Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor

by Wendy Chapkis

Drawing on more than fifty interviews in both the US and the Netherlands, Wendy Chapkis captures the wide-ranging experiences of women performing erotic labor and offers a complex, multi-faceted depiction of sex work. Her expansive analytic perspective encompasses both a serious examination of international prostitution policy as well as hands-on accounts of contemporary commercial sexual practices. Scholarly, but never simply academic, this book is explicitly grounded in a concern for how competing political discourses work concretely in the world--to frame policy and define perceptions of AIDS, to mobilize women into opposing camps, to silence some agendas and to promote others.

Genres: Sex Work, Nonfiction, Feminism, Academic, Womens, Gender Studies

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 1996

About the author

Dr. Chapkis is the author of many articles in the area of gender and sexuality including “Sex Workers” (in the anthology "New Sexuality Studies," Seidman, Fischer and Meeks, eds., Routledge 2007), "Soft Glove, Punishing Fist: the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000" (in the anthology "Regulating Sex," Bernstein and Schaffner eds, Routledge 2004), "Trafficking, Migration, and the Law: Protecting Innocents, Punishing Immigrants," (in the journal "Gender & Society," 2003), and "Power and Control in the Commercial Sex Trade," (in the anthology "Sex For Sale", Weitzer ed., Routledge 2000). She has also edited two anthologies ("Loaded Questions: women in the military," and "Of Common Cloth: women in the global textile industry," co-edited with Cynthia Enloe, both published in the 1980s by TNI/IPS) and has authored two books in the area of gender and sexuality ("Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor," Routledge 1997 and "Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance," South End Press 1986).

Research Interests
My current research is in the area of drug policy; in this field, I have published several articles including "Cannabis, Consciousness and Healing" (in the journal "Contemporary Justice Review," 2007), "Mother's Milk and the Muffin Man: grassroots innovations in medical marijuana delivery systems" (co-authored by Richard J. Webb and published in the journal of "Ethnicity in Substance Abuse,'" 2005) and “Patients, ‘Potheads,’ and Dying to Get High” (in the anthology "Production of Reality," Jodi O’Brien ed., Pine Forge Press 2006). I am also the co-author (with Richard J. Webb) of the book "Dying to Get High: marijuana as medicine" (New York University Press 2008).

Reviews

[Jamie Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatest strength of Chapkis' book lies in its balance. The theoretical and political dissection of prostitution, feminism and the "take back the night" activism is brilliantly coupled with testimonies from active and historic workers that lend a practicality to the arguments. It makes the issues raised less sensational and the prostitute themself less mythic (or monolithic).

When discussing any form of sex work something as simple as a street prostitute explaining it's hard to work in winter weather is just as important as Marxism.

[Lauren Levitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated this book for its diversity of perspectives, but it was methodologically confusing. Although it is based on ethnographic research by Chapkis, each chapter consists of an introduction by Chapkis followed by several texts attributed to individuals or organizations with some relationship to the sex industry. It was unclear if these texts were the result of interviews and if so how they were composed. Also, I was a little put off by the fact that Chapkis turned a couple of tricks just to see what it was like. I understand her motivation, but it seemed a little too much like academic tourism to me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor (Paperback)
by Wendy Chapkis

Ill ordered from the library this date
AUTHOR INTERVIEWED ON program #39-19 WINGS (originally released 32-98) jAN 14 2020
wingsradio.org

Contents: Sect. I. Sex Wars. 1. The Meaning of Sex. 2. Sexual Slavery -- Sect. II. Working It. 3. The Emotional Labor of Sex. 4. Locating Difference -- Sect. III. Strategic Responses. 5. Prohibition and Informal Tolerance. 6. Legalization, Regulation, and Licensing. 7. Sex Worker Self-Advocacy. 8. Compromising Positions. Afterword: Researcher Goes Bad and Pays for It.

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enter the world of academia as it specifically relates to women's sexuality and sexual rights. Wendy Chapkis writes about women who voluntarily enter into the "erotic labor" industry. In America, especially, we hear of the sex work business and immediately associate it with trafficking and illegal immigrants. We're very wrong in that assumption. There are many women (and men) who chose to work in this industry without being forced or threatened into it. However, Wendy also addresses those who are forced and threatened into staying in the sex work industry. She explores outside of the United States, taking us to the Netherlands, to hear from women whose lives are controlled by the industry.

The first chapter of the book, before she got to the stories, nearly killed me. She discussed the various feminist viewpoints on sex work. Each side had gaping flaws in their logic and rhetoric. One side of the feminist movement, who was antipornography, went as far as to say that "all sex is a form of male domination." Not a qualified statement; the word "some" may have made this more plausible. Instead, they use the word "all." Reading through these flaws arguments from women who've never walked a step in a sex worker's shoes infuriated me. They were so judgemental that it was hard not to skip the entire chapter.

Aside from this, I loved this book and would really recommend it for anyone studying women sexuality or sex work, specifically those working within human trafficking.

[amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book outlining a variety of issues in sexwork from an open-minded feminist standpoint. Sex work is not viewed as a naughty or disparaged type of work. Highly recommended for folks who are not clear on the details and realities of sex work. I used this book for my thesis on sexworker activism.

[Melis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one for a class on sex and culture in San Francisco. It was all about the lives of women in this industry. Very interesting.