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 -

An illustration depicting a prostitute soliciting a potential customer

Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a prostitute solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a provocative manner. The sex act may be performed in the customer's car, in a nearby secluded street location, or at the prostitute's residence or in a rented motel room. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Selected images

Image 1The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622) (from Prostitution)
Image 2Women in an early San Francisco bordello in 1870 (from Prostitution)
Image 3Stickers affixed to a payphone in São Paulo, 2006 (from Prostitution)
Image 4A sex worker in Berlin in 2001 (from Sex work)
Image 5Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City (from Sex work)
Image 6Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
Image 7An Ancient Greek urn depicts a prostitute and her client. (from Sex work)
Image 8An oiran preparing herself for a client, ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Haronubu (1765) (from Prostitution)
Image 9A 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)
Image 10A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes (from Prostitution)
Image 11Master of the Banderoles, The Brothel, engraving, c. 1450–1475. (from Prostitution)
Image 12An illustration depicting street prostitution (from Prostitution)
Image 13Nana Plaza entertainment complex and red-light district in Bangkok, Thailand, 2016 (from Prostitution)
Image 14World War II-era poster urging soldiers to avoid "good time girls" and prostitutes to avoid syphilis and gonorrhea. (from Prostitution)
Image 15A 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 16A 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 17Street prostitution in São Paulo, Brazil, 2019 (from Prostitution)
Image 18Brothel scene; Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Prostitution)
Image 19
  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 20Statue 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 21Tart cards in a British phone box advertising call girls, 2005 (from Prostitution)
Image 22The red light district in Amsterdam (from Sex work)
Image 23Boat based window prostitute in Utrecht (from Prostitution)
Image 24Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan (from Prostitution)
Image 25Prostitute c. 1890. (from Prostitution)
Image 26A prostitute playing cards with men, by Wouter Crabeth II, c. 1640 (from Prostitution)
Image 27World 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 28Fresco from the Pompeii brothel (from Prostitution)
Image 29Prostitution at the Palais-Royal in Paris, 1815 (from Prostitution)
Image 30News report about three brothels operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were raided by police in 1922 (from Prostitution)
Image 31Young prostitute in Naples, Italy, 1948 (from Prostitution)
Image 32Kisaeng women from outcast or slave families. (from Prostitution)
Image 33A prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district talks with a potential customer. (from Prostitution)

Related portals

Selected general sex worker

Image 1

Despentes in March 2012

Virginie Despentes (French: [viʁ.ʒi.ni de.pɑ̃t]; born 13 June 1969) is a French author, screenwriter, director, and actress. She is known for her work exploring gender, sexuality, and people who live in poverty or other marginalised conditions. (Full article...)
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Charlotte Rose is an English sex worker, dominatrix, sexual trainer and political candidate from Nottingham, who lives in London. In 2013 she won the award of "Sex Worker of the Year" at the Sexual Freedom Awards where she is now a resident judge. In 2014 she took up politics, campaigning for sexual freedom as an independent candidate in the Clacton and Rochester and Strood by-elections. (Full article...)
Image 3

Von Teese in 2018

Heather Renée Sweet (born September 28, 1972), known professionally as Dita Von Teese, is an American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, actress, and businesswoman. She is credited with re-popularizing burlesque performance, earning the moniker "Queen of Burlesque".

Von Teese has appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, RuPaul's Drag Race, The Masked Dancer, The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, among other television productions. She is also known for her short marriage to singer Marilyn Manson as well as performing in his music videos. Von Teese has released two books on burlesque history, fetishism and beauty. She has toured the world with her burlesque shows in cities like London, Berlin, New York and Paris. Among her special guests on the tours are Dirty Martini, Perle Noire, Ginger Valentine, Jett Adore and Playboy model Gia Genevieve. Von Teese has been a special guest at the Parisian venue Crazy Horse several times. From 2007 to 2013, she was a global ambassador for Cointreau and in 2010–2011 she was the face of Perrier. She has also created four perfumes under the brand Dita Von Teese Perfumes. She also has her own brand of lingerie, as well as stockings under the name Secrets in Lace and luxurious cardigans for Australian online store Wheels & Dollbaby. (Full article...)
Image 4

Air Force Amy in 2007

Deanne Salinger (born 1964 or 1965), known professionally as Air Force Amy, is an American legal prostitute, glamour model, adult model, and reality TV performer. MSNBC has called her "a living legend in the world of sex." (Full article...)
Image 5
Marble portrait herm identified by an inscription as Aspasia, possibly copied from her grave.

Aspasia (c. 470 – after 428 BC) was a metic woman who lived in Classical Athens. Born in Miletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles. According to the traditional historical narrative, she worked as a hetaira, though modern scholars have questioned the factual basis for this claim, which derives from ancient comedy. Though Aspasia is one of the best-attested women from the Greco-Roman world, and the most important woman in the history of fifth-century Athens, almost nothing is certain about her life.

Aspasia's relationship with Pericles began between 452 and 441 BC. Both ancient and modern scholars have variously described her as Pericles's concubine and as his de jure or de facto wife. They had a son, Pericles the Younger; Pericles may also have defended her against a charge of asebeia (impiety) recorded in traditional accounts of Aspasia's life. As with her status as a courtesan, this narrative may also stem from Athenian comedy, and several modern scholars have questioned its historicity. After Pericles's death in 429 BC, she is believed to have married the politician Lysicles; nothing is known of Aspasia's life after his death in 428 BC. (Full article...)
Image 6

Danni Ashe (and early in her career sometimes as Danielle Ashe; born January 16, 1968) is a retired American nude model, former erotic dancer and web developer who is the founder and former CEO of Danni's Hard Drive, a popular adult web site from the 1990s. She started her adult Internet site in 1995. She has been an industry advocate and testified before a government panel. (Full article...)
Image 7
Jean Mode (born 1922) is an American former burlesque star and erotic dancer. (Full article...)
Image 8

Veitch at the 2006 Adult Entertainment Expo

Heather Veitch (born 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...)
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Mata Hari, c. 1910

Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle, Dutch: [mɑrɣaːˈreːtaː ɣeːrˈtrœydaː ˈzɛlə]; 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari (/ˈmɑːtə ˈhɑːri/ MAH-tə HAR-ee, Dutch: [ˈmaːtaː ˈɦaːri]; Indonesian for 'sun', lit. 'eye of the day'), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in France.

The idea of a beautiful exotic dancer using her powers of seduction as a spy made her name synonymous with the femme fatale. Mata Hari's story has inspired books, films, and other works. Later biographers argue that she was convicted and condemned because the French Army needed a scapegoat, and that the files used to secure her conviction contained falsifications. Some have even stated that she could not have been a spy and was innocent. (Full article...)
Image 10

Leone in 2022

Karenjit "Karen" Kaur Vohra (born May 13, 1981), known by her stage name Sunny Leone, is a Canadian-American actress, model, media personality and former pornographic actress who works in Hindi films. Active in Hindi cinema since the 2010s, she is known for her leading roles in erotic thrillers and appearing in several popular item numbers, and is cited by various media outlets as a sex symbol. On television, Leone is one of the presenters of Indian reality show MTV Splitsvilla. She was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003 and 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...)
Image 11

Kimberly Daniels (born June 12, 1961) is an American minister, religious author, and politician. Daniels is a member of the Democratic Party in the Florida House of Representatives, representing House District 14 (part of Duval County).

Daniels began her political career as an at-large member of the Jacksonville City Council. She represented House District 14 in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016 to 2020 before being defeated in the Democratic primary in 2020 by Angie Nixon. Daniels was elected to represent Florida House District 14 again in 2022, and was reelected in 2024. (Full article...)
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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...)
Image 13

2014 publicity image

Brooke Magnanti (born 1974 or 1975) is an American-born naturalised British former research scientist, blogger, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November 2009, was known by the pen name Belle de Jour. While completing her doctoral studies, between 2003 and 2004, Magnanti supplemented her income by working as a London call girl known by the working name Taro.

Her diary, published as the anonymous blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl, became increasingly popular as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour. Remaining anonymous, Magnanti went on to have her experiences published as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2005 and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2006. Her first two books were UK top 10 best-sellers in the nonfiction hardback and nonfiction paperback lists. (Full article...)
Image 14

Sprinkle in 2005

Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, filmmaker, and advocate for the decriminalization of sex work.

Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, sex film producer and director, and documentary film director. She became known in the 1980s as a maker of feminist, lesbian, and sex-positive pornography. In 1996, Sprinkle became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a Doctor of Philosophy in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. (Full article...)
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Thaïs of Athens with Torch (1781)
by Joshua Reynolds

Thaïs (/ˈθaɪs/; Greek: Θαΐς; fl. 4th century BCE) was a Greek hetaira who accompanied Alexander the Great on his military campaigns. Likely from Athens, she is most famous for having instigated the burning of Persepolis, the capital city of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, after it was conquered by Alexander's army in 330 BCE. At the time, Thaïs was the lover of Ptolemy I Soter, who was one of Alexander's close companions and generals. It has been suggested that she may also have been Alexander's lover on the basis of a statement by the Greek rhetorician Athenaeus, who writes that Alexander liked to "keep Thaïs about him" without directly classifying the nature of their relationship as intimate; this may simply have meant that he enjoyed her company, as she is said to have been very witty and entertaining. Athenaeus also states that after Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Thaïs married Ptolemy and bore three of his children. (Full article...)
Image 16
Velma Fern Worden (June 18, 1935 – September 15, 2025), better known by the stage name April March, was an American exotic dancer and prominent star of burlesque. Billed as April March, The First Lady of Burlesque, she was a headline act in burlesque from 1952 to 1978. During her more than thirty-year career, she gained popularity throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe for her classy and sophisticated striptease. March was one of the innovators of the elegant strip tease. (Full article...)
Image 17
Elisabeth Eaves is a Canadian-American author and journalist born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Full article...)
Image 18

Foxe in 1974

Annabel Battistella (February 14, 1936 – February 10, 2021), known professionally as Fanne Foxe, was an Argentine-American stripper best known for being involved in a 1974 sex scandal surrounding Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Mills. At the time, Mills was the chair of the United States House Committee on Ways and Means and a powerful Democratic politician. The scandal was one of the most reported political sex scandals of the 1970s. In 2009, Foxe was on the Time list of top 10 mistresses, and her affair with Mills was on the Bloomberg list of top 10 U.S. sex scandals. (Full article...)
Image 19

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 she had not been killed 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 on 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 the third of the Ripper's canonical five victims. (Full article...)
Image 20

West in 1958

Evelyn West (January 30, 1921 – November 14, 2004), a.k.a. Evelyn "$50,000 Treasure Chest" West, and "The Hubba-Hubba Girl", was a vedette and burlesque legend of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. (Full article...)
Image 21

Tatum in 2026

Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) is an American actor and film producer. He made his film debut in the drama Coach Carter (2005), and had his breakthrough with the sports comedy film She's the Man (2006) and the dance film Step Up (2006). He rose to prominence for playing Duke in the action films G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), the title role in the comedy-drama films Magic Mike (2012), Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023), and an undercover cop in the action-comedy films 21 Jump Street (2012) and 22 Jump Street (2014).

Tatum's other films include The Vow (2012), White House Down (2013), Foxcatcher (2014), The Hateful Eight (2015), Hail, Caesar! (2016), Logan Lucky (2017), The Lost City (2022), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). He has produced several of his films, including the road movie Dog (2022), which he also starred in and co-directed. He was listed as one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. (Full article...)
Image 22
Pearl "Polly" Adler (April 16, 1900 – June 9, 1962) was an American madam and author, best known for her work A House Is Not a Home, which was adapted into a film of the same name. In 2021, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Debby Applegate published a comprehensive account of Adler's life and times entitled Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age with Doubleday. A fictional novel was written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray in 2026 titled A Pair of Aces. (Full article...)
Image 23

Cody at SXSW 2024

Brook Maurio (previously Busey-Hunt; née Busey; born June 14, 1978), known professionally by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Cody received critical acclaim for her screenwriting debut film, Juno (2007), winning both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

She wrote, produced, and made her directorial debut with the comedy drama film Paradise (2013). Cody has also written and produced the films Jennifer's Body (2009), Young Adult (2011), Ricki and the Flash (2015), Tully (2018), and Lisa Frankenstein (2024). (Full article...)
Image 24
María Calvo Nodarse (1892 in Guanajay – 15 June 1977, in Havana), better known as La Macorina, was a Cuban prostitute who was a friend of ex-president José Miguel Gómez, whom she supported during the Chambelona War. She was the first woman to hold a driving license in the Americas. (Full article...)
Image 25

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...)

Did you know...

... that the posthumously released documentary Clean centered on the life of Sandra Pankhurst, a former sex worker, drag queen, and crime scene cleaner?
... that An Amorous History of the Silver Screen has been read as a biographic metafilm, paralleling its lead's rise from prostitution into film stardom?
... 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 "one of the most iconic paintings of Indonesian modern art" shows an annoyed sex worker?
... that Bonnie Blue's "1,000 men in a day" challenge inspired an event and a planned event by fellow sex workers Annie Knight and Drake Von?
... 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?