Selling Sex—Sex Work or Prostitution?

It was 1990, and I was off for my first research project on sex work in Lima, Peru. Neatly packed into my conceptual baggage was the term sex work (trabajo sexual). However, it did not take long to realize that while the term had gained currency in Europe, this was far from the case in Peru. Doctors working in the STD clinics smirked during interviews when I used it instead of prostitution. At the time, I did not ask them why but assumed that it was unfeasible for them to consider prostitution work. Women who worked as sex workers did not really take note of what I called it, as they were used to using euphemisms such as working women, working outside, and working on the streets. Coupling these labels with assertions such as "it's a job like any other," I became confident that this was their way to recognize the labor aspect of sex work. It became quite clear that if I were to continue to impose this terminology in fieldwork, even though sex work was more politically correct than many other terms in circulation, I would be committing one of the worst offenses an anthropologist could make, namely not listening to what is being said, not hearing the meanings and labels produced to describe selling sex. So I stopped using it and turned to the euphemisms the women used. I even called selling sex prostitution when necessary. It was only when I returned home and analyzed the notes and interviews I had collected that I realized that their reference to selling sex as work had a flip side. While the economic significance of selling sex could not be denied, calling it "a job like any other" silently attacked the prevailing moral caricatures of sex workers as promiscuous. For this reason, they insisted that selling sex was work, while simultaneously screaming they were not promiscuous and repudiating the stigma they felt daily. It would take at least six years before the terms sex work and sex worker were commonly used. It was not until 1999 that a sex worker–led organization was established.The way the term sex work traveled to Peru resembles the process observable in other countries. The introduction of peer educators in the Peruvian Ministry of Health HIV prevention programs accelerated its use. As one of the ex–peer educators and founders of the first Peruvian sex worker–led organizations describes: In 1996, in these times the abolitionists called us "women involved in prostitution," they began a big campaign to increase its use because the Ministry of Health and their programs called us "sex workers." The ministry conducted a survey to find out what term we wanted to use. They gave us five choices. They were sex worker (trabajadora sexual), prostituta (prostitute), women involved in prostitution (mujer involucrada en prostitución), and "meretriz" harlot, whore, or prostitute. I don't remember what the fifth one was. . . I chose the term sex worker because the other terms made me feel bad. Afterward, I found out that the term was brought from another country by one of the doctors in the prevention program. (Angela Villon Bustamante, president of Movimiento de Trabajadoras Sexuales del Perú, in conversation with author, June 22, 2022)Over time, I have become more and more convinced that sex work is a term not used by all, that it can include but also exclude individuals, even though it powerfully contributes to identity politics as well as political and health strategies. In addition, it immediately reveals your ideological stance and co-constructs the binary perspective toward prostitution commonly found in academic and political domains. Either you are pro sex workers' rights or take an abolitionist position that considers sex work the most extreme form of women's oppression. When I go into the field, I listen to how it is used or not used, how it is captured in media representations and the NGO world, and most importantly how people who sell sex describe it. Understanding the way it is appropriated or resisted provides insight into the way sex work is embedded in a society. It shows me the way stigma manifests around sex work. The study of stigma and sex work is essential. Stigma may be considered the only universal characteristic shared by sex workers; it is nonetheless contextually specific.In development aid circles, for instance, the Kenyan sex worker movements are known for their good practices regarding peer and outreach programs. These sex worker organizations have a strong network and are proud to use the term sex work. Yet this does not do away with the stigma felt by many of the sex workers they reach. Stigma factors into why some women do not consider it work and why they would never tell their children how they make their money. For example, Jennifer in Mombasa, Kenya, states, "How can I tell someone I do sex work—what kind of work is that?" Even though she is content with the profits she makes from sex work, has no other income sources, and is well aware there are no employment opportunities that can provide for her better than sex work, she prefers to use the euphemism hustling to refer to selling sex.In Ethiopia, sex workers also oscillate between shame and justification of selling sex as work. In Amharic there is no term for sex work. One of the older terms most commonly used translates into "a woman who makes a living from her body or by being a woman."1In recent years an Ethiopian academic collaborating with a sex worker organization created a term that approximates working women in English. We used this term in a documentary title (2018). The film portrayed the lives of sex workers living in Addis Ababa and avoided representing them as victims, which is the only way they are usually represented. At the opening screening before an audience of NGOs, government representatives, and diplomats, comments from members of the audience were packed with insinuations that challenged the idea that these women were working. "Get rid of the amount of money they earn in the film," they told us, concerned that it revealed that sex sellers earned more than in acceptable female occupations. The term working women was far more political than we imagined. Even the Ethiopian film crew insisted on removing their names from the credit roll for fear of damaging their future careers.Resistance to the term sex work has made me more aware of the contradictions, complexity, and tensions surrounding sex work. I only hope that one day a reflection of this kind will become unnecessary because sex work will be a "job like any other."