When it comes to researching historical prostitution, it is incredibly difficult to find accounts which come directly from people selling sex. The further back in history we go, the more true that is. Since the term “sex worker” is a recent invention, coined in the late 70s, and most works will use euphemisms or derogatory terms, there is often debate over whether it is appropriate to retroactively call people sex workers if they sold sex.
To work out the appropriateness of applying this label, we first need to understand why it exists. Carol Leigh coined the term to highlight the fact that people who sell sexual services are indeed workers, and to group together all people selling sexual services whether they are legally considered prostitutes or whether they sell make porn or work at a strip club. The term is new, with regards to saying that the work is sex work, but the concept is not – prostitutes throughout history often absolutely saw themselves as workers, depending on the location and time period.
In Ancient Rome, there were “classes” of prostitutes. Some were enslaved people who were forced into harems. It doesn’t seem that those individuals thought of themselves as workers, nor was it the case that they had duties and labour that they chose to complete for money. The people who were enslaved and sexually assaulted couldn’t reasonably be described as workers. In the upper classes, or within certain other professions, selling sex was a paid job that people engaged in to earn a living without force.
Then we have the victims of Jack the Ripper in the late 1800s. Polly Nichols had been arrested on prostitution charges more than once before her murder. The police referred to the women like her who’d been selling sex and were killed by the Ripper as “prostitutes”, detective Jim Hobson famously saying the killer ““has made it clear that he hates prostitutes. Many people do. We, as a police force, will continue to arrest prostitutes. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls.” To call these women prostitutes would not be wrong in the legal sense, but when being sensitive to the way we talk about real murdered women I think it’s important to consider what language was historically used against them.
In the case of prostitution in France in the 1700s and 1800s, it was not uncommon even for people who were disgusted by prostitution to admit that it was a job. Similar to the term “working girl” in the UK to refer to a prostitute nowadays, the French term “ouvrière” (literally: female worker) was commonly used by prostitutes self-referentially. Not only were they clearly workers, as they performed labour for money, but they even personally recognized it! With that context, it seems obvious to me that calling those people sex workers would be in line with how they viewed themselves.
Even recent history, such as the Stonewall riots and activism by STAR, features frequent mentions of sex workers upon being taught about. Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson are often labeled as sex workers, even though they were selling sex before the term was coined. Sylvia and Marsha tended to refer to selling sex as “hustling”. I’d tend to avoid the term sex worker for them in many contexts, because both of them sold sex as teenagers when they were underage (with Sylvia starting even before that, at age 11) and highlighting the work aspect over their ages at the time and the nature of the experience as being child abuse doesn’t feel right. I will, however, note: the phrase “child labour” seeks to admit something is work whilst also pointing out the immorality of the practice by placing the word “child” in front, yet the term “child sex worker” is immediately assumed to seek to do the opposite and dismiss the abuse inherent to the work. Like “sweatshop worker” or “child labour” or “forced labour”, a phrase containing a mention of work does not imply that the practice is acceptable.
As with any profession, there are going to be some percentage of people who perform that same labour under threat or due to force. If you are only speaking about one individual, you can choose the most ideal language for them, but the larger the group we’re discussing the more likely we are to need to generalize. I’d love to think about the ideal word to use in each case, and I do consider it when I’m writing about someone like Sylvia Rivera or Aileen Wuornos or Polly Nichols, but to speak about an entire group broadly it’s necessary that we make a decision.
Let’s take a look at our options, in terms of current language:
- We can specify “people who sold sex” when noting what demographic we are speaking about, however this still has the implication of choice and potentially has that implication even more than calling it work does.
- We can exclusively use the same terms as the group being discussed would have used for themselves, which will often be slang that requires explanation and makes it more difficult for people to understand.
- We can refer to anyone who sold sex as a prostitute, despite the word being one that people who sell sex don’t often use for themselves and being frequently considered offensive. As it is first and foremost a legal term, it brings criminalization to mind.
- We can use the term sex worker. This phrase isn’t usually considered offensive, however it fails to include people who were bought and sold and forced into sex with clients who they were not actively “selling” sex to. For these cases, none of the other terms work either.
I don’t have a perfect answer as to what is best. I do not want to refer to people who sold sex in the past in ways they would find offensive, and I think it’s important for people to get that selling sex is labour, but I also don’t want to flatten out the experiences of all people who sold sex and/or were forced into sex slavery with a singular phrase.
The truth of the matter is that there’s no singular phrase which accurately describes all people who sold/traded sex or were enslaved by someone who regularly sexually assaulted them. Any term that doesn’t directly highlight the abuse will feel inadequate and any phrasing which only talks about all of those who sold sex as being victims would be infantilizing and ignore sex workers’ autonomy.
Unlike other industries that are rife with human trafficking and abuse, like farming or textile factory work, sex work is always expected to encompass all people who have sold sex without any clarification needed. You can discuss farm workers as a concept without being berated for using the term because many people have been trafficked into working on a farm. It is only sex work that is held to this standard.
I choose to use the term “sex worker” when I am highlighting the need for workers rights, specific popular euphemisms when I am talking about an individual, and “people who sold sex” when I’m trying to avoid implications about how those engaging in prostitution viewed selling sex. When I am unsure what term to use, I do default to calling them sex workers. I do it because people know what I mean and I don’t risk being derogatory, and I think that’s good enough most of the time.
Jack Talks About Sex Work 