Portal:Sex work

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Introduction

Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to voluntary sexual transactions; thus, the term does not refer to human trafficking and other coerced or nonconsensual sexual transactions such as child prostitution. The transaction must take place between consenting adults of the legal age and mental capacity to consent and must take place without any methods of coercion, other than payment. The term emphasizes the labor and economic implications of this type of work. Furthermore, some prefer the use of the term because it grants more agency to the sellers of these services. (Full article...)

Selected article - show another

An illustration depicting street prostitution

Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penetrative sex, manual sex, oral sex, etc.) with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring infections. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in the field is usually called a prostitute or sex worker, but other words, such as hooker and whore, are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those who work in prostitution. The majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients.

Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within a given country). In most cases, it can be either an enforced crime, an unenforced crime, a decriminalized activity, a legal but unregulated activity, or a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry, along with pornography, stripping, and erotic dancing. Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the client's residence or hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's residence or a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (in-call). Another form is street prostitution.

According to a 2011 report by Fondation Scelles there are about 42 million prostitutes in the world, living all over the world (though most of Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa lack data, studied countries in that large region rank as top sex tourism destinations). Estimates place the annual revenue generated by prostitution worldwide to be over $100 billion. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Selected images

Image 1Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City (from Sex work)
Image 2A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes (from Prostitution)
Image 3A prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district talks with a potential customer. (from Prostitution)
Image 4Prostitute c. 1890. (from Prostitution)
Image 5A liberated Chinese girl who had been forced in to sexual slavery by the Japanese military sits on a stretcher and speaks to a Royal Air Force officer. (from Prostitution)
Image 6Statue to honor the sex workers of the world. Installed March 2007 in Amsterdam, Oudekerksplein, in front of the Oude Kerk, in Amsterdam's red-light district De Wallen. Titled Belle, the inscription to the piece says "Respect sex workers all over the world." (from Prostitution)
Image 7A prostitute and her customer illustrated on an ancient Greek wine cup; the act of prostitution is indicated by the coin purse above the figures. (from Prostitution)
Image 8News report about three brothels operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were raided by police in 1922 (from Prostitution)
Image 9World map of prostitution laws
  Decriminalization – No criminal penalties for prostitution
  Legalization (regulation) – Prostitution legal and regulated
  Abolitionism – Prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated
  Neo-abolitionism (Nordic model) – Illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex
  Prohibitionism – Prostitution illegal in all aspects (selling and buying)
  Legality varies with local laws
(from Sex work)
Image 10Women in an early San Francisco bordello in 1870 (from Prostitution)
Image 11Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
Image 12Tart cards in a British phone box advertising call girls, 2005 (from Prostitution)
Image 13An Ancient Greek urn depicts a prostitute and her client. (from Sex work)
Image 14Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan (from Prostitution)
Image 15A sex worker in Berlin in 2001 (from Sex work)
Image 16An oiran preparing herself for a client, ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Haronubu (1765) (from Prostitution)
Image 17Fresco from the Pompeii brothel (from Prostitution)
Image 18The red light district in Amsterdam (from Sex work)
Image 19Stickers affixed to a payphone in São Paulo, 2006 (from Prostitution)
Image 20
  Legalization – prostitution legal and regulated
  Decriminalization – No criminal penalties for prostitution
  Abolitionism – prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated
  Neo-abolitionism – illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex
  Prohibitionism – prostitution illegal
  Legality varies with local laws
(from Prostitution)
Image 21Brothel scene; Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Prostitution)
Image 22Boat based window prostitute in Utrecht (from Prostitution)
Image 23Femmes de Maison, painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, c. 1893—1895 (from Prostitution)
Image 24Kisaeng women from outcast or slave families. (from Prostitution)
Image 25A detail from plate 1 of William Hogarth's (1697–1764) The Harlot's Progress, showing brothel-keeper Elizabeth Needham, on the right, procuring a young woman who has just arrived in London (from Prostitution)
Image 26The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622) (from Prostitution)

Related portals

Selected general sex worker

Image 1
Wesley Lawrence (born January 20, 1969), better known by his stage name Wesley Pipes, is a retired American pornographic actor. (Full article...)
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Leo Ford (born Leo John Hilgeford; July 5, 1957 – July 17, 1991) was an American pornographic actor who appeared in gay pornographic films and bisexual pornographic movies and magazines in the 1980s. He was born in Dayton, Ohio. (Full article...)
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Nao Saejima (Japanese: 冴島奈緒, Hepburn: Saejima Nao) (March 23, 1968 – September 29, 2012) was a Japanese AV idol and model of the 1980s and 1990s who also starred in photobooks, V-Cinema, and feature films, including Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series. She died in September 2012 of cancer at the age of 44. (Full article...)
Image 4

Julie Meadows (born Lydia Lee; February 3, 1974) is an American writer, web designer and former pornographic actress, who became a documentarian after retiring from the adult film industry. She was active in the industry from 1998 to 2004 and is sometimes said to resemble the actress Julia Stiles. (Full article...)
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Woods in Debbie Does Dallas (1978)

Bambi Woods (born July 12, 1955) is an American former pornographic actress and exotic dancer best known for her appearance as the title character in the 1978 film Debbie Does Dallas. Her meteoric success in the Golden Age of Porn and later disappearance intrigued adult industry writers and caused interest in her whereabouts, and a myth about her having met a sordid fate several years after her heyday began to be accepted as fact. (Full article...)
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Wild in 2003

Katalin Vad (born 16 January 1980), known by her stage name Michelle Wild [[vad literally means "wild" in Hungarian;]], is a Hungarian actress and former pornographic actress who worked mainly for Private Media Group (international) and LUXx Video (Hungary). (Full article...)
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Cathy Stewart (2 April 1956 – 9 August 1994) was a French pornographic actress who appeared in the majority of France's hardcore films between 1976 and the early eighties. She also appeared in several non-pornographic pictures, most notably Jean Rollin's 1980 horror film La Nuit des Traquées where she was credited under her real name.

Suffering from drug addiction, she stopped her career in the 1980s, and died from an overdose. (Full article...)
Image 8
Bobby Astyr (November 14, 1937 – April 7, 2002) was an American pornographic film actor.

Prior to becoming involved in pornography, Astyr was a musician. He made his debut in porn in 1974 and appeared in many films, including Barbara Broadcast in 1977, where he performed as the Maitre d' in an elegant New York City hotel restaurant. Usually cast in comedic roles, he was dubbed "The Clown Prince of Porno". Astyr retired in the mid-1980s. He often performed with Samantha Fox, with whom he was in a long-term relationship. Later in his life, Astyr served on the board of directors of a housing project in New York's East Village. After battling lung cancer on and off for five or six years, Astyr died in April 2002. (Full article...)
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Kendra Jade (born April 19, 1977) is an American model, actress, and former adult film star. Jade appeared on the VH1 reality television series Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and Sober House. During these shows, Jade was treated for sex addiction and alcoholism by Dr. Drew Pinsky. (Full article...)
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Max Konnor is an American gay pornographic film actor and webcam model. After starting his pornographic career under the name Isaiah Foxx in 2009, he left the industry in 2012 to pursue a career in stage and television acting. In 2017, he became a webcam model on CAM4 and started pornographic accounts on OnlyFans and Twitter. He soon started performing in studio-made pornographic films and later became the most-followed Black gay pornographic actor on Twitter and CAM4's first male ambassador.

As a pornographic film actor, he has won five Grabby Awards, five GayVN Awards—including for Performer of the Year in 2022—the XBIZ Award for Gay Performer of the Year, and two Fleshbot Awards. Outside of pornography, he was one of the subjects of the 2021 documentary Being Black in Porn, has appeared as a main cast member on the OutTV reality television series X-Rated: NYC since 2023, and starred in the off-Broadway musical Waiting in the Wings: The Musical in 2023. In 2019, he launched Haus of Konnor, a pornographic agency and studio geared toward gay pornographic actors of color. (Full article...)
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Stevens attending the AVN Awards show at the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada in 2010

Tabitha Stevens (born February 16, 1970) is an American pornographic actress. In 2007 she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame. (Full article...)
Image 12
Juanita Dale Slusher (July 6, 1935 – December 30, 2005), better known by her stage name Candy Barr, was an American stripper, burlesque dancer, actress, and adult model in men's magazines of the mid-20th century.

During the 1950s, she received nationwide attention for her stripping career in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, her encounters with the law, shooting her second husband, and her sentence to a prison term for drug possession. Barr was also in relationships with Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby. (Full article...)
Image 13

Rhodes at the GayVN Awards in 2006

James Elliott Naughtin (February 8, 1982 – June 14, 2012), known professionally as Erik Rhodes, was an American gay pornographic film actor and director. After making his adult film debut as a performer in 2004, Rhodes became an exclusive model with Falcon Studios, and began directing adult films for Raging Stallion Studios when the studio was acquired by Falcon in 2011. Beyond his work in pornography, Rhodes was active in New York City nightlife and celebrity circles, and was once linked to fashion designer Marc Jacobs. In 2012, Rhodes died from cardiac arrest at the age of 30. (Full article...)
Image 14

Amber Lynn at the 50th anniversary screening of "Deep Throat".

Amber Lynn (born Laura Lynn Allen; September 3, 1964) is an American pornographic film actress and mainstream actress, radio host, model, exotic dancer, advocate and humanitarian. (Full article...)
Image 15

Foxworth in 2008

Jaimee Monae Foxworth (born December 17, 1979) is an American actress, model, and singer. She is best known for her role of Judy Winslow, the daughter of Carl and Harriette Winslow on the ABC sitcom Family Matters, during the show's first four seasons. (Full article...)
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Theresa Berkley or Berkeley (died September 1836) was a 19th-century English dominatrix who ran a brothel in Hallam Street, just to the east of Portland Place, Marylebone, London, specialising in flagellation. She is notable as the inventor of the "chevalet" or "Berkley Horse", a BDSM apparatus. (Full article...)
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Knox in 2014

Miriam Weeks, (born 1995) known by her stage name of Belle Knox, is an American former pornographic film actress. She is known for performing in pornography while studying at Duke University.

Knox started doing pornography in 2013 to help pay for her $60,000 per year tuition costs. In late 2013, her career became publicly known on campus, and she faced extensive in-person and online harassment. Knox took a college-sanctioned break from Duke University in early 2014 and later returned to continue her studies. (Full article...)
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Jeff Stryker in 2007

Jeff Stryker (born Charles Casper Peyton, August 21, 1962) is an American porn star who has starred in bisexual, gay, and straight adult films. He lives in California. (Full article...)
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William M. "Sonny" Landham III (February 11, 1941 – August 17, 2017) was an American actor. He portrayed Billy Bear in 48 Hrs. (1982), tracker Billy Sole in Predator (1987), and 'Chink' Weber in Lock Up (1989). (Full article...)
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Gauge in 2013

Gauge is an American pornographic actor and feature dancer. (Full article...)
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Daniels in January 2015

Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford (born Stephanie A. Gregory; March 17, 1979), known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, director and former stripper. She has won many industry awards and is a member of the NightMoves Hall of Fame, AVN Hall of Fame and XRCO Hall of Fame. In 2009, a recruitment effort led her to consider challenging incumbent David Vitter in the 2010 Senate election in her native Louisiana.

Daniels became involved in a legal dispute with U.S. president Donald Trump in 2018. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 in hush money to silence her about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. Trump denied the affair and accused her of lying. He was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to Daniels, and was convicted on May 30, 2024. (Full article...)
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Mia Magma in September 2013

Mia Julia Brückner (born 9 December 1986), also known as Mia Magma, Mia Julia and Fellucia, is a German singer and pornographic actress. (Full article...)
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Su in 2011

May Ling Su (born 1973) is a pornographic actress, feminist, and self-described "menstrual artist". (Full article...)
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Yua Aida (Japanese: あいだゆあ, Hepburn: Aida Yua) is a former Japanese model and AV idol. (Full article...)
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Radcliffe at the Bear Bust '99 event

Jack Radcliffe (born Frank Martini; July 5, 1960) is an American former pornographic film actor. Radcliffe is considered a pornographic icon, and in particular, an icon of gay bear subculture and its physical aesthetics. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that a Harvey's franchise known for being a hub for sex work was described by one artist as a "legendary Toronto icon"?
... that Indonesian politician Sanusi's parents discouraged him from becoming a government employee, because his salary would be paid partly from taxes on alcohol and prostitution?
... that Lea Ackermann, a German nun of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, fought against forced prostitution and sex tourism in East Africa?
... that the posthumously released documentary Clean centered on the life of Sandra Pankhurst, a former sex worker, drag queen, and crime scene cleaner?