Sex Work in a Digital Era: Research on Online Sex Workers

• In Event: 306 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Sex and the Internet

Abstract

In recent years scholars have begun to investigate the role of digital technologies, namely the internet, in facilitating a growth in sexual commerce. Recent studies investigate the ways the internet shapes the experiences of sex workers and how sex workers use the internet to maximize profits and reduce risk exposure. Generally, much of the literature on sex workers, especially prostitutes, is framed by gendered discourses that depict female sex workers as victims and male sex workers as “vectors of disease transmission” or predators. Thus, the literature on online sex workers generally presents the internet as an affordance that either helps to keep women safe and/or minimizes disease transmission among men—which advances the political goals of the rescue industry. This article discusses the limitations of this literature and makes eight specific suggestions for future lines of inquiry.

Author

• Angela Jones, State University of New York-Farmingdale College