The Language is Different

[geminigirl]

I've been meeting with a local ASO about doing some work with them; it may be paid or not, but it's certain to be interesting. In meeting with them, one of the programs I'm likely to work with is outreach to incarcerated women.

Personally, I find the idea of working with adults a bit overwhelming; I don't know how to talk to grown ups about HIV prevention for themselves...I know how to talk to parents about why it's important to make sure their children are educated about HIV. But, back to the title of the post...

I asked what the major reasons for incarceration were...and was told, exactly what I expected to hear. But the language the person I was speaking with was different from what I'd call it.

So I ask you the following question:

(and please, just one label, the most likely you would use)

[Poll #731531]

Comments

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say "sex worker" because I think of sex work as a broader range of activities. Perhaps I have it wrong.

[geminigirl]

Does "sex worker" include what you would label "prostitute" or is it entirely seperate? What kinds of things would fall under the label sex work?

[beaq.livejournal.com]

It does include prostitution. Other examples would be making porn and doing phone sex.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

So, yeah, actually, I'd say sex worker if I didn't have to say, specifically, for some reason, someone who exchanged direct sexual services for money paid directly from the other participant in the act (or their representative). I probably wouldn't be as likely to call someone a prostitute as I would be to call the activity prostitution.

[geminigirl]

Interesting to me, from a semantic point of view, that you might have different labels for the person, and activity. I would say that prostitution is a subset of sex work, but I'm not likely to call someone a prostitute unless that person self-labels as such.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Right.

[kmusser]

I've usually heard "sex worker" used specifically for folks in the porn industry.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I would probably use "prostitute", but with the understanding that some people hear that word with a pejorative meaning. Second choice would be "sex worker", but that word's used more generally, iirc - for things like telephone sex work and writing porn and stuff...

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I just asked Richard, and he said "sex with themselves, or sex with someone else"? That makes a difference.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

so i'm the only really literal one on your FL, eh?

[lala2.livejournal.com]

I guess I would say prostitute...I dunno. I will say this though...I work at a jail and so have contact with a lot of these ladies and I really like them. :) I think working with them could be awesome!

[lovingboth]

It depends on where I am really, and who I'm talking to.

So, I work at a sex work project. Clients are sex workers. Some do prostitution, some don't.

I also work with a sex work activist group. One of the community-building bits is to get those who don't realising that they are sex workers too - some people, like erotic dancers, will deny it furiously, because they tend to look down on the prostitutes.

Someone I met recently via that group describes herself as a 'junkie whore' and I went yay at that.

[emperor]

I've been to international conferences where people have presented work on epidemiology of prostitutes. They've all been american or Canadian, and I've found their use of "sex worker" a bit unusual.

[aliki.livejournal.com]

Sex worker, to me, refers to more than just prostitution. For me, it also includes sex phone operators, strippers, webcam girls, fluffers, porn stars, etc.

Money for sex, specifically, is just prostitution.

[cmariewt.livejournal.com]

I was going to say my old roomate!

[cmariewt.livejournal.com]

Also, just an interesting tidbit. My grandmother was a prostitute in Germany, that is why my mother never knew her father. He was a client.