Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition

Rating:
Summary: Global Sex Wokers
Review: Global Sex Workers is a series of pieces by a variety of authors on sex worker issues around the globe. The term "sex workers" has been used deliberately by the editors and contributors, as it emphaises the work in sex work and to some extent avoids the stigmatization associated with the term "prostitute". The editors and contributors' perspective on sex work is radical in its opposition to traditional ways of approaching the question. Rather than advocating abolition of prostitution because prostitution always violates women's rights, the contributors take a more nuanced approach, acknowledging that some sex work takes place in conditions of oppression and indeed slavery, but that much does not. Furthermore, crimialization of sex workers, their clients and those associated with sex work (eg pimps and madams) hamrs the women involved in sex work, although such laws are often said to be for the benefit of sex workers.

The book exmines a variety of issues in the area of sex work - theoretical approaches to sex work; migration of women for sex work; sex tourism; sex workers' organizations; and issues of AIDS prevention and sex workers' empowerment. The chief virtues of the book are twofold: first, its global perspective is refreshing, in a debate that has so often centered on the experiences of sex workers in the west; and second, the focus on sex workers' organizations themselves. Much that is written about prostitution ignores the voices of women involved in sex work, and it is good to see that trend being countered in this book.

Countires discussed in the book include Japan, Cote d'Iviore, Cuba, the Caribbean countries, Thailand, Ecuador, South Africa, Mexico, India and Malaysia, to name some. The book will be of interest to anyone interested in sex work, though it is probably of most use to academics and activists.

Rating:
Summary: very informative
Review: if you want to learn a little about how prostitution is done in the world, what types of prostitutes are desirable in each part of the world, what conflicts and problems prostitutes faced whether cultural or international, and how prostitutes live, this is the book for you. i gained a lot of knowledge from this book, especially about prostitution in south america. highly recommended