Managing Work-Life Commitments in Legal Prostitution

In this chapter, the authors present data from participants about how legal prostitutes manage work and life boundaries. They argue that work-life management practices are different for stigmatized workers because they must cope with occupational stigma by segmenting work and life realms in acutely distinct ways. The data revealed that work-life boundaries are disciplined by legal mythologies and ambiguities surrounding worker restrictions, occupational ideologies of “work now, life later,” and perceived and experienced effects of community-based stigma. These legal, occupational, and community constructs ultimately privilege organizations’ and external communities’ interests, while individual dirty workers carry the weight of stigma.

Introduction

In Chapter 1, the authors argue that legal sex workers in Nevada experience significant oppression and unfair labor practices. They move beyond traditional feminist arguments about whether or not prostitution is a choice to a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of sex work as an occupation. This chapter explains how the book serves as both an updated resource about the laws and policies which guide legal prostitution in Nevada, and also an intimate look at what life and decision-making is like for women doing sex work. Chapter 1 includes background information on the theoretical lenses which guide the project: the communicative constitution of organizations and feminist standpoint theory. The authors explain how these lenses allow them to privilege the voices of sex workers, and give unique insight into life in the brothels.

Life after the Brothel

This chapter focuses on the voices of ex-legal sex workers and their narratives about their time in brothels, why they decided to leave, and how they view their past lives. The perspectives of former sex workers are often different from the women currently working in the brothels, and thus these reflections present an even more nuanced understanding of life in and out of the brothels. This is a particularly vulnerable population; some of the women have moved on to illegal prostitution while others are currently in non sex-work jobs, trying to conceal their past. The women share detailed stories and perspectives about their lives in the brothels and their current realities after leaving legal prostitution. Rather than presenting their words broken apart into themes, we present each woman, her story and her experiences together so that readers can begin to see what life is like for a few women as holistic beings.

Author Autoethnography

Chapter 5 is an autoethnographic account of author Breanna Mohr’s lived experiences working in a legal brothel. Initially choosing legal prostitution as an occupation when she was in her early twenties, she found brothel work as a way to have freedom to create her own schedule so she could devote more time to getting her undergraduate degree. Mohr discovered her passion for sex work research towards the end of her undergraduate degree and decided to pursue graduate school to continue her research. In this chapter, Mohr analyzes some critical incidents that have shaped her life in the brothel. She reveals the tension felt in negotiating a price for her services and how she grapples with deciding what monetary value is fair, what she deserves, and what she can get from the client. She also reflects on how taking ownership over her sex worker identity in academia has reduced the impact of shame from the societal stigma placed on legal prostitutes. Mohr tells her story with detail and a raw insider perspective of the industry.

Feminisms, Prostitution, and the Sex Trafficking Debates

Chapter 3 addresses the confusing, conflicting, and comingled landscape of sex work research, literature, and popular discourse. First, the authors address the deep divide amongst feminists about prostitution. Long a contentious issue for feminists, we review arguments that all prostitution is violence against women and arguments that prostitution is a viable, potentially empowering occupation. The authors sort through dichotomous positions about whether or not prostitution should be abolished or legalized. Next, they address the controversy between prostitution and trafficking. Currently, the United States is experiencing a moral panic about sex trafficking. An unlikely coalition between scholars and advocacy groups from radical feminism and the Christian right argue that all prostitution is trafficking. The purpose in this chapter is to untangle this conflation. Finally, the authors situate legal prostitution as different from illegal prostitution and legal prostitution in international contexts.