Working Sex Words
45 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2019
Date Written: 2017
Abstract
Noun and noun phrases now used to talk about the regulation of sexual acts for sale include "prostitution" (less often "prostitute," although the adjective “prostituted” seems to be on the upswing),"sex work" and "sex workers," "legalization," "decriminalization," "the Nordic [or Swedish] model," "john," "pimp," and "trafficking." This terminology amounts to a comprehensive descriptive failure. Current discourse manifests no agreement on what these terms mean and whether they ought to be replaced. Nor have participants come up with names and words for phenomena that matter. Shortcomings in what this Article calls "working sex words" confound efforts to enhance safety for persons who experience intimate penetration of their bodies as a commodity that customers buy. These shortcomings are both symptoms and causes of a continuing problem for law reform.
Keywords: sex work, prostitution, Nordic model, decriminalization, legalization, trafficking, child sex trafficking, pimp, Amnesty International
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