More resources on commercial sex workers

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-01-09 21:54:00 UTC
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Cartoon of woman and man outside a bar

(cartoon drawn by sex worker comes from the EMPOWER foundation website)

To follow up on my last post about commercial sex work and HIV, I wanted to highlight some excellent information sources about sex work. It's a topic that is key to many global problems - human trafficking, global health, human rights. That has led to some really interesting research being done, from a lot of different disciplinary perspectives. I have also noticed that for some reason, we have the gift of a lot of first-person information about commercial sex work; we get to learn from them telling their own stories and teaching about their world.

Elizabeth Pisani wrote a really interesting book called The Wisdom of Whores, and she followed it up with a blog of the same name. Recently she has written about smoking ARVs (she's not convinced it is really going on) and Indonesian pornography laws, and argued that we can't actually treat our way out of the AIDS epidemic.

The Sex Workers Present channel on blip.tv is a great example of a first-person resource. It features videos made by sex workers around the world (okay, mostly Cambodia) expressing their views on policy and law that affects them. It's an impressive advocacy tool, and an enlightening view into a complicated and dangerous world. I am especially fond of this program because the sex workers aren't just telling their stories because someone thinks is valuable or therapeutic. They are using their voices to advocate on issues that affect their lives.

Making  Sex Work Safe is an excellent resource guide on planning projects to address commercial sex work.

The Empower Foundation in Thailand is an NGO devoted to helping sex workers improve their own lives. It takes a neutral stance on the issue of sex work, focusing instead on helping individual sex workers live lives of their own choosing. The Empower Foundation website is a fascinating view into the lives of sex workers and the Foundation's activities.

Alanna Shaikh
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