Examining Organizational Narratives: Public Appeals of Morality, Emotions, and Medical Logic in the Case of Sex Work for Disabled Clients*

Abstract

This study examines public narratives of sex work organizations that specifically serve disabled clientele. We utilize virtual data from two organizational online presences, including featured client and worker testimonials, a related documentary film, and audience commentary. Our analysis illuminates (1) the organizational characterizations of disabled clients as deserving and in need of sex services, (2) depictions of sex workers as moral, medical practitioners, and (3) plots and moral lessons that legitimate organizational services through medical logic. We argue that while such storytelling has the potential to persuade audiences through cultural appeals to morality, emotion, and medical logic, it simultaneously stigmatizes disabled people while constructing moral hierarchies of sex workers.