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lipsandpalms's review against another edition
3.0
The first-person perspective of many of the stories allows great insight into the taboo subject of the oldest profession. It's amazing how many of the sex workers purport to represent the entire industry but how often the perspectives and stories tend to contradict one another.
The reason I'm giving it 3 stars is that I didn't enjoy the "Scarlot Harlot" narratives which were almost every other story in the book. The writing style seems to be embellished or glorified, like the person writing was describing what they thought an empowered sex worker should sound like rather than the actual thing. A sex worker can be empowered, of course, but it didn't feel genuine; almost like I was reading a cheesy detective romance novel.
Some other parts are a bit laughable, like the idea that sex workers should be as revered as medical doctors. I would love to hear some justifications for that perspective. Massage therapist, maybe, but a medical doctor?
The distinction between raping a sex worker and simply not paying them after the sex is difficult to define. The police are not going to enforce prostitution while it is illegal so the sex workers accuse their Johns of rape because payment was a part of the consent. There isn't a clear answer to this dilemma and I hadn't even considered it until this book.
The reason I'm giving it 3 stars is that I didn't enjoy the "Scarlot Harlot" narratives which were almost every other story in the book. The writing style seems to be embellished or glorified, like the person writing was describing what they thought an empowered sex worker should sound like rather than the actual thing. A sex worker can be empowered, of course, but it didn't feel genuine; almost like I was reading a cheesy detective romance novel.
Some other parts are a bit laughable, like the idea that sex workers should be as revered as medical doctors. I would love to hear some justifications for that perspective. Massage therapist, maybe, but a medical doctor?
The distinction between raping a sex worker and simply not paying them after the sex is difficult to define. The police are not going to enforce prostitution while it is illegal so the sex workers accuse their Johns of rape because payment was a part of the consent. There isn't a clear answer to this dilemma and I hadn't even considered it until this book.
librarylapin's review against another edition
4.0
This book was extremely informative and had a wide variety of perspectives. Although the book came out a while ago, I found it to be very relevant.
leilaniann's review against another edition
4.0
good collection overall, though scarlet harlot's writing is obnoxiously vain.
theverbalthing's review against another edition
5.0
Yes. This book showed up in my recommended readings when I was shopping for the required texts for my TransFeminism class and I fell in love after the first few essays. It offers personal experiences, fictional accounts, and academic analysis of the sex industry and the women who work in it, from their feelings on the work to the way that they're treated to the overall public perception of sex workers. There are feminist accounts, lesbian accounts, poetic accounts, fictionalized accounts, research accounts, and more. I thought this book was absolutely fascinating and I had a very difficult time putting it down, something that isn't always true of collections like this one.
jraley_writes's review against another edition
3.0
I think this is a good book to whet the mind for more discussion and research on sex workers, feminist perspectives, and social policy. Since this was written in the late 1990s I wonder what changes have come about. It was broken up into 3 sections: section 1-stories from sex workers, section 2-a bit of history and policy regarding sex workers/nonsex workers, and section 3-sex workers organizations and policies out there.
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