Customer Reviews

Whores and Other Feminists

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a journalist from the San Francisco area who knows nearly half of this book's authors, as a lifelong feminist, and as a sexworker for over 20 years, my perspective is widely encompassing. This book expands the boundaries of feminism beyond the conservative boundaries of the women's movement of the Seventies. After decades of the bipolar assault on womens' sexuality, from Andrea Dworkin to Phyllis Schaffly -- two sides of the same conservative coin -- it is refreshing to see a new generation of women not only claiming their own bodies but also taking charge of them. This book helps give them a voice.

Certainly, there are sad cases in the adult industry, and perhaps some of them do end up in sexwork because of a difficult past, yet to suggest there would be few sexworkers if every woman in America were happy and well-adjusted is a fallacy in logic. I have personally known many brilliant, self-actualized women who have done and continue to do sexwork. You'll find some of them in the pages of this book.

I can easily understand the negative reviews, however. Many Americans are so rooted in the Puritanical yet hedonist nature of our culture, there is a prevalent sexual ambivalence in our society: we're fascinated and titillated by sex, yet also afraid of it. We're simultaneously obsessed and fascinated with bodies (ours and others') yet also ashamed of them. Then there are the reviews clearly sent by female Rush Limbaugh "dittoheads" -- people who use the word "feminazi" with a straight face and secretly believe a woman is a second class citizen. Forgive them, Mother, they know not what they say.

This is an excellent book on sexwork as the new radical, leading edge of feminism, and I highly recommend it to any woman (or man) with an open mind who isn't afraid to think for herself.

As a college student studying American cultural studies and emerging feminist discourses, I found this book to be an important and must read for any feminist regardless of their position on the issue of sex work and feminism. After reading this book, I am interested in learning more about feminist theory and how it relates to sex work. Jill Nagle compiles a various assortment of different kinds of sex work from stripping, to S&M, to phone sex operators. As a woman, as a feminist, as a man, as a critical reader, as a sexual being, please do read this book. highly recommended!

I am mystified by some of the negative customer reviews of this book. Jill Nagle's anthology of essays across the sex worker theme did nothing short of smash every stereotype I had ever held about prostitutes, exotic dancers and other sex workers. These stereotypes have undoubtedly been created by the alternate over-glamorous and sub-realist portrayals from Hollywood. While any critically thinking reader will understand that Nagle doesn't cover the seedy underbelly of child prostitution and harmful sex services, what she shows is voluntary sex work on an equal par with any other skilled profession, though with a healthy dose of self-reflection, feminism and personal growth on the part of the workers themselves. I probably bought five additional copies to send to friends. It's an eye-opener.

What is most fascinating about the war for sexual equality is that sex itself is the principle battlefield. The average American male idolizes Hugh Hefner for having seven girl friends all one-third his age and enjoying a lavish life style that was paid for by the fleshy attributes, surgically enhanced and otherwise, of thousands of women. Yet if a woman claims to have had hundreds of sexual partners and profited from those ventures, she's a social outcast whose potential husbands or boyfriends are silently held to "you're not going to get serious about her, are you?" As far back as the middle 18th Century, the most lascivious of the mainstream women's rights campaigners, Wicked Victoria Woodhull, who coined the term Free Love, was written out of feminist history by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as an embarrassment to the more serious elements of the struggle. Jill Nagle's book challenges the debate on its most fundamental playing field: is sex part of sexual equality? Is profiting from and enjoying one's sexual skills and powers only a male option? This book is funny, entertaining, sexy, provocative, uncompromising and above all, marvelously intelligent and insightful. Yes, that woman in the Eros Guide ad has a master's degree and finds more freedom, fun, and financial gain in tying up and spanking the bank president than she once had fetching his coffee and dodging his ass-grabbing. Really, not all women who strut about in high heels and nothing else at the Mitchell Brothers theater are the victims of sexual abuse. And yes, if a woman has the right to say no, she has the right to say yes to whatever might feel good and look good and accept the array of consequences without selling out anyone else's political expectations. I loved this book: any man who feels threatened by smart, sexy, independent women has missed the best of them. Read and enjoy, and while you're at it, learn a few things. It will stay on my book shelf for a long time. James Dalessandro, author/screenwriter, Bohemian Heart, 1906

The contributors to this book are more than "feminists"; more specifically, these women are capable, intelligent, articulate feminists who have chosen the sex industry over all the other "legitimate" fields for which they are equally qualified.

Who hasn't imagined, even once, that it might be interesting to be an expensive call girl, or a giver of healing erotic massage, or a sexy actor in porn movies? The women in this book have made these types of sex work (and many more) into careers, and it's fascinating to read their experienced take on the sex industry and on American cultural attitudes. If you've ever been curious about sex work and sex workers, Jill Nagle's book is for you.

The perspectives presented in Nagle's revolutionary book made me re-think a lot of my politically correct feminist assumptions. I realized that perhaps prostitutes are not victims. In fact, they may possibly be the most empowered women of all. Men are charged for every minute they spend with them, the smart ones carefully screen their clients, and they don't sugarcoat the services they provide with dishonest romantic rhetoric.
I was left with the astonishing conclusion that misogyny's victims are most often housewives, mistresses and girlfriends. These women allow men free access to their bodies, while often serving as maids, cooks, nurturers, escorts, masseuses and companions. Whores prove that a woman's time and sexual attention has real and significant economic value.
This book is a must read for any critical thinker. It will change you.

I am a firm believer that anyone involved in the politics of sex work (pro or con) would benefit from reading this book. The writing in this collection puts a human face and name to what often gets boiled down to semantics and political warfare. These stories and essays are all well written, personal and provide the reader with an easy familiarity and way to feel some empathy where, that might not have existed before. In a society where sex as commerce pervades almost every corner of our lives, it's easy to simply sit back and judge without any understanding of the people involved. In sum this is a fantastic book my hat off to editor Jill Nagle.

'Whores and Other Feminists' profoundly altered and enhanced my life, helped me on my path, and has continued to give me inspiration in the six years since I first picked it up. This book has been invaluable to me, and still holds a holy place in my mind when I think of my career, passions, and influences. I had a stern talking to from a 'concerned' female gynocolgist when she found me reading it in the waiting room (she recommended I read Andrea Dworkin.) I bonded with my former best friend, the first other ho I met when I moved to SF, over our similar experience of revelation and realization when we read this book. I have recommended it to many intimate partners (and colleagues) over the past six years, to give them insight into my feelings and ethics and motivations regarding work. This is a seminal work of the literate, politically-conscious, sex workers' library. So thank you, Jill Nagle, a million times, for that.

This collection of works from people who have actually experienced the world of sex work appears to give the rest of us a clear, true glimpse into the lives of these sex workers. After reading this book, I found that my conceptions of whores and other sex workers was completely changed. The writing is sincere, explanatory, easy-to-read, and so on: in fact, the writing itself proves that prostitutes and strippers aren't the uneducated, low-class women that society says they are.

For years I've considered myself to be a freak of sorts: I consider myself to be a feminist and a strong, secure woman who has a positive self and body image, yet, at the same time, I've wanted to strip. Not for money, but for my own enjoyment. In this book, it's explained that there is room for all of us in the feminist movement. It's about time that we as women stop demonizing men and begin to understand that women can be whores or porn stars, or stripers an not be an automatic victim. I found this book to be VERY refreshing.