Portal:Sex work

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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 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...)

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A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry. According to one view, sex work is voluntary "and is seen as the commercial exchange of sex for money or goods". Thus it differs from sexual exploitation, or the forcing of a person to commit sexual acts. (Full article...)

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Image 1Tart cards in a British phone box advertising call girls, 2005 (from Prostitution)
Image 2
  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 3A political cartoon from 1787 jesting about the notion of taxation affecting prostitutes (from Prostitution)
Image 4Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji Period, Japan (from Prostitution)
Image 5A 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 6A 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 7Women in an early San Francisco bordello in 1870 (from Prostitution)
Image 8Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City (from Sex work)
Image 9Brothel scene; Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Prostitution)
Image 10Kisaeng women from outcast or slave families. (from Prostitution)
Image 11Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam (from Prostitution)
Image 12An Ancient Greek urn depicts a prostitute and her client. (from Sex work)
Image 13News report about three brothels operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were raided by police in 1922 (from Prostitution)
Image 14Stickers affixed to a payphone in São Paulo, 2006 (from Prostitution)
Image 15Statue 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 16Prostitute c. 1890. (from Prostitution)
Image 17A liberated Chinese girl who had been forced in to sexual slavery by the Japanese military sits on a stretcher and speaks to a Royal Air Force officer. (from Prostitution)
Image 18The red light district in Amsterdam (from Sex work)
Image 19Femmes de Maison, painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, c. 1893—1895 (from Prostitution)
Image 20The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622) (from Prostitution)
Image 21A prostitute in Amsterdam's red-light district talks with a potential customer. (from Prostitution)
Image 22Boat based window prostitute in Utrecht (from Prostitution)
Image 23An oiran preparing herself for a client, ukiyo-e print by Suzuki Haronubu (1765) (from Prostitution)
Image 24A sex worker in Berlin in 2001 (from Sex work)
Image 25Fresco from the Pompeii brothel (from Prostitution)
Image 26World 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)

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Selected general sex worker

Image 1
Raphael's The Triumph of Galatea

Imperia Cognati (also called Imperia La Divina, meaning Imperia The Divine, or The Queen of Courtesans, 3 August 1486 – 15 August 1512), was a Roman courtesan. She has been considered the first celebrity of the class of courtesans, which was created in Rome in the late 15th century. (Full article...)
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María Magdalena, by Manuel Ussel de Guimbarda. Caridad la Negra served as a model for the painting, which is on display at the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad in Cartagena (Spain).

María de la Caridad Norberta Pacheco Sánchez (6 June 1879 – 1 March 1960), better known by her nickname Caridad la Negra, was a Spanish prostitute and madam, renowned for her activity during the last years of the Restoration and her protection of people and property during the Spanish Civil War. (Full article...)
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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 90's. She started her adult Internet site in 1995. She has been an industry advocate and testified before a government panel. (Full article...)
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Tatum in 2017

Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) is an American actor and 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), and The Lost City (2022). He has produced several of his films, including the road film Dog (2022), which he also starred in and co-directed. He was named People's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2012 and one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. (Full article...)
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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...)
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Chapman on her wedding day in 1869

Annie Chapman (born Eliza Ann Smith; 25 September 1840 – 8 September 1888) was the second canonical victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated a minimum of five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London from late August to early November 1888.

Although previous murders linked to Jack the Ripper (then known as the "Whitechapel murderer") had received considerable press and public attention, the murder of Annie Chapman generated a state of panic in the East End of London, with police under increasing pressure to apprehend the culprit. (Full article...)
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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...)
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Daniels in January 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...)
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Maud Allan (born as either Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant; 27 August 1873 – 7 October 1956) was a Canadian dancer, chiefly noted for her Dance of the Seven Veils. Though not perceived as an accomplished dancer, she performed in Oscar Wilde's play Salome, dancing the title role topless, which garnered great attention. During World War I, she sued a British MP for libel against allegations that she was a lesbian and that German agents were using her sexual orientation as grounds to blackmail her into spying for them on the British government. She was unsuccessful. The trial resurrected public disapproval of Oscar Wilde, whose own failed libel trial had initiated his arrest, conviction and imprisonment for sodomy two decades earlier. (Full article...)
Image 10

Missy Malone

Missy Malone is a Scottish burlesque performer currently based in central England. (Full article...)
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Mara Gaye (September 16, 1920 – July 22, 2005), born Marjorie Helen Ginsberg in The Bronx, New York, was a professional showgirl, dancer with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes (1938–1943), and exotic burlesque striptease dancer of the 1940s through the 1960s. She also performed under the name Marjorie Gaye. (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 13

Depiction from a contemporary portrait mosaic in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna

Theodora (/ˌθiːəˈdɔːrə/; Greek: Θεοδώρα; c. 490/500 – 28 June 548) was a Byzantine empress and wife of emperor Justinian I. She was from humble origins and became empress when her husband became emperor in 527. She was one of his chief advisers. Theodora is recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church, and commemorated on 14 November. (Full article...)
Image 14

Baker in 1940

Freda Josephine Baker (née McDonald; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in its 1927 revue Un vent de folie caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting only of a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the "Black Venus", the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess". Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became a French national after her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937. She raised her children in France. (Full article...)
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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 Kelly's death, she 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...)
Image 16

Sunny 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...)
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Dr. Brooke Magnanti on 7 June 2010

Brooke Magnanti (born 5 November 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...)
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Carolin Ebert on 23 October 2010

Sexy Cora (born Carolin Ebert, civil name Carolin Wosnitza; 2 May 1987 – 20 January 2011) was a German pornographic actress, model, singer, exotic dancer, wife of Tim Wosnitza, and reality show participant.

Cora was born in Berlin. She was one of the participants of the 10th season of Big Brother Germany. Cora released two music singles after her Big Brother participation: "My Love – La, La, La" and "Lass uns kicken (Alles klar wunderbar)". (Full article...)
Image 19

Sai Jinhua

Sai Jinhua (Chinese: 賽金花; circa 1872-1936) 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...)
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Jean Mode (born 1922) is an American former burlesque star and erotic dancer. (Full article...)
Image 21

Morgan in poster for Deadly Weapons (1974)

Ilana Wajc (born October 15, 1937), better known by her stage name Chesty Morgan, and also known as Liliana Wilczkowska and Lillian Stello, is a Polish-born, retired exotic dancer of Jewish descent, who also starred in two films directed by Doris Wishman. Morgan was billed as having a 73 inch (1.9 m) bust measurement. (Full article...)
Image 22
Portrait of Lizzie, taken in Shelby, Ohio, circa 1903, Burt Mossholder Studio

Lizzie Lape (August 15, 1853 – sometime after Thanksgiving 1917) was a mid-Ohio madam who owned and operated multiple bordellos at the end of the 19th century and early into the 20th. (Full article...)
Image 23
Hwang Jini or Hwang Jin-yi (Korean: 황진이; 1506–1567), also known by her kisaeng name Myeongwol ("bright moon", 명월), was one of the most famous kisaeng of the Joseon period. She lived during the reign of King Jungjong. She was noted for her exceptional beauty, charming quick wit, extraordinary intellect, and her assertive and independent nature. She has become an almost myth-like figure in modern Korea, inspiring novels, operas, films, and television series.

A crater on Venus, Hwangcini, is named after her. (Full article...)
Image 24

Portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1782

Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (28 August 1744 – 8 December 1793) was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason — particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution. She is also known as "Mademoiselle Vaubernier".

In 1768, when the king wished to make Jeanne maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier, so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate, created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The certificate made Jeanne appear younger by three years and obscured her poor background. Henceforth, she was recognized as the king's official paramour. (Full article...)
Image 25
Louise Fitzgerald Wightman (née Johnson), also known as Lucy Wightman (born June 18, 1959) is an American former exotic dancer who performed in Boston and Providence during the 1970s and 1980s, using the stage name Princess Cheyenne. The juxtaposition of her education and class background with her career attracted media attention. In the spring of 2007, she again attracted public interest, this time for being convicted of being a practicing psychologist without a license in two South Shore Massachusetts communities. Since then she has worked as a writer, photographer, and blogger. (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 Lea Ackermann, a German nun of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, fought against forced prostitution and sex tourism in East Africa?
... 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 a Harvey's franchise known for being a hub for sex work was described by one artist as a "legendary Toronto icon"?
... 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?