Drawing on more than fifty interviews in both the US and the Netherlands, Wendy Chapkis captures the wide-ranging experiences of women performing erotic labor and offers a complex, multi-faceted depiction of sex work. Her expansive analytic perspective encompasses both a serious examination of international prostitution policy as well as hands-on accounts of contemporary commercial sexual practices. Scholarly, but never simply academic, this book is explicitly grounded in a concern for how competing political discourses work concretely in the world--to frame policy and define perceptions of AIDS, to mobilize women into opposing camps, to silence some agendas and to promote others.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Commercial sex has long been a troublesome issue for feminists. Chapkis, a sociologist and author of Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance, is a self-professed champion of the rights of prostitutes and pornographers. This sets her at odds with those who are opposed to women's participation in "erotic labor" on the grounds that it exploits them. Here, she conducts 50-plus unstructured interviews with women in the trade between 1986 and 1995 in the Netherlands and in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, Calif.?all places where Chapkis lived. The author notes that she reprints fewer than half the interviews, which may reveal a great deal more about Chapkis than about her subjects. The book is shaped into seven main chapters, each with an academic essay about some aspect of the sex trade followed by two or more edited, but graphic, interviews with women in the sex business. The interviewees included "call girls, escort workers, pornography actresses and models, brothel workers, exotic dancers, peep show workers, phone sex workers, street workers, and window prostitutes." Chapkis also personally experimented with buying and selling sex to experience the transactions. Eight black-and-white photos of professional women add to the gritty and realistic, rather than erotic, tone of the book. It is part sociology and part journalism, with a polemic on the rights of women in the commercial-sex business running throughout. The mix doesn't work well, and will likely disappoint the possible audiences interested in sociology, journalism or polemic.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"...Chapkis is an exceedingly purposeful and interesting writer. Her discourse...is often amusing and never boring..." -- Lesbian Review of Books
"...a page-turner, sparkling with insight and with the surprising voices of prostitutes themselves..." -- Dissident
"...aims to change the tone of the feminist sex debates, bridging the daunting gaps between such such self-identified feminists as Kathleen Barry, Andrea Dworkin, Pat Califia and Camille Paglia." -- Ms. Magazine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"...a page-turner, sparkling with insight and with the surprising voices of prostitutes themselves..." -- Dissident
"...aims to change the tone of the feminist sex debates, bridging the daunting gaps between such such self-identified feminists as Kathleen Barry, Andrea Dworkin, Pat Califia and Camille Paglia." -- Ms. Magazine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Chapkis in her book "Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labour" does an excellent job exploring the often complex experiences of women who perform erotic labor. She gives a careful and sensitive analysis, not falling into the trap of romanticisng their lives or disregarding their experiences. This is a truly excellent book. Which is theoretically complex and includes women's experiences in their own words. I loved it.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For anyone who hasn't enjoyed this book, all I can say is that you probably haven't met many of the women whose stories are cited in here. I have, and I find them well represented. Chapkis doesn't drown out their voices the way so many other scholars have. She begins by tracing the debates concerning sex work, which is helpful for people new to the topic. She then develops her own argument (see editor's review) and concludes with a personal story on how she discovered her own sexual pleasure. I found it informative and touching, even though I've been doing similar field work on sex workers for the past four years.
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I LOVED this book! I've been in the sex trade ever since college, and found the book to be absolutely insightful and fascinating. It is NOT a "a suger-coated [sic] way of talking about prostitution", but a very accurate representation of the business--at least for those among us who choose to be empowered rather than exploited. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone considering entering the sex trade, or to anyone curious about the reality of sex work.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Finally, A Book That Represents Both Sides of the Debate
The intro to this book presents a clear, concise account of contemporary feminist perspectives on sex work, ranging from the adamantly anti to the decidedly pro (no pun intended). Read more
Published on April 2, 2002
A REAL NO BRAINER!....
I READ THIS BOOK OUT OF CURIOUSITY AND I WAS HOPING TO GET AFEW POINTERS ......WHAT A WASTE OF TIME- EVERYTHING MENTIONED IN THISBOOK IS .... Read more
Published on March 20, 2001 by Angel
THIS BOOK DESERVES ZERO STARS
This book covers feminist debates on sex issues and it covers stories about prostitution and adult entertainment. It contains many interviews, but they are all bascially the same. Read more
Published on March 16, 2001
STUPIDITY AT IT'S FINEST.
I cannot imagine who would find this book educational. It talks about women performing different sex acts-WOW! Read more
Published on February 15, 2001 by Angel
A waste of paper
I am a retired stripper and I did a little extra on the side for money. This book is a suger-coated way of talking about prostitution. Read more
Published on December 14, 2000 by Serena Lancaster
EXCELLENT
I rate this book as excellent for someone who seeks to work in the sex business who also wants to understand the negative and positive attributes of this business - as it relates... Read more
Published on August 9, 2000 by AleasureEveMagdalene
It was exciting and interesting.
It was a neat experience for my wife and I. It was also educational
Published on July 19, 1999
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
The sexualization of the female body historically has been a concern for women's rights activists. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
informal decriminalization, migrant prostitutes, erotic labor, prohibitionist policies, real whore, sex workers, street prostitution, emotional labor, sex trade, sexual commerce, commercial sex, prostitution law, prostitution businesses, street prostitutes, sexual slavery Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Red Thread, United States, New York, Annie Sprinkle, Dutch Foundation Against Trafficking, Kathleen Barry, Gloria Lockett, Santa Cruz, Carol Queen, Coalition Against Trafficking, Licia Brussa, Mitchell Brothers, Pat Califia, Western Europe, African American, Graaf Foundation, Las Vegas, New South Wales, New Zealand, Priscilla Alexander, World Whores Congress, European Community, Locating Diffcrcncc, Margot Alvarez New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The sexualization of the female body historically has been a concern for women's rights activists. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
informal decriminalization, migrant prostitutes, erotic labor, prohibitionist policies, real whore, sex workers, street prostitution, emotional labor, sex trade, sexual commerce, commercial sex, prostitution law, prostitution businesses, street prostitutes, sexual slavery Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Red Thread, United States, New York, Annie Sprinkle, Dutch Foundation Against Trafficking, Kathleen Barry, Gloria Lockett, Santa Cruz, Carol Queen, Coalition Against Trafficking, Licia Brussa, Mitchell Brothers, Pat Califia, Western Europe, African American, Graaf Foundation, Las Vegas, New South Wales, New Zealand, Priscilla Alexander, World Whores Congress, European Community, Locating Diffcrcncc, Margot Alvarez New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 45
books:
See all 45 books this book cites
32
books
cite this book:
See all 32 books citing this book
- Female Sexual Slavery by Kathleen L. Barry on page 46, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Pornography and Silence by Susan Griffin on page 9, and Back Matter
- The Traffic in Women and Other Essays on Feminism by Emma Goldman in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Coming Attractions: The Making of an X-Rated Video by Robert J. Stoller in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman in Back Matter
See all 45 books this book cites
- Sex For Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry by Ronald Weitzer on 4 pages
- Reconcilable Differences: Confronting Beauty, Pornography, and the Future of Feminism by Lynn S. Chancer on 4 pages
- Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition by Kamala Kempadoo in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Sexing the Caribbean: Gender, Race and Sexual Labor by Kamala Kempadoo in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization (Advances in Heterodox Economics) by Drucilla Barker in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 32 books citing this book
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