Money, Agency, and Self-Care among Cisgender and Trans People in Sex Work

Date

2021

Authors

Orchard, Treena
Salter, Katherine
Bunch, Mary
Benoit, Cecilia

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Social Sciences

Abstract

Many qualitative studies about the exchange of sex for money, drugs, and less tangible outcomes (i.e., social status) contend that this activity contributes to high levels of internalized stigma among people in sex work. The cis (n = 33) and trans people (n = 5) who participated in our project about health, violence, and social services acknowledged the stigma associated with sex work but were not governed by the dominant discourse about its moral stain. They shared nuanced insights about the relationship between sex work and self-respect as people who use their earnings to mitigate the struggles of poverty and ongoing drug use, and care for themselves more broadly. This study sheds new light on the ways that cis and trans people negotiate issues of money, agency, and self-care, contributing to the literature on consensual sex work that examines different aspects of stigma, safety, and health with a nuanced, non-binary gender analysis.

Description

Keywords

sex work, money, agency, self-care, gender, transgender, subjectivity

Citation

Orchard, T., Salter, K., Bunch, M., & Benoit, C. (2021). Money, Agency, and Self- Care among Cisgender and Trans People in Sex Work. Social Sciences, 10(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10010006.