The Oldest Profession: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Sex Work

Catalog description

In America, sex sells. The sex industry has and continues to be a topic of debate surrounding issues of consent, labor, pleasure, and the gendered marketplace. This course examines various facets of the sex industry (i.e., prostitution, exotic dance, film, and internet-based sex work) from the nineteenth century to the present day and examines the industry through the lenses of gendered labor, race and class, and the social, political, and legal controls employed to regulate the industry. The course will examine historical texts on sex work as well as live interviews with retired sex workers to explore the lived experiences of sex work from historical and contemporary perspectives.