
Image 9

Byron in 2012

Tom Byron (born Thomas Bryan Taliaferro Jr.; April 4, 1961) is an American former pornographic actor, director, and producer. A member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame, he was voted #20 in AVN's list of top 50 pornstars of all time. Byron is also co-founder of Xtreme Professional Wrestling, a wrestling promotion that began in Los Angeles in 1999 and was resurrected in 2019 in Rochester, New York. He continues to work as an editor for XPW TV. (Full article...)
Image 10

Portrait by John de Mirjian, before 1929

Faith Bacon (born Frances Yvonne Bacon; July 19, 1910 – September 26, 1956) was an American burlesque dancer and actress. During the height of her career, she was billed as "America's Most Beautiful Dancer". (Full article...)
Image 11

Ozawa in 2007
Maria Ozawa (Japanese: 小澤マリア, Hepburn: Ozawa Maria, born January 8, 1986) is a Japanese model and a former pornographic film actress of Canadian and Japanese ancestry. Early in her career as a model, she also used the name Miyabi (Japanese: みやび). (Full article...)
Image 12

Marina Lotar in the 1987 film Osceno

Bellis Marina Hedman, also known as Marina Frajese, Marina Lotar and Marina Lothar (born 29 September 1944 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a retired Swedish pornographic and mainstream actress. (Full article...)
Image 13

Banderas attending the XBIZ Awards at Avalon, Hollywood, California, February 2010

Edgard Fabián Etchenique Picardo (born 13 October 1967), known professionally as Marco Banderas, is a Spanish pornographic actor of Uruguayan origin. (Full article...)
Image 14

Cummings at the 2000 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

Dave Cummings (born David Charles Conners, March 13, 1940 – October 5, 2019) was a pornographic actor who billed himself as the "oldest living male pornstar". (Full article...)
Image 15

Drake in 2011

Jessica Drake is an American pornographic actress and sex educator. (Full article...)
Image 16

Ryder at the 2011 AVN Awards show

Dylan Ryder (born February 23, 1981) is a former American pornographic film actress. (Full article...)
Image 17
Angelica Bella (born Gabriella Piroska Mészáros; 15 February 1968 – 7 May 2021) was a Hungarian pornographic actress. She worked primarily and enjoyed her greatest popularity in Italy. (Full article...)
Image 18

Carrera in 2003

Asia Carrera Lemmon (born Jessica Steinhauser, August 6, 1973) is an American former pornographic actress. (Full article...)
Image 19

Olson in 2010

Bree Olson (born October 7, 1986), is an American actress, model, and former pornographic actress. She performed in over 460 pornographic films from 2006 to 2011. Since leaving the adult film industry, she has become critical of the industry for its business practices, and the stigma attached to being a former porn actress. (Full article...)
Image 20

T. T. Boy in June 2005

T. T. Boy (born Phillip Troy Rivera, April 30, 1968) is a Puerto Rican pornographic performer and podcaster. He made his adult video debut in 1988.

He twice won the XRCO Male Performer of the Year award, and was named the 1997 AVN Performer of the Year. In 2000, he was elected to the XRCO Hall of Fame. In 2003, he was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame. He has worked under such names as T.T. Boyd, Max Reynolds, Max Cash, and Butch. (Full article...)
Image 21

Love in 2014

Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989. Love has drawn public attention for her uninhibited live performances and confrontational lyrics, as well as her highly publicized personal life following her marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. In 2020, NME named her one of the most influential singers in alternative culture of the last 30 years.

Love had an itinerant childhood, but was primarily raised in Portland, Oregon, where she played in a series of short-lived bands and was active in the local punk scene. After briefly being in a juvenile hall, she spent a year living in Dublin and Liverpool before returning to the United States and pursuing an acting career. She appeared in supporting roles in the Alex Cox films Sid and Nancy (1986) and Straight to Hell (1987) before forming the band Hole in Los Angeles with guitarist Eric Erlandson. The group received critical acclaim from underground rock press for their 1991 debut album Pretty on the Inside, produced by Kim Gordon, while their second release, Live Through This (1994), was met with critical accolades and multi-platinum sales. In 1995, Love returned to acting, earning a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance as Althea Leasure in Miloš Forman's The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which established her as a mainstream actress. The following year, Hole's third album, Celebrity Skin (1998), was nominated for three Grammy Awards. (Full article...)
Image 22
Grace Elizabeth Stevenson, known professionally as Grace Hyland, is an Australian internet personality and LGBTQ rights activist. Hyland rose to prominence on the social media platform TikTok, and has also amassed a large following on Instagram and OnlyFans. She is the daughter of television actor Mat Stevenson. (Full article...)
Image 23

García in October 2019

Ángel Muñoz García (Spanish: [ˈaŋxel muˈɲoθ ɣaɾˈθia]; born 11 September 1994), better known as by his stage name Jordi "El Niño Polla" (The Dick Boy), often shortened to Jordi ENP, is a Spanish pornographic actor, producer and YouTuber who rose to prominence after working with the production company Brazzers.

In 2018 and 2019, García received the Pornhub Award for Most Popular Male Performer two consecutive years in a row. As of 20 June 2021, his YouTube channel has amassed over 4 million subscribers and 396 million views. (Full article...)
Image 24

Lynn LeMay attending the XRCO Awards in Hollywood on 17 April 2009

Lynn LeMay (born in Tacoma, Washington) is an American pornographic actress. She was also a featured dancer in the U.S. and Europe. In fall 2006, she founded the adult production company LeMayzing Pictures. (Full article...)
Image 25

Benz in 2012

Nikki Benz (born 1981 or 1982) is an American pornographic film actress. She was named the 2011 Penthouse Pet of the Year. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... 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 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"?
... 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?