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How sex workers and activists engage in non-capitalist care practices to manage precarity, stigma, and criminalization
In Sex Worker Solidarity, Lauren Levitt argues that because of their marginalized status, which makes them outsiders in legal, labor, medical, and social networks, sex workers inevitably care for one another in distinct ways that are outside of traditional material and emotional support structures. Through participant observation and interviews with sex workers and sex worker activists at the Sex Workers Outreach Project Los Angeles (SWOP-LA) and Dungeon X, a large commercial dungeon in New York City, Levitt illustrates how sex workers create forms of value for one another that go beyond the value they create for bosses and clients, providing a model for broader social change in the face of increasing wealth inequality.
Drawing on Marxist and women of color feminisms and queer theory, Levitt reveals how sex workers’ non-biological kinship structures enable them to circulate both material resources and knowledge according to a moral economy distinct from capitalism’s economy of competition, cementing bonds between workers. Ultimately, Sex Worker Solidarity illustrates the limits and possibilities of extending the informal networks of care emerging in sex work workplaces to a broader group of people through sex worker organizing, and shows how other informal workers can resist capitalist exploitation through alternative forms of labor organizing.
"Sex Worker Solidarity is a must-read for anyone interested in the ways that sex workers look after one other. Clear in scope and informed by a deep commitment to sex worker safety and wellbeing, this book offers a thoughtful and perceptive analysis of what formal and informal sex worker networks of care and solidarity can learn and borrow from each other. Writing about the sex industry frequently focuses so extensively on the relationship between worker and client that the other relationships – the more enduring and significant ones – between workers and their colleagues, can go undescribed and invisible. Levitt’s book starts to correct this imbalance, enhancing understandings of sex workplaces, with an attentiveness to nuances of how competition and solidarity can coexist in these spaces, rather than being mutually exclusive."
"Sex Worker Solidarity breaks new ground in exploring how informal networks of mutual care and support can thrive in capitalist spaces—in this case a BDSM workplace. Levitt carefully documents how sex workers help one another manage financial hardship, physical and emotional danger, legal precarity, and social stigma. They share food, clothing, and physical affection; offer advice on setting boundaries and managing difficult clients; train one another on BDSM skills and equipment. These forms of support can't change the fundamentally dangerous and precarious nature of sex work, nor are they equally available to all--the marginalized workers who need help the most are typically least likely to receive it. Nevertheless, by shifting the focus from what sex workers do with clients to what they do for one another, Levitt makes a persuasive case for the value of mutual aid to surviving under and resisting capitalism."
"Relationships between sex workers seldom garner serious attention. In Sex Worker Solidarity, Levitt provides a rich and indispensable study of relationships between sex workers in Los Angeles and New York. From gift economies and fictive kinship to advocacy networks, Levitt’s ethnography details how sex workers create alternative social practices to thrive and survive. Sex worker care networks offer practical models of solidarity for broader social change. However, Levitt does not romanticize these practices and communities. Instead, she analyzes the fissures caused by race, class, gender, and sexuality providing insights into how informal networks of care and sex worker organizations can address the challenges posed by systems of oppression."