Whores and Other Feminists

Whores and Other Feminists fleshes out feminist politics from the perspective of sex workers--strippers, prostitutes, porn writers, producers and performers, dominatrices--and their allies. Comprising a range of voices from both within and outside the academy, this collection draws from traditional feminisms, postmodern feminism, queer theory and sex radicalism. It stretches the boundaries of contemporary feminism, holding accountable both traditional feminism for stigmatizing sex workers, and also the sex industry for its sexist practices.

Recent theorists have pointed out that the exchange of sex for money has no inherent meaning. Contributors Nina Hartley, Candida Royalle and Debi Sundahl, sex industry feminists, discuss creating women-oriented products and entertainment for an ever-increasing female consumer demand. Annie Sprinkle offers sex-worker-positive tips for self-care in a challenging profession. Together with other contributors,they problematize traditional feminism's dismissal of sex work as inherently antifeminist by revealing its myriad of forms and contexts.

Each contributor ellucidates a particular intersection, or series of intersections of feminist theory and sex work practice: a butch lesbian offers herself for hire by femmes; after years of studying the holy whore archetype, a forty-two year old woman has a spriritual awakening and decides to become a prostitute; and a stripper demystifies questions about sex and objectification she has only intellectualized. The result of these contributions is a more complex definition of both feminism and sex work, and a new context for debate--one in which the voices of feminist sex workers are primary and central.

Strippers, peepshow dancers, and porn stars trade spiked heels for footnotes while demonstrating their often overlooked ability to engage in scholarly discourse in this collection of essays focusing on the subject of feminism as practiced by those who call themselves "sex workers." Along with the first-person accounts by such underground luminaries as Nina Hartley, Tracy Quan, and Annie Sprinkle, are forays into the sex dens by a number of academics. The writing is frank, though hardly pornographic, and many of the points raised and discussed are treated with more seriousness and considerably more insight than they usually are in the mainstream press.