Sometime in the late 1980s I became aware of the term sex work. I was taken aback; it seemed too constrained and limiting. I understood its import—prostitution is work, it is the exchange of sex for money. Calling it sex work put prostitutes firmly in the realm of laborers who should be studied with dignity and respect. But why wasn’t prostitution just work? I ignored the term; I was finishing a book about the history of prostitution in colonial Nairobi, and I didn’t want to be distracted by terminology. By the time the book was published in 1990, sex work was in everyday use, and I regretted not saying why I objected to the term.
By now, of course, being uneasy with the term sex work doubtless makes me a curmudgeon. But the fact remains that I would be much happier to have the word prostitution stripped of...
