Reviews (12)

If you were ever curious, READ THIS BOOK
Ms. Langley's book is intreging and causes the reader to question: Is it female empowerment? Is it exploitation - men of foolish women or women of foolish men? Or is it a symbiotic relationship? Is it about power at all? There is also a underline question as to how we as Americans define ourselves in our sexual roles. Whatever your answers to these questions are, Ms. Langley allows you to be a fly on the wall in a business that must protect its subculture from the outside world.
In my opinion, this book does not exploit the women who it is written about...

The first book review I ever wrote.
...Not really a review, but my need to respond.

This has been a totally unexpected reading. The book that opened my eyes. More than a documentary. More than spectacular photography. Poetry, prose, images, more than anything... It's the continuity. The continuity of human life and human experience. The friendship turning into sexuality. The friendship, the courage. The beauty. The animal instincts. Nothing is discrete in life and in nature. Nothing is absolute. Life is strange, harsh and sweet. Life is a discovery. We fool ourselves - we are sexual creatures - but usually do not understand or are afraid to understand the repressed meaning of sexuality... and the continuity thereof... This book is the most incredible, beautiful and true travel of self-discovery.

I cried when I finished reading this book. Why??? I don't know... but I think simply because of the sheer and intense beauty, I've been exposed to. The tears of ...

Thank you - Veronica. Your mind is beautiful. Thanks for doing what you have done.

Isbn: 0810963493
Sales Rank: 792621
Subjects:  1. Art & Art Instruction    2. General    3. History    4. History - General    5. Peep shows    6. Performing Arts    7. Performing Arts/Dance    8. Vaudeville/Cabaret/Burlesque   

Reviews (10)

Realism can hurt
For anyone who hasn't enjoyed this book, all I can say is that you probably haven't met many of the women whose stories are cited in here. I have, and I find them well represented. Chapkis doesn't drown out their voices the way so many other scholars have. She begins by tracing the debates concerning sex work, which is helpful for people new to the topic. She then develops her own argument (see editor's review) and concludes with a personal story on how she discovered her own sexual pleasure. I found it informative and touching, even though I've been doing similar field work on sex workers for the past four years.

Finally, A Book That Represents Both Sides of the Debate
The intro to this book presents a clear, concise account of contemporary feminist perspectives on sex work, ranging from the adamantly anti to the decidedly pro (no pun intended). Likewise, the essays inside represent an equally broad range of views and experiences from women in nearly every facet of the sex industry, proving once and for all that sex work is neither inherently degrading nor inherently empowering.

Reviews (8)

Too many different opinions
Book of essays of women in the sex industry.Interesting enough but I seemed to finish essay to essay not feeling complete in my questions of women in the sex industry.

The title and the cover are the best things about this book.
While the arguments are valid, this book drags on and on AND ON AND ON and on. With the exception of How To Program in C++ I had to read in college, this is by far the most boring book I've ever read. Excellent material to keep on the bedside table in case of insomnia, though!

Reviews (9)

Very personal look at women in the sex industry
Now that I've read, Whores and Other Feminists, Tales from the Clit, Sex for Sale, Out of Bondage, The Lusty Lady, and Brothel, Sex Work gives a personal touch beyond what Whores and Other Feminists has to offer.There is a line of reading that one must read to truly listen to the feminist minority that sex work is part of being a woman.Whether women get paid to have sex or not, all women live with social stigmas attached to them not only by men (police, politicians, and clients) but by women (wives, the feminist majority, and other sex workers).The book explores the good girl/bad girl status of a woman.There is also a lot of question between Madonna/Whore demarcation between women in the sex industry.It answers the question as to where did these women come from.
Women in the sex industry are mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters.They are friends and co-workers.Sex workers are women who love and women who hate.They enjoy sex and don't enjoy sex.There is political activism and victims of the political process.
The very personal accounts read as poems, diary entries, or stories that the reader asks whether it is fact or fiction.Whatever it is, Sex Work explores a world that we all seem to assume we know all about.The sex industry is expansive and limiting, liberating and oppressive.The question now must be asked how can we structure our society so that women aren't labeled for their sexual choices?There are so many women that are defined as prostitute, living under the cloak of legitimacy.

good
It is always enlightening to hear stories from those who have lived it as opposed to reading a psychologist's view of a world he has never experienced. This is a good read, told by women who have experienced all that makes up the world of prostitution.

sex in the cities
I bought this book thinking that I'd be reading only stories by women in the sex industry. I have always had a fascination with how people begin anything, but especially how women or men cross the line (I don't mean that negatively) and become prostitutes. What this book is, however, is half stories from women in the industry and half academic writings on the plight of prostitutes. Not what I wanted, but still pretty good.

The stories, from street prostitutes, call girls, massage parlor workers, and strippers are often quite touching. The women, many of whom are lesbian, I've discovered in this book, choose to become prostitutes, prostitution doesn't choose them. They profess to either enjoy their job or to suffer through it not unlike clockwatchers do. Still, I can't help but read pain between the lines in these women's stories. These women are used -- well used, poorly used -- for others' whims. All of us prostitute ourselves to some end, but these women live short careers. To them, there is no glass ceiling, only plaster and dim lights in dingy rooms.

The academic essays supply some fascinating insights into how prostitution started. The authors offer facts about who prostitutes are, where they live, how the law applies to them, and how prostitutes are grouping together for safety and power.

Editorial Review

Reviews (15)

Anti-freedom of speech book, poor panicky work
If I could give it zero stars, I would.

This is the book equivalent of the poor, panicky, slippery slope argument that says, "first they ban the advertising of cigarettes to minors, what's next?the banning of the right to BREATHE???"I.e. the argument that takes too little data and extrapolates too far with it to come up with implausable, panicked, pseudo-data.It's a book based on fear (and playing upon the irrational fears of others), rather than on reality or truth.It ignores factual data and instead runs with fear and panicked opinion.

This fear-based book also ignores the fact that since porn is a billion dollar business, based on a percentage of repeat customers (rather than on the entirety of the U.S. population, which is what they would have you believe, rather than prove it with rental/purchase data), and because it revolves around business and money, these frightened slaves of porn will have nothing to worry about (in the way of "losing" access to it), because as long as porn turns a dime (turns a dime for the producers, not the stars, in this completely unregulated industry without ethical economic practices), it will be here, just like gas powered cars and automatic weapons.

It's funny how the side that supports so called freedom of speech likes to remove the freedom of speech to hate porn, protest it, and educate others about it's harms.It's just like the book, "Animal Farm," where there are two sets of laws, one for those who fall in line with this pro-porn standing, and a different, restricted law for those who disagree and exercise their right to do something about it.

They should just be honest and say, "freedom of speech for US, not YOU."

Hurray for Free Speech!
With some concern about ten years ago I began hearing about a group of feminists who were campaigning against pornography.Catherine MacKinnon, one of the leaders, wrote, "Pornography, in the feminist view, is a form of forced sex... an institution of gender inequality... [P]ornography, with the rape and prostitution in which it participates, institutionalizes the sexuality of male supremacy."MacKinnon teamed up with another feminist, Andrea Dworkin, who has spouted a remarkable range of anti-sex rants: "Intercourse with men as we know them is increasingly impossible... It means remaining the victim... It means acting out the female role, incorporating the masochism, self-hatred, and passivity which are central to it."The MacDworkinites, as they are called, might be considered by some just a branch of feminists that are even more radical than their sisters, but the problem is that they are eager to chip away at the First Amendment.

That brings them into conflict with the American Civil Liberties Union, and in 1995 Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, wrote a fine argument against the MacDworkinites, which has now been issued with some updates, _Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights_ (New York University Press).It is a thrilling invocation of the principles of liberty given by the First Amendment, and a reasoned but passionate argument against those feminists who would for some notion of a greater good restrict free speech to make social gains.

The MacDworkinites have made some enormous leaps of definition and logic that to them justify suppression of certain forms of speech.They define pornography as sexually explicit description that subordinates or degrades women, and they insist that as such it causes discrimination and violence against women.The ACLU has successfully battled against the definition of pornography pushed by the pro-censorship feminists in various states and communities, but it has, of course, not taken legal action in Canada, which in 1992 adopted the definition and made illegal sexually explicit expression that might be deemed dehumanizing or degrading to women.The Canadian law has no provision for work that has serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (as our obscenity laws do now), and it allows for suppression of an entire work even if only parts of it meet the new obscenity definition.MacKinnon and Dworkin saw this as a stunning victory for women.What happened in Canada is that the feminists who worked for the new law have been stunned to find it used against them.Women's bookstores, in particular, were raided if they carried sexual material.Homosexual material was found by definition to be degrading and was seized.And, in a delicious irony, two books entitled _Pornography: Men Possessing Women_ and _Woman Hating_ were seized by Canadian Customs at the American border, because they contained illegal descriptions of pain and bondage.The descriptions, however, were there for the purpose of persuading society against misogyny, and the books were written by Dworkin herself.

Much of _Defending Pornography_ deals with the legal reasons that MacDworkinist regulations undermine women's rights and human rights, and the chilling effect that such regulations would have on free expression, but it does touch on pornography in a more general view.If there should be no laws restricting freedom of the press (or other media), what is so particularly special about sexual content that justifies laws restricting freedom of the press?Why, if a work has sexual content, must we insist that it have artistic, scientific, or political content as well, when we do not do so for anything else?If men and women (and women are increasingly users of erotic material) find pornography entertaining (and even the Meese commission found it could be educational), how does it benefit society to restrict such material?And are such benefits worth the losses that censorship, censorship exemplified by the MacDworkinist restrictions, would necessarily make?_Defending Pornography_ makes plain the losses that have already occurred and serves as a call to arms against prudes or well-intentioned advocates that would cut back First Amendment rights.

No simple answers to complex issues...
Nadine Strossen exposes the erroneous and simple minded logic in trying to correlate 'pornography' with harm to women.Instead, she shows the correlation between RESTRICTING free sexual expression (yes, even in imagery) and the subjugation of women.While acknowledging women do face serious burdens in our society - some of which include violence against them - she exposes the logical fallacy in simply attributing it to the amorphous 'pornography'.The real issue is a complex, troubling societal problem that incorporates many distinct factors.But the answer does not lie in censorship.

If you want to change the way men perceive women, debate the issue!Open people's eyes! Discover the complex causes of inequalities women continue to face.Don't simply attribute them to one factor.Don't censor!Truth will be on your side.This is the essence of a free society.When the censors roll in, so does the air of totalitarianism.

Its interesting - if you take the view pornography simply CAUSES men to ask violently towards women, can't men who rape simply say: "The pornography made me do it!"Of course this is simply childish and Strossen exposes that all over the book.

Personally I do not like most things labeled 'pornography'.However, its not the government's job to tell me what I should and should not like.What feminists have always striven for is for women to make their own choices and not curtsy to the patriarchy of the State.

Reviews (10)

Absurd advice from amindless bimbo
Matt Bernstein Sycamore has edited here some of the most useless (and possibly dangerous) advice for sex workers ever put between pages. His attitude (as in his recent novel "Pully Taffy") is frighteningly superficial and shallow. He doesn't appear to have a thought in his head about anything besides sex and drugs, and he seems to behave as if he'd never heard of AIDS. Being a sex worker is NOT a liberating experience. It's an act of desperation, often born out of a lifetime of abuse. For Sycamore to pretend otherwise is disingenuous at best. And for a supposedly legit publisher to put this thing out is absolutely irresponsible. This book does a disservice not only to the gay community, but also to those out there who would like to see an alternative to the pablum thrust upon us by the mainstream.

Are there any heterosexuals still alive?
Way too much male homosexual stuff.Maybe that means there are more men paying men for sex these days.I don't know the answer to that question.I like the frankness of the writing and the psychology of the book, but I think I spent too much money for this one.

Reviews (3)

Not what I was looking for
I would not recommend this book for someone looking for personal histories of prostitutes, johns, pimps, etc.To be honest, opening the book at almost any page, one is confronted with the most tedious 'sociological' jargon: tongue-twisting sentences,theoretical analyses of 'data', 'semi-structured interview schedules'...The lack of an index is a big drawback in a book of essays: it is impossible to find the answers to the interesting-sounding questions proposed by the jacket blurb (eg. 'Is it possible for prostitutes to enjoy their work?') without becoming tired of wading through statistics and jargon.I think this is of more interest to other academics working in the same field.I like the cover though.

GREAT PUBLICATION
This book is another of the many books that speak about the subject ofprostitution. This book is rated highly for it's honesty in the field andits description of what occurs on an everyday basis. I give this book ahigh rating.

Reviews (4)

An Excellent Look at Nude Dancers
Marilyn Futterman is a photographer and this is largely a book of her photographs. Almost every other page contains a photograph or photographs and most of them are of women dancers in revealing costumes. Yet seldom are the pictures eroticized. They are documentary in nature. All are black-and-white and many use available light. Other were taken with on-camera flash, and still others were taken in a studio setting.

The text accompanying the pictures are the dancers own words. They talk about why they do this work and how they feel about dancing and the customers they dance for. Some are more articulate and insightful than others, but all are thoughtful and personal.

The book ends with an article, "Stripping for a Living," by Dr. Jacqueline Boles, a Sociology professor. It describes the history and current setting of nude dancing in American society. All in all, this is a well-conceived and executed documentary on an occupation halfway between entertainer and sex worker. It is a great book for anyone who has wondered about the women who dance in these clubs.

Barely interesting
The stories told in this book are somewhat interesting and well written, but they are all basically the same. The book seems to go in no particular direction. It contains interviews with various stripppers, but it leaves alot of questions unanswered.

Exotic pictures, nothing else!
I read this book to get an insight on strippers, but I was very disappointed. This books is a photo(black & white) documentary of strippers. It covers interviews about their lives, goals, fears and accomplishments, but it all sounds very repetitive, dry and boring. It seems like most all strippers do it because they have to finance their education, support their children because their spouse left them or they have to support a drug habit.I wish someone would write a book that explains what moral issues(if any) do these women have. How do they justify to their children or loved ones what they do(other than, I was just trying to put food on the table). One of the commandments clearly states that one shall not commit adultry. Promiscuous involvement is covered here. This Commandment definitely says that homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion, pornography, and all promiscuous endeavors of man or woman, have a permissiveness that is against the reason for creating mankind.

In the bible, there's a section where God said to Moses, Men and women will have many excuses and will justify their sins against this Commandment. Also, men and women will deliberately attach only specific sins on this Commandment, for shame will make them call this The Hidden Commandment'.

Reviews (6)

Are you sure she's a Mistress???????
If this book was turned into a movie provided that the title would be "Whips and Kisses: Parting the Leather Curtain
by submissive jacqueline" I would give this book 5 stars if she stayed a submissive.

This book is full of drugs, sex, mental abuse and low self esteem stories. If you like to read stories about the weak and willing, this is the book for you.

If you want to read a story about the making of a REAL Dominatrix, I suggest you seek else where.

Wimps and Misses
Talk about low self-esteem, the majority of her life is filled with being submissive and needy. This book tells about a woman who is a mental and emotional masochist. She spends the majority of her D/s experience as a lifestyle and Professional submissive. She also gets permanently marked on her buttocks by a Master who meant nothing to her. WOW! Talk about not thinking it through. All of a sudden she bucks against her master, grabs a whip, put on a corset, rents a dungeon, put an ad in a magazine and TAH DAH! She's Mistress Jacqueline the powerful dominatrix who is very successful and makes lots of money! *sigh* If it was only that simple.

The shocking part of this book was in the last chapter when she admits that she likes being Dominant but craves submissive activities. **gasp** Noooooo!

I believe she should have stayed a professional submissive, this way she won't betray her true tendencies.

I gave the book a two because it took a lot of guts to tell the world your flaws, however, some things are better left unsaid.

Editorial Review

"You can only blame your parents for so much," says Shawna Kenney in her breezy memoir, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, quickly disassociating herself from the common stereotype of the sex worker as a desperate victim of a male-dominated culture.Indeed, while Kenney's career choice may be shocking to some, her affable, conversational style reveals how an intelligent college student, short on cash, finds dominatrix work a viable way of making ends meet--there's no sex, it's great money, and there's plenty of time for homework.

Reviews (2)

Wonderful book
If anyone could possibly appreciate this book, it would be me.I too, am a phone sex operator just like the author of this book (except I really AM a woman and don't just pose as one).

I didn't realize this book would be written from a man's perspective when it was purchased for me, but I opened the book with an open mind. The author talks about his occupation as a male phone sex operator (well he actually played two people - a male and a shemale) I can relate to many points made in this book, yes men really say those ridiculous lines (the author made an actual list of those lines - and I can raise my hand and vouch for him). Yes, we have to be ready for every single line thrown at us. He gets into some of the redundancy we hear, the constant "yes I am always horny" lines - which made me laugh because there is no way in the world that people are horny 24 hours a day/7 days a week, yet people choose to believe it.

I think this book was heart felt and a very honest, realistic view from his perspective and a very enjoyable read. I would like to say though - one thing I didn't like was that he was very cynical about many points that I did not agree with. He laughed at these callers behind their backs (ok sometimes I do, depending on the content) but... he made a habit of doing this to even average nice callers who had off-the-wall fetishes. I think his unhappiness in his job showed as he wrote the book. He even admitted that he would write how he felt at the end of the call and actually type his comments into the book, which shows... because he uses a lot of sarcasm.

This book is not an upbeat one. He is not excited about phone sex. Most of the time he is just waiting for the call to end so he can hang up the phone. Although his view on the industry does not necessarily reflect mine, I at least admire his honesty. I am sad to hear this author has passed away, I read the introduction about his tragic death.

I recommend this book... not really sure who to recommend it to. Callers may not want to read it, because it may make them never want to call phone sex again. And fellow phone sex operators may not want to read it because it's almost a slightly depressing book. But I DO recommend it because - it is funny, it's realistic, it adds humor in the most off-the-wall topics... and simply because I never read a version of phone sex from the male's perspective.

I give it five stars.

Reviews (6)

Rather dry
The Fantasy Factory is a rather short and rather dry look at the behind the scenes of the Sex Phone industry and in particular, one company. As there are only a couple dozen real life accounts of what it is like to work as an operator, the book is rather anecdotal. In tone and approach the book is similar to Nickel and Dimed but is more academic. At just under 130 pages, there isn't much room for deep analysis. I would have liked to read more about the business aspect of it, the history of it and the social ramifications/taboos from the callers' points of view.

A researcher's view of the industry, not a juicy read, but..
I thought it was a pretty balanced and compassionate look at those who make the calls and those who take the calls.However, her writing style is very dry and "scholarly", understandable since she is a researcher, but she sort of took a juicy topic and made it rather bland, and I don't think she's revealing anything really surprising or earth shattering about this business.Flowers is pretty accurate in her description of a large, company run, warehouse type phone sex operation where she actually worked as part of her research project. It would have been interesting had she explored other types of phone sex operations as well, especially Internet based services, but this book was based solely on her thesis project. The points she made about the de-personalization of sex & relationships in this age of electronic communication are good ones - however, there's much more to be said about the phone sex industry, and Amy did not come close to saying any of it.

Provocative, fascinating and a little sad
Amy Flowers delves into one of the growth areas of the sex industry.Phone sex is a $1 Billion/year industry here in the US.And yet, despite its size, it is generally given no more thought than as the punch line of a Monica Lewinsky joke.

Flowers reveals just what a difficult job it is to deal with the gomers, the goobers, the candymen, the turners and the psychos (her amusing and accurate segmentation of the different kinds of callers).Gomers are the lonely, who call "just to talk" - they don't even want "hot chat" from their favorite phone sex operator, they are craving contact since they have so much difficulty connecting with people in other venues.Gomers are the most lucrative clients because their calls are *long*.Once these fellows want hot chat however - some gomers get jealous, knowing that other guys are getting erotic conversation from the same woman that the gomer has been speaking to for hours on end, so some gomers start to want that same treatment - the gomer becomes a goober.Candymen want the phone sex equivalent of a quickie - they're fast and cheap, and not particularly lucrative.Turners are guys who could have been boyfriends or buddies under other circumstances, and are usually charming, with high status jobs.Psychos, however, are the misogynistic freaks who harass the operators and who comprise 15% of all the callers.

Flowers describes how the operators deal with each of these groups, and she describes how performing this kind of an intimate, emotional service can impact the operator.

Reviews (28)

Good read, but bad photos.
If you are looking for something to read about the porn industry and the difficult lives that are led by its members, then look no further.This books gives us some insight into a world that most of us will never know.And for that reason alone, the book is a decent read.However, that being said, i would not recommend buying this book.Borrow a friends or go find it at an adult bookstore and browse through it.That is the only way it will be worth your money (by not spending any that is).The photos are pretty boring, and they look like they were done by someone without a lot of photo experience.I feel like i could have done better myself with a digital camera.And the subjects themselves are not all that fun to look at or even attractive.This is not the story of some porn star you love.This is the story of some porn star you may not have seen before, and may not care to see again.In plain english, THIS IS NOT AN EROTIC BOOK.

I Liked It
Sure, this is an interesting and entertaining story.I couldn't tell where fact ended and fiction began.I was disappointed, being someone who has been both in front of and behind the camera in the adult film world, because it read more like a Hollywood-style script proposal.Again, I did like the book, but it was a big let down because it read like every other book written about this industry as it played to all the "hot buttons" and stereotypes.I was surprised by a little-know book titled Cut Throat Business because it depicts the real inner workings of this industry.So if you by this book, I also recommend that you by the other too, you won't be disappointed and you'll get a broader picture of this intriguing industry.

Valuable as a cure for Porn Addicts
If you have a porn addiction or know someone who is obsessed by porn, get him this book.This book's chief virtue is not its black-and-white pictures but its honesty.I was about to date someone, lets call her Heather, who came from the stripper/porn world and it allowed me to understand her mood shifts, drug problems and difficulty committing to even just a normal date --once I told her that I wasnt rich.A self-destructive cycle was at work in a woman who wanted to break out of it...

Very few women in this world, such as Nina Hartley, seem to form normal relationships; most are emotionally abused as children (usually raped by a relative) and enter adulthood still damaged and get further damaged by this profession. Savannah committed suicide and this photographer did nothing to help; he seemed as awed of her as did the friends of Elvis before his death by prescription drugs.

You will never look at these impossibly beautiful women again in the same way.Instead of desiring them, you may pity them and wish to help them out of their self-destructive cycle of sex for money -- that's what it is, after all: prostitution of the self on film.These people desperately need the love of a person who cares about them, to fill their emptiness and to stop them from becoming another tragedy like Elvis.

Such honesty helped cure me of my obsession for these women.They are so beautiful still but most are tragically destined to end up on the scrap heap of discarded flowers whose blooms have faded.After reading this book, I just desire to help these women if I can.