Portal:Sex work

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 (generally 18 and older) 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 -

Current laws passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2014 make it illegal to purchase or advertise sexual services and illegal to live on the material benefits from sex work. The law officially enacted criminal penalties for "Purchasing sexual services and communicating in any place for that purpose."

This marks the first time in Canadian history that the exchange of sexual services for money has been made illegal. The Canadian Department of Justice claims that the new legal framework "reflects a significant paradigm shift away from the treatment of prostitution as 'nuisance', as found by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bedford, toward treatment of prostitution as a form of sexual exploitation". Many sex workers' rights organizations, however, argue that the new law entrenches and maintains harm against sex workers since sex workers are still committing a crime, albeit there is an immunity from arrest for material benefits and advertising.

The new laws came in response to the Canada (AG) v Bedford ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada, which found to be unconstitutional the laws prohibiting brothels, public communication for the purpose of prostitution and living on the profits of prostitution. The ruling gave Parliament of Canada 12 months to rewrite the prostitution laws with a stay of effect so that the current laws remain in force. Amending legislation came into effect on December 6, 2014, which made the purchase of sexual services illegal. (Full article...)

Selected images

  • Brothel scene; Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Prostitution)
  • Prostitute c. 1890. (from Prostitution)
  • A 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)
  • The red light district in Amsterdam (from Sex work)
  • Tart cards in a British phone box advertising call girls, 2005 (from Prostitution)
  • Fresco from the Pompeii brothel (from Prostitution)
  • A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes (from Prostitution)
  • An illustration depicting street prostitution (from Prostitution)
  • A sex worker in Berlin in 2001 (from Sex work)
  • World 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)
  • The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622) (from Prostitution)
  • Kisaeng women from outcast or slave families. (from Prostitution)
  • Boat based window prostitute in Utrecht (from Prostitution)
  • Women in an early San Francisco bordello in 1870 (from Prostitution)
  • A 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)
  • A liberated Chinese girl who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military sits on a stretcher and speaks to a Royal Air Force officer. (from Prostitution)
  • Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City (from Sex work)
  • Stickers affixed to a payphone in São Paulo, 2006 (from Prostitution)
  •   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)
  • An oiran preparing herself for a client, ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Haronubu (1765) (from Prostitution)
  • News report about three brothels operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were raided by police in 1922 (from Prostitution)
  • Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
  • Statue 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)
  • Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan (from Prostitution)
  • A prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district talks with a potential customer. (from Prostitution)
  • An Ancient Greek urn depicts a prostitute and her client. (from Sex work)

Selected general sex worker


  • Lee in 1956

    Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper, actress, author, playwright and vedette, famous for her striptease act. Her 1957 memoir, Gypsy: A Memoir, was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy. (Full article...)

  • 24 November 1888 Penny Illustrated Paper illustration of Kelly

    Mary Jane Kelly (c. 1863 – 9 November 1888), also known as Marie Jeanette Kelly, Fair Emma, Ginger, Dark Mary and Black Mary, is widely believed by scholars to have been the final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who murdered at least five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London from late August to early November 1888. At the time of her death, Kelly was approximately 25 years old, working as a prostitute and living in relative poverty.

    Unlike the other four canonical Ripper victims—each of whom had been murdered outdoors and whose mutilations could have been committed within minutes—Kelly was murdered within the sparsely furnished single room she rented at 13 Miller's Court, affording her murderer an extensive period of time to eviscerate and mutilate her body. Kelly's body was by far the most extensively mutilated of the canonical victims, with her mutilations taking her murderer approximately two hours to perform. (Full article...)

  • Generally accepted to be a picture of Earp in Prescott, Arizona Territory, in 1880.

    Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Earp (née Marcus; 1861 – December 19, 1944) was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler. She met Wyatt in 1881 in the frontier boom town of Tombstone in Arizona Territory, when she was living with Johnny Behan, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona.

    Josephine was born in New York to a Prussian Jewish family. Her father was a baker. They moved to San Francisco, where Josephine attended dance school as a girl. When her father had difficulty finding work, the family moved in with her older sister and brother-in-law in a working-class tenement. Josephine ran away, possibly as early as age 14, and traveled to Arizona, where she said she went "looking for adventure". Much of her life from about 1874 to 1882 (when she lived in the Arizona Territory) is uncertain; she worked hard to keep this period of her life private, even threatening legal action against writers and movie producers. She may have arrived in Prescott, Arizona, as early as 1874. The book I Married Wyatt Earp (1967), based on a manuscript allegedly written in part by her, describes events she witnessed in Arizona that occurred before 1879, the year she claimed at other times to have first arrived in Tombstone. There is some evidence that she lived from 1874 to 1876 in Prescott and Tip Top, Arizona Territory under the assumed name of Sadie Mansfield, who was a prostitute, before becoming ill and returning to San Francisco. The name Sadie Mansfield was also recorded in Tombstone. Researchers have found that the two names share extremely similar characteristics and circumstances. (Full article...)

  • Elizabeth Thompson (born Mary Elizabeth Haley; 18 October 1855 – 13 April 1953) was a prostitute and dance hall girl who worked in Dodge City, Kansas and other frontier cattle towns during the 1870s. She later became famous as Squirrel Tooth Alice, madam of a brothel in Sweetwater, Texas. (Full article...)

  • portrait of Laura Thistlethwayte by Richard Buckner

    Laura Eliza Jane Seymour Bell (1829–1894, married name Thistlethwayte) was an Irish-born courtesan of Victorian England. She was most notorious for the Nepalese Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana reputedly spending £250,000 on her. She later experienced a religious conversion and became a revivalist preacher on morality. (Full article...)

  • Metairie Cemetery tomb originally of Josie Arlington

    Josie Arlington (1864 – February 14, 1914) was a brothel madam in the Storyville district of New Orleans, Louisiana. Arlington started her life as a prostitute at 17–18 years old as a means to support her family. Arlington used her experience to open a brothel in 1890, which she named "Chateau Lobrano d'Arlington". Shortly after Storyville was established as the red-light district for New Orleans, Arlington moved her business into this area. After her building was destroyed by fire in 1905 she moved her business into a saloon owned by Tom Anderson, which was known as 'The Arlington Annex'. Josie retired from the business in 1909 and sold her assets off to Tom Anderson. Arlington died in 1913 and was buried in Metairie Cemetery, where her grave had to be moved because it had become such a tourist attraction. (Full article...)

  • Lili St. Cyr in Montreal, circa 1946

    Marie Frances Van Schaack (June 3, 1917 – January 29, 1999), known professionally as Lili St. Cyr, was a prominent American burlesque dancer and stripper. (Full article...)

  • Mortuary photograph of Mary Ann Nichols

    Mary Ann Nichols, known as Polly Nichols (née Walker; 26 August 1845 – 31 August 1888), was the first canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered and mutilated at least five women in and around the Whitechapel district of London from late August to early November 1888.

    The two previous murders linked to the Whitechapel murderer are unlikely to have been committed by Jack the Ripper. When the murder of Mary Ann Nichols was initially linked to this series, it increased both press and public interest into the criminal activity and general living conditions of the inhabitants of the East End of London. (Full article...)

  • Sai Jinhua

    Sai Jinhua (Chinese: 賽金花; October 9, 1872 — December 4, 1936) was a Chinese prostitute who became the acquaintance of Alfred von Waldersee. Her real family name was Cao or Zhao. During her career, she used the names Fu Caiyun (傅彩雲), Sai Jinhua, and Cao Menglan (曹夢蘭). Her art name (hao) was Weizhao Lingfei (魏趙靈飛). Some people referred to her as Sai Erye (賽二爺).

    In an encyclopedia article, Wenxian Zhang wrote Sai Jinhua "was regarded by some as a cross-cultural courtesan". In another, Wan Xianchu wrote: "Regardless of whether Sai Jinhua's role in China's foreign relations may have been exaggerated and despite the controversies surrounding her conduct and affairs, she lived a tough and spectacular life that has assured her a place in the modern history of China." (Full article...)

  • Veitch at the 2006 Adult Entertainment Expo

    Heather Veitch (born on March 7, 1974) is an American Christian missionary who worked previously as a stripper but now seeks to help women working in strip clubs leave the adult entertainment industry. She is the founder of the Christian ministry JC's Girls, based out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Veitch is a frequent speaker, working with both secular and religious audiences throughout the United States. Her expertise and knowledge in reaching out to women working in strip clubs has been utilized throughout the world by organizations seeking to develop like-minded ministries. (Full article...)

  • Promotional photograph of Charmion, c. 1897

    Laverie Vallee (née Cooper; July 18, 1875 – February 6, 1949), best known by her stage name Charmion, was an American vaudeville trapeze artist and strongwoman. One of her risqué trapeze acts was captured on film in 1901 by Thomas Edison. (Full article...)
  • Carol Leigh (January 11, 1951 – November 16, 2022), also known as The Scarlot Harlot, was an American artist, author, filmmaker, sex worker, and sex workers' rights activist. She is credited with coining the term sex work and founded the Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival and was the co-founder of BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network. (Full article...)


  • Lizzie Lape (August 15, 1853 – sometime after Thanksgiving 1917) was an American madam who owned and operated multiple bordellos in Ohio at the end of the 19th century and early into the 20th. (Full article...)

  • Rand in 1937

    Sally Rand (born Helen Gould Beck; April 3, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was an American burlesque dancer, stripper, vedette, and actress, famous for her ostrich-feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.

    Rand got her start as a chorus girl before working as an acrobat and traveling theater performer. Her career spanned more than forty years, appearing on stage, screen and on television. Through her career she worked alongside Humphrey Bogart, Karl Malden, and Cecil B. De Mille. She was a trained pilot and briefly dated Charles Lindbergh. (Full article...)
  • Valérie Tasso is a French writer, lecturer, research worker, and sex therapist, currently living in Barcelona, Spain. She has several university degrees (Economical Sciences, Foreign Applied languages), and in 2006, she graduated in Sex Therapy from The Institute of Sexology (IN.CI.SEX El Instituto de Sexología,) in Madrid.

    In 1999, she worked as a prostitute for six months, out of curiosity. In 2003, she wrote her sexual experiences in the book Insatiable – The sexual adventures of a French Girl in Spain. This first book has been an international best-seller, and is the basis of the script for the film Diary of a Nymphomaniac directed by Christian Molina. She has written three more books. (Full article...)

  • Fleiss in 2006

    Heidi Lynne Fleiss (born December 30, 1965) is an American former madam. She ran an upscale prostitution ring based in Los Angeles, and is often referred to as the "Hollywood Madam". Fleiss also formerly worked as a columnist and was a television personality regularly featured in the 1990s American media. (Full article...)

  • Daniels in 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, XRCO Hall of Fame, and Vanity Fair 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...)
  • Bernie Barker (July 31, 1940 – March 21, 2007) was recognized in July 2003 by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest male stripper. The former nuclear power plant worker and insurance salesman had taken up erotic dancing in 2000 at the age of 60 to keep in shape after surgery for the prostate cancer that would eventually cause his death. Over his stripping career, Barker titled in 42 stripper contests. He appeared on the first season of America's Got Talent in 2006.

    Barker's quest to place in Guinness began in 1978 with an unsuccessful bid to claim a record in swimming.
    He died after finally losing his battle with prostate cancer on March 21, 2007. (Full article...)
  • 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...)

  • Mortuary photograph of Stride, 1888

    Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride (née Gustafsdotter; 27 November 1843 – 30 September 1888) is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London from late August to early November 1888.

    Unlike the other four canonical Ripper victims, Stride had not been mutilated following her murder, leading some historians to suspect Stride had not actually been murdered by Jack the Ripper. However, Stride's murder occurred less than one hour before the murder of the Ripper's fourth canonical victim, Catherine Eddowes, within walking distance, and her act of murder is suspected to have been disturbed by an individual entering the crime scene upon a two-wheeled cart. In addition, both women had been murdered by slash wounds to the throat, leading most authors and researchers to consider Stride to be the third of the Ripper's canonical five victims. (Full article...)

  • Leone in 2022

    Karenjit "Karen" Kaur Vohra (born May 13, 1981), known by her stage name Sunny Leone, is a Canadian American actress, model, and former pornographic actress. She was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003, was a contract performer for Vivid Entertainment, and was named by Maxim as one of the 12 top porn stars in 2010. She was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2018.

    She has played roles in independent mainstream events, films, and television series. Her first mainstream appearance was in 2005, when she worked as a red carpet reporter for the MTV Video Music Awards on MTV India. In 2011, she participated in the Indian reality television series Bigg Boss. She also has hosted the Indian reality show Splitsvilla. (Full article...)

  • Cardi B in 2024

    Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar (formerly Cephus; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper. Born and raised in New York City, she is noted for her unfiltered public image and lyrics. First gaining recognition on Vine, Instagram, and as a cast member on VH1's Love & Hip Hop: New York, Cardi B released her two mixtapes between 2016 and 2017.

    Her first studio album, Invasion of Privacy (2018), debuted atop the Billboard 200 with the largest female rap album streaming week of all time and became the best-selling and the highest-certified female rap album of the 21st century. Ranked by Rolling Stone as the best debut album of all time by a female rapper, it made Cardi B the first solo female artist in history to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. Its singles "Bodak Yellow" and "I Like It" both topped the Billboard Hot 100 and were certified diamond by the RIAA; the former made Cardi B the first female rapper to top the Hot 100 with a solo song in the 21st century and the first to achieve a diamond-certified song, while the latter made her the first with multiple number-one songs. Her third US number-one, the collaboration "Girls Like You" in 2018, made her the first female rapper to earn multiple RIAA diamond-certified songs. (Full article...)

  • Nightscene in Hamburg St. Pauli – where Domenica was considered "Queen of the Reeperbahn"

    Domenica Anita Niehoff (3 August 1945 – 12 February 2009), also known as Domenica, was a German prostitute and activist. She appeared in television shows in the 1990s, where she campaigned for the legalization and regulation of the profession. (Full article...)

  • Smith in 2005

    Vickie Lynn Marshall (née Hogan; November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007), known professionally as Anna Nicole Smith, was an American model, actress and television personality. Smith started her career as a Playboy magazine centerfold in May 1992 and won the title of 1993 Playmate of the Year. She later modeled for fashion companies, including Guess, H&M, Lane Bryant and Heatherette.

    Smith dropped out of high school in 1984, married in 1985, and divorced in 1993. In 1994, her highly publicized second marriage to 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall resulted in speculation that she was a gold digger, which she denied. Following Marshall's death in 1995, Smith began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate. Her cases reached the Supreme Court of the United States: Marshall v. Marshall on a question of federal jurisdiction and Stern v. Marshall on a question of bankruptcy court authority. Smith died on February 8, 2007, in Hollywood, Florida, of a combined drug intoxication. (Full article...)

  • Phryne (Ancient Greek: Φρύνη, before 370 – after 316 BC) was an ancient Greek hetaira (courtesan). Born Mnesarete, she was from Thespiae in Boeotia, but seems to have lived most of her life in Athens. She apparently grew up poor, but became one of the richest women in Greece.

    Phryne is best known for her trial for impiety, in which she was defended by the orator Hypereides. According to legend, she was acquitted after baring her breasts to the jury, though the historical accuracy of this episode is doubtful. She also modeled for the artists Apelles and Praxiteles: the Aphrodite of Knidos was said to have been based on her. Phryne was largely ignored during the Renaissance, but artistic interest in her began to grow from the end of the eighteenth century. Her trial was depicted by Jean-Léon Gérôme in the 1861 painting Phryne Before the Areopagus, which influenced many subsequent depictions of her, and according to Laura McClure made her an "international cultural icon". As well as her depiction in visual arts, since the nineteenth century she has also appeared in literature, theatre, and on film. (Full article...)

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Sex workers
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