To browse Academia. Internationally, sex work research, public opinion, policy, laws, and practice are predicated on the assumption that commercial sex is a priori sold by women and bought by men. This is as much an empirical absence as it is a theoretical one, for the ideological claim that women comprise the 'vast majority' of sex workers is rarely, if ever, exposed to empirical scrutiny.
Focusing on the UK, we address this major gap in evidence in order to investigate whether women comprise the 'vast majority' of sex workers. We do so by presenting large-scale data gained from the quantitative analysis of 25, registered member-profiles of an online escort directory.
Our findings demonstrate that women are not alone in selling sexual services: while two-thirds of advertisements self-identify as 'Female', one in four are listed as 'Male'. In addition, less than half list their sexual orientation as 'Straight'; and nearly two-thirds advertised to female clients. Our study thus challenges prevailing heteronormative assumptions about commercial sex, which erase LGBTQ sex workers and other non-normative identities and practices, and which we argue have important political, practical and theoretical consequences.
This paper presents a comprehensive typology of the sex industry based on primary data collected between and for a UK Home Office-funded study. Typologies of the contemporary sex industry in England and Wales have tended to be limited to particular sectors or have been developed from a specific disciplinary perspective or theme e.
Situated in the context of international sex industry typologies, this paper seeks to address this gap. The data was supplemented with insights from a systematic literature search.
