Like a prism, prostitution dynamics reflect and magnify pervasive social patterns. These essays examine those patterns both inside and outside the context of explicit sex commerce. The author elaborates a cross-cultural critique of the categories "prostitute" and "prostitution" as constructed in science, policy and society. At every level of analysis, terms and social categories prove to be slippery, consequential and reflective of an underlying political logic that subordinates women to men. Key to that logic is the whore stigma, an official and traditional mechanism of social control inextricable from issues as diverse as migration, health care, sexual autonomy, employment and freedom of speech.

Global Sex is the first major work to take on the globalization of sexuality, examining the ways in which desire and pleasure—as well as ideas about gender, political power, and public health—are framed, shaped, or commodified by a global economy in which more and more cultures move into ever-closer contact.

A Companion to Gender Studies presents a unified and comprehensive vision of its field, and its new directions. It is designed to demonstrate in action the rich interplay between gender and other markers of social position and (dis)privilege, such as race, class, ethnicity, and nationality. Presents a unified and comprehensive vision of gender studies, and its new directions, injecting a much-needed infusion of new ideas into the field; Organized thematically and written in a lucid and lively fashion, each chapter gives insightful consideration to the differing views on its topic, and also clarifies each contributor's own position; Features original contributions from an international panel of leading experts in the field, and is co-edited by the well-known and internationally respected David Theo Goldberg.

Prostitution, Modernity, and the Making of the Cuban Republic, 1840-1920

MySearchLab provides students with a complete understanding of the research process so they can complete research projects confidently and efficiently. Students and instructors with an internet connection can visit www.MySearchLab.com and receive immediate access to thousands of full articles from the EBSCO ContentSelect database. In addition, MySearchLab offers extensive content on the research process itself—including tips on how to navigate and maximize time in the campus library, a step-by-step guide on writing a research paper, and instructions on how to finish an academic assignment with endnotes and bibliography. This engaging collection of readings presents a multifaceted view of contemporary gender relations. Using other inequalities such as race, class, and sexual orientation as a prism of difference, the readings present gender as it is situated in sexual, racial-ethnic, social class, physical abilities, age, and national citizenship contexts. In addition to articles about men, women, and sexual, and immigrant diversity, this reader also includes works on gender and globalization. The editors introduce this wide-ranging collection with a provocative analytical introduction that sets the stage for understanding gender as a socially constructed experience. Takes a sociological perspective on contemporary gender relations. Emphasizes the theme of difference or how other inequalities such as race, class, or age affect our gendered experiences. Presents a discussion of women's and men's issues. Includes articles on international and transnational factors in addition to the articles on U.S. gender relations. For anyone interested in Sociology of Gender, Women's Studies, Gender Roles, Sociology of Women, Women in Society, Race, Class, and Gender, Diversity, Feminist Theory, and Social Inequality.

The State of Sex is a study of Nevada’s brothels that situates the nation's only legal brothel industry in the political economy of contemporary tourism. Nevada is part of the "new American heartland," as its pastimes, people, and politics have become more central to the nation. The rise of a service and leisure economy over the past sixty years has propelled sexuality into the heart of contemporary markets. Yet, neoliberal laws in the United States promote business but limit sexual commerce. How have Nevada's legal brothels survived, while the rest of the country criminalizes prostitution? How do brothels operate? Who works in them? This book brings social theory on globalizing economies, politics, leisure consumption, and emotional labor in interactive service work together with research on contemporary prostitution and sexual commerce. The authors employ an innovative, multi-method sociological approach, combining historical analysis of how the brothels came to be with over a decade's worth of ethnographic research on the current state of the industry.

Sex Work Matters brings together sex workers, scholars and activists to present pioneering essays on the economics and sociology of sex work. From insights by sex workers on how they handle money, intimate relationships and daily harassment by the police, to the experience of male and transgender sex work, this fascinating and original book offers new theoretical frameworks for understanding the sex industry. The result is a vital new contribution to sex-worker rights that explores the topic in new ways, especially its cultural, economic and political dimensions. Readers weary of the sensational and often salacious treatment of the sex industry in the media and literature will find Sex Work Matters refreshing.