Portal:Sex work

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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

A stripper performing with tips she has received (Miami, 2009)

A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events.

Modern forms of stripping minimize the interaction of strippers with customers, reducing the importance of the tease in the performance in favor of speed of undress (the strip). Not all strippers are comfortable dancing topless or fully nude, but in general, full nudity is common where not prohibited by law. The integration of the burlesque pole as a frequently used prop has shifted the emphasis in the performance toward a more acrobatic, explicit form of expression compared to the slow-developing burlesque style. Most strippers work in strip clubs. A house dancer works for a particular club or franchise, while a feature dancer typically has her own celebrity, touring a club circuit and making appearances. Strippers are often not direct employees of clubs but instead perform as independent contractors.

Before the 1970s, strippers in Western cultures were almost invariably female, performing to male audiences, usually in strip clubs. At the same time, strippers of all genders were dancing in underground clubs or as part of a theatre experience. Since the 1970s, mainstream stripping has adopted a greater gender diversity and male strippers have become an established form of entertainment for female audiences. Their performances are usually fully choreographed, involving dance routines and costumes. Certain male and female strippers also perform for LGBT audiences as well as for all genders in bisexual contexts. The term "male stripper" has decreased in use in books published in the 21st century. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Selected images

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

Related portals

Selected general sex worker

Image 1
Phyllis Dixey (10 February 1914 – 2 June 1964) was an English singer, actress, dancer and impresario. Her earlier career was as a singer in variety shows in Britain. During World War II, she joined ENSA and entertained the British forces. She sang, recited and posed in naked tableaux which were very popular. (Full article...)
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Smith in 2003

Vickie Lynn Marshall (née Hogan, November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007), known professionally as Anna Nicole Smith, was an American model, actress, and television personality. Smith started her career as a Playboy magazine centerfold in May 1992 and won the title of 1993 Playmate of the Year. She later modeled for fashion companies, including Guess, H&M, Lane Bryant, Conair, and Heatherette.

Smith dropped out of high school in 1984, married in 1985, and divorced in 1993. In 1994, her highly publicized second marriage to 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall resulted in speculation that she married him for his money, which she denied. Following Marshall's death in 1995, Smith began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate. Her cases reached the Supreme Court of the United States: Marshall v. Marshall on a question of federal jurisdiction and Stern v. Marshall on a question of bankruptcy court authority. Smith died in February 2007 in Hollywood, Florida, of a combined drug intoxication. (Full article...)
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Tyson in 2005

Tiger Tyson is an American actor in gay pornographic films. (Full article...)
Image 4

DaBone at the 2011 XRCO Awards in Hollywood, California

Dale DaBone (born January 8, 1972) is an American pornographic actor and director. He has appeared in more than 500 adult movies.

DaBone started in the adult film industry in 1998. DaBone had stepped away from the industry in 2003 and returned to the adult industry in 2010. (Full article...)
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Remy LaCroix is an American pornographic actress. She won the 2013 AVN Award for Best New Starlet and the 2014 AVN Award for Best Actress and the 2014 XRCO Award for Female Performer of the Year. (Full article...)
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Rebecca More (born 7 August 1980) is an English pornographic actress and model. More began her pornographic career in 2010, and went on to appear in an array of films for various different studios until her retirement from mainstream pornography in 2023. She found internet fame in October 2018 after she and fellow porn star Sophie Anderson, who branded themselves "The Cock Destroyers", posted a video that went viral. Both her and Anderson's videos have become memes and the pair have subsequently been regarded as "gay icons". (Full article...)
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Maud Allan (born as either Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant; 27 August 1873 – 7 October 1956) was a Canadian dancer, chiefly noted for her Dance of the Seven Veils. Though not perceived as an accomplished dancer, she performed in Oscar Wilde's play Salome, dancing the title role topless, which garnered great attention. During World War I, she sued a British MP for libel against allegations that she was a lesbian and that German agents were using her sexual orientation as grounds to blackmail her into spying for them on the British government. She was unsuccessful. The trial resurrected public disapproval of Oscar Wilde, whose own failed libel trial had initiated his arrest, conviction and imprisonment for sodomy two decades earlier. (Full article...)
Image 8

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...)
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Wesley Lawrence (born January 20, 1969), better known by his stage name Wesley Pipes, is a retired American pornographic actor. (Full article...)
Image 10

Ferrari in front of the poster of Mother Courage and Her Children during the making of Camping Cosmos, 1995

Lolo Ferrari (born Ève Valois; 9 February 1963 – 5 March 2000), was a French dancer, actress, and singer billed as "the woman with the largest breast implants in the world".

She entered the international limelight in 1995, appearing in the French Guinness Book of World Records in 1996 and 1999. Her death in 2000 was ruled a suicide, but suspicions remained that her husband may have been involved, though he was officially cleared in 2007. (Full article...)
Image 11

Little Caprice in 2017

Markéta Štroblová, known professionally as Little Caprice, is a Czech pornographic film actress. Štroblová has won the AVN Award for Female Foreign Performer of the Year three times in 2020, 2022, and 2023. (Full article...)
Image 12

Amber Lynn at the 50th anniversary screening of "Deep Throat".

Amber Lynn (born Laura Lynn Allen; September 3, 1964) is an American pornographic film actress and mainstream actress, radio host, model, exotic dancer, advocate and humanitarian. (Full article...)
Image 13

Crane on the set of Naked Hollywood, June 20, 2001

Anthony Crane (born March 28, 1963) is an American former pornographic actor. (Full article...)
Image 14

David Aaron Clark and friends

David Aaron Clark (September 5, 1960 – November 28, 2009) was an author, musician, pornographic actor, and pornographic video director. (Full article...)
Image 15
John Anthony Bailey (born June 4, 1947 – died November 13, 1994), also known as Jack Baker, was an American actor. (Full article...)
Image 16

Tai in Las Vegas, January 2000

Kobe Tai is an American pornographic actress. (Full article...)
Image 17

Chad Jason Hull (January 20, 1973 – December 16, 2012), better known as Josh Weston, was an American pornographic actor who appeared in gay pornographic films and magazines. (Full article...)
Image 18
Claudine Beccarie (born 14 June 1945) is a French pornographic actress of the 1970s. She has been called "the French Linda Lovelace" and she was described by The New York Times as being "one of France's most successful pornography performers." (Full article...)
Image 19

Morgan in 2017

Katie Morgan is an American pornographic actress. (Full article...)
Image 20
Bobby Hollander (April 20, 1929 – March 7, 2002) was an American adult film director, performer, and magazine publisher. He directed 59 pornographic movies between 1979 and 1995. He was one of the pioneers of the shot-on-video porn movie. Hollander was most famous for discovering and managing porn superstar Shauna Grant. He is a member of the XRCO Hall of Fame. (Full article...)
Image 21

Brooke Magnanti on 7 June 2010

Brooke Magnanti (born 5 November 1975) is an American-born naturalised British former research scientist, blogger, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November 2009, was known by the pen name Belle de Jour. While completing her doctoral studies, between 2003 and 2004, Magnanti supplemented her income by working as a London call girl known by the working name Taro.

Her diary, published as the anonymous blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl, became increasingly popular as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour. Remaining anonymous, Magnanti went on to have her experiences published as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2005 and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2006. Her first two books were UK top 10 best-sellers in the nonfiction hardback and nonfiction paperback lists. (Full article...)
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Patrícia Kimberly in 2010

Patrícia Kimberly (born 6 January 1984) is a Brazilian sex worker. (Full article...)
Image 23

Nomar in 2011

Ramon Nomar (born 9 January 1974) is a Venezuelan-born Spanish pornographic actor and director. His accolades include the Hot d'Or Award for Best New Actor and the XBIZ Award for Male Performer of the Year. Nomar broke into the pornographic film industry after being discovered by Italian director Luca Damiano at a casting contest. He has worked with pornographic film producers Reality Kings, Brazzers and New Sensation.

Nomar eventually broke into both the European and U.S. industries. He is one of the most popular actors in the porn industry. He has stated in the past that he had always been in favor of well-scripted features as opposed to gonzo pornography, although he had no objections to appearing in films of either style. (Full article...)
Image 24
Emese Sáfrány (born 6 August 1988), known by her stage name Aleska Diamond, is a Hungarian acrobat, instructor, former pornographic actress, and former call girl. She won the AVN Award for female foreign performer of the year in 2012 and 2013. (Full article...)
Image 25

Princess Donna at the 2011 AVN Awards

Princess Donna is the stage name of the American pornographic actress and director also known as Donna Dolore. She was director of Wired Pussy and founder of Public Disgrace and Bound Gang Bang, all Kink.com brands.

She majored in gender and sexuality studies and photography at New York University. While there, she began working as a stripper, and began doing professional BDSM shoots following a coworker's recommendation. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... 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?
... that the posthumously released documentary Clean centered on the life of Sandra Pankhurst, a former sex worker, drag queen, and crime scene cleaner?