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Working Sex: Sex Workers Write About a Changing Industry

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In our sophisticated society there is still a dirty secret and it is the hidden sex world.

Annie Oakley in Working Sex: Sex Workers Write about a Changing Industry attempts to capture the voices of those working in the sex industry. Demands for taboos, fetishes, and straight sex are found in the sex trade from strip clubs, massage parlors and prostitutes.

This book is a fascinating peek with their world in with their own words of what is too often ignored. This quick read composed of a long list of contributors take some of the glamour away from the sex trade and shed light to the business aspects. Money makes the world go `round and that is exactly what you will find between the sheets.

Check out Working Sex: Sex Workers Write about a Changing Industry by Annie Oakley and voyeur into the changing sex industry.

Working Sex: Sex Workers Write about a Changing Industry is a collection of 30 stories written by sex workers. The book is 301 pages long which means each story is about ten pages long. The stories included are written by males and females as well as prostitutes who work on street corners and those who work through the telephone. There's also some mention of web sex workers as well.

The collection of stories really varies. For the most part, the stories are written in prose, but there are also stories included that are written as poetry as well as even a short play. I felt like the stories included in this collection were pretty emotional. I was really looking forward to reading about real experiences in the sex worker industry, but while I feel like I learned a lot about each individual experience, I don't feel like I really got a good grip on the sex worker industry in general. I was really hoping to get realistic information on the sex worker industry. Instead, I feel like I had a diary-like look into the sex worker's personal life.

It was definitely entertaining though. I found myself always wanting to read the next story. The stories are so widely varied that each story really shows you a different side to the sex worker. It made me realize that the sex industry isn't always as horrible as the media makes it out to be. I'm still glad that I read the book, and it was entertaining, but I really wish I had a better understanding of the sex trade, and this book didn't provide that.'

The body of work that comprises Annie Oakley's Working Sex is really a mixed bag - and not necessarily what the subtitle and back cover promise. Within the volume Oakley has included a wide range of literary genres that moves beyond the expected personal accounts to short stories, rants, poetry, a short play, and even an interview with a political advocate of women in the sex industry. When I purchased the volume I expected to find a collection of nonfiction work focused on different experiences and viewpoints of individuals working in the sex industry, and instead found that many of the authors included seem to be using their experience as sex professionals as an excuse to write material that would otherwise find little audience. As such, most of the material is greatly lacking in merit, and does not have the strength of reality and first-person narration to support the lack of effort. In general, most of the collection is simply bad writing: bad poetry, pointless ranting, and armature stories.

However, not all of the material is mediocre. There are several strong essays and stories included within the work, including Annie Oakley's own introduction and Siobhan Brooks' "An Interview with Gloria Lockett ", that make a reading of the volume worthwhile. As a complete collection I find Working Sex to be wanting, and a reader's enjoyment will really come down to each individual work.

A trip down into the backwoods entering into a thought provoking revolution all penned by extremely fascinating artists!