Sex Work in Popular Culture

“Provocative and compelling, this timely book offers a vital new lens for understanding sex work in the twenty-first century. Interviews with sex workers and their representation in a host of popular films and television series form the spine of Kirshner’s incisive feminist analysis. Kirshner’s luminous prose disentangles the sex worker from the quagmire of ‘whorephobia,’ constructing sex work as legitimate labour, demanding rights and safe conditions, and representing the sex worker as a proud professional.” Gail Vanstone, Associate Professor of Humanities, York University

“This beautifully written book treads new ground. Lauren Kirshner has crafted a seamless narrative that puts the structural in conversation with shifting pop culture presentations. Throughout, a nuanced critical eye is cast and concepts are deftly deployed to shed light on representational nuance at the same time as socially entrenched stigmatic assumptions about who sex workers are and what they do are put to rest; the result is a book that is exceptionally accessible, enlightening, and profoundly thought-provoking. A must-read for anyone interested in sex work or popular culture.”  Chris Bruckert, Professor of Criminology, University of Ottawa

“Lauren Kirshner heralds the arrival of a new protagonist in pop culture: the sex worker whose working conditions and labour dynamics are core to the story. Meticulously researched and theorized through a feminist labour lens, Kirshner’s incisive analysis traces a decisive shift in representations of sex work on the screen: from victim to worker navigating the capitalist grind in a time of economic crisis, job precarity, and growing labour solidarity.” Nicole S. Cohen, Associate Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology (ICCIT), University of Toronto