Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry [Hardcover]

James Ridgeway (Author), Sylvia Plachy (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1996

Every day thousands of ordinary people go to work in an industry whose busines is sex. Red Light showcases the work of photographer Sylvia Plachy and journalist James Ridgeway, who uncover this world through the eyes of the people who work in it, revealing a story of "sex in America" from a new and honest point of view. Photos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sylvia Plachy, a photographer for the Village Voice, and James Ridgeway, a reporter for the same publication, have delved into the depths of the pornography trade to explore and explain both its allure and its vulgarity. There is a sense of shock value in exposing the most lurid of fantasies--a man who has his dominatrix mummify him in concrete--that is tempered with theories as to how such an industry could have evolved. We also get to meet for ourselves those in the trade, providing a walk on the wild side within the safe confines of photographs and words.

From Publishers Weekly

The sex industry, declares Village Voice Washington correspondent Ridgeway, is an agent of social control, a safety valve for a repressed, confused patriarchal culture that transforms the hunger for sex and power into a commercial product laden with worn-out male fantasies of a prefeminist world. This survey of the sex business combines Ridgeway's essay incorporating strenuously nonjudgmental interviews with prostitutes, porn-video makers, actors, strippers, topless dancers, a dominatrix and other sex workers in the New York metropolitan area with arty, often explicit photographs by Village Voice staff photographer Plachy. Some interviewees speak of sex work as a socially valuable or personally empowering profession; for others, it's a way to get by. Ridgeway looks askance at an impersonal industry where contact with another human body is increasingly replaced by electronically enhanced onanism, but he is equally critical of the "sex police," by which he means law enforcement agencies, often in league with conservative family-values groups and antiporn activists. With its jazzy layout and garish photos, this volume comes across as a celebration of an arena it purports to analyze.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; 1st edition (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576870006
• ISBN-13: 978-1576870006
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The banality of sex work., June 10, 2000

By 

"strdogmoon" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry (Hardcover)

Published in 1996, "Red Light" is a quick, interesting read that opens a window to the everyday world of New York and New Jersey sex work. Focusing primarily upon different types of prostitution and "exotic" dancing, writer James Ridgeway also touches upon porn films, phone sex, and computer-oriented enterprises. The black and white photos by Sylvia Plachy ably illustrate the world that's being delved into here.

Because "Red Light" was published in '96 the subject of computer oriented work is out of date, but the predictions regarding that arena have turned out to be mostly true. Frustratingly, Ridgeway occasionally makes sweeping or trite generalizations - particularly in the introduction - without presenting information beforehand to bolster his statements. The biggest drawback to this book is that it is geographically focused on New York and New Jersey, which are unique to anywhere else in America. Lastly, while it is often understandable, Ridgeway sometimes uses language that hinders the reader from deciding how he or she feels about a certain situation or person; or he turns the narrative in a negative direction if an interviewee starts to express something positive.

Even so, since I'm interested in human sexuality, our society's dichotomous, hypocritical and confused views on sex, and because I believe in freedom of choice, I thought "Red Light" would provide uncensored insight into the sex worker's life. It did that, though not to the extent I'd hoped. Mr. Ridgeway mainly focuses on the squalid side of the business (e.g. street prostitution and small time go-go dancing), and limiting this exposé to New York and New Jersey says more about the culture of sex work in those areas than it says about sex work everywhere else. However, even within that limited area the authors had their work cut out for them, which they presented in a bold and visceral style that gripped my attention.

"Red Light" will undoubtedly get people to re-evaluate their perceptions of the sex industry. The inherent dynamics of sex work - greed, laziness, male lust, fear, danger, fantasy, and denial - ultimately reveal the banality of commercialized sex.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exploration of the sex industry., July 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry (Paperback)

An excellent survey of all types of sex work, from phone sex, massage parlor, brothel and street prostitution to stripping. The author presents a balanced and readable work. I recommend it highly.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Additional interesting information..., August 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry (Hardcover)

Apparently the book may have hit a little too close to home for some. One of the book's researchers (a dancer in the sex industry) disappeared not too long after the release of the book. It is still unknown if the disappearance was a result of her work on this book or some of her other reasearch in writing about Vampyre Cults. If you ever catch the documentary "Stripped", you can find more of the details there - but it seems fairly certain that foul play was involved. Anyway, just a little interesting fact that may make the book more interesting for some.