Sex workers' rights activism in the United States

Abstract

Briefly covering the historical and cultural contexts for sex workers’ rights activism in the United States, this chapter offers a snapshot of how sex worker activists continue to challenge their ongoing criminalization and marginalization in the digital age and, as a result, have shifted the internet landscape and been transformed by it in the process. Two central themes are highlighted. First, we focus on some of the lessons sex worker rights activism teaches. For example, it teaches us about resisting late capitalism on the internet and beyond, protecting our privacy in the digital age, and engaging in creative, impactful activism. Second, we focus on the strategic use of sex workers’ rallying cry of “Nothing About Us Without Us.” When someone outside the community speaks for sex workers, it acts as a type of silencing that often does more damage than good. The chapter considers what these two themes have accomplished, outlining how the lessons learned from sex worker rights activists’ tactics have shifted discussions away from questions that do not ultimately serve sex work communities, to more robust questions about the myriad lessons we learn about sex, sexuality, labor, and resistance from sex workers’ craftily executed activism and their sharp, often playful and cutting resistance to patriarchy and late capitalism.