Selling Sex
Despite being dubbed “the world’s oldest profession,” prostitution has rarely been viewed as a legitimate form of labour. Instead, it is often criminalized, sensationalized, and polemicized across the socio-political spectrum by everyone from politicians to journalists to women’s groups.
In Selling Sex, Emily van der Meulen, Elya M. Durisin, and Victoria Love present a more nuanced, balanced, and realistic view of the sex industry. They bring together a vast collection of voices – including researchers, feminists, academics, and advocates, as well as sex workers of differing ages, genders, and sectors – to engage in a dialogue that challenges the dominant narratives surrounding the sex industry and advances the idea that sex work is in fact work. Presenting a variety of opinions and perspectives on such diverse topics as social stigma, police violence, labour organizing, anti-prostitution feminism, human trafficking, and harm reduction, Selling Sex is an eye-opening, challenging, and necessary book.
Emily van der Meulen is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Ryerson University. Elya M. Durisin is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at York University. Victoria Love is a sex worker, activist, and member of Maggie’s: The Toronto Sex Workers Action Project.
Contributors: Joyce Arthur, Cheryl Auger, Steven Bittle, Chris Bruckert, Jenn Clamen, Deborah Clipperton, Anna-Louise Crago, Susan Davis, Jane Doe, Tor Fletcher, Kara Gillies, Michael Goodyear, Stacey Hannem, Sarah Hunt, JJ, Leslie Ann Jeffrey, Tuulia Law, Annalee Lepp, Jacqueline Lewis, John Lowman, Gayle MacDonald, Karolyn Martin, Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, River Redwood, Rene Ross, Trish Salah, Esther Shannon, Frances M. Shaver, Mariana Valverde, and Alan Young