Product Description

Whores and Other Feminists is the first volume to examine sex work and the sex industry through the eyes of self-identified feminist sex workers - strippers, prostitutes, porn writers, producers and performers, dominatrices - and their allies. Comprising a range of voices from both within and outside the academy, this collection draws from traditional feminisms, postmodern feminism, queer theory, libertarianism, and sex radicalism. Through essay and personal narrative, the contributors liberate the exchange of sex for money from its arranged ideological marriage with sexist oppression, highlighting instead more local questions about particular sex work practices and their interface with feminist thought.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429993 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Amazon.com Review
Strippers, peepshow dancers, and porn stars trade spiked heels for footnotes while demonstrating their often overlooked ability to engage in scholarly discourse in this collection of essays focusing on the subject of feminism as practiced by those who call themselves "sex workers." Along with the first-person accounts by such underground luminaries as Nina Hartley, Tracy Quan, and Annie Sprinkle, are forays into the sex dens by a number of academics. The writing is frank, though hardly pornographic, and many of the points raised and discussed are treated with more seriousness and considerably more insight than they usually are in the mainstream press.

Review
"Approximately three dozen sex workers join Campbell to plumb the sex-for-money nexus for its feminist meanings. In chorus, they proclaim a gleefully sex-positive approach to topics that have long troubled feminism.... They delight and they frustrate, these 'proud whores.' Their insights leave the ruminations of my cohort of sex-worker feminists in the dust." -- The Women's Review of Books

This book is provocative. The title shocks; the content stimulates. Feminism sorely needs exactly what is provided in this book. -- Journal of American and Comparative Cultures
This is an essential contribution to the current dialog about sex work. ...this book is not only provocative, entertaining, and consistently well-written, it's also a public service. -- Black Sheets
Approximately three dozen sex workers join Campbell to plumb the sex-for-money nexus for its feminist meanings. In chorus, they proclaim a gleefully sex-positive approach to topics that have long troubled feminism...They delight and they frustrate, these 'proud whores.' Their insights leave the ruminations of my cohort of sex-worker feminists in the dust. -- The Women's Review of Books
Nagle has definitely broken new ground and established one of many stances of 'third wave' feminism. Whores and Other Feminists is fascinating and liberating. -- The LesbianReview of Books
This book provides a welcome change from the more familiar puritanical version of feminism. -- In These Times

This book is provocative. The title shocks; the content stimulates. Feminism sorely needs exactly what is provided in this book. -- Journal of American and Comparative Cultures
This is an essential contribution to the current dialog about sex work. ...this book is not only provocative, entertaining, and consistently well-written, its also a public service. -- Black Sheets
Approximately three dozen sex workers join Campbell to plumb the sex-for-money nexus for its feminist meanings. In chorus, they proclaim a gleefully sex-positive approach to topics that have long troubled feminism...They delight and they frustrate, these proud whores. Their insights leave the ruminations of my cohort of sex-worker feminists in the dust. -- The Womens Review of Books
Nagle has definitely broken new ground and established one of many stances of third wave feminism. Whores and Other Feminists is fascinating and liberating. -- The Lesbian Review of Books
This book provides a welcome change from the more familiar puritanical version of feminism. -- In These Times

Customer Reviews

This book is enlightening!
As a college student studying American cultural studies and emerging feminist discourses, I found this book to be an important and must read for any feminist regardless of their position on the issue of sex work and feminism. After reading this book, I am interested in learning more about feminist theory and how it relates to sex work. Jill Nagle compiles a various assortment of different kinds of sex work from stripping, to S&M, to phone sex operators. As a woman, as a feminist, as a man, as a critical reader, as a sexual being, please do read this book. highly recommended!

All Kinds of Feminists
As a journalist from the San Francisco area who knows nearly half of this book's authors, as a lifelong feminist, and as a sexworker for over 20 years, my perspective is widely encompassing. This book expands the boundaries of feminism beyond the conservative boundaries of the women's movement of the Seventies. After decades of the bipolar assault on womens' sexuality, from Andrea Dworkin to Phyllis Schaffly -- two sides of the same conservative coin -- it is refreshing to see a new generation of women not only claiming their own bodies but also taking charge of them. This book helps give them a voice.

Certainly, there are sad cases in the adult industry, and perhaps some of them do end up in sexwork because of a difficult past, yet to suggest there would be few sexworkers if every woman in America were happy and well-adjusted is a fallacy in logic. I have personally known many brilliant, self-actualized women who have done and continue to do sexwork. You'll find some of them in the pages of this book.

I can easily understand the negative reviews, however. Many Americans are so rooted in the Puritanical yet hedonist nature of our culture, there is a prevalent sexual ambivalence in our society: we're fascinated and titillated by sex, yet also afraid of it. We're simultaneously obsessed and fascinated with bodies (ours and others') yet also ashamed of them. Then there are the reviews clearly sent by female Rush Limbaugh "dittoheads" -- people who use the word "feminazi" with a straight face and secretly believe a woman is a second class citizen. Forgive them, Mother, they know not what they say.

This is an excellent book on sexwork as the new radical, leading edge of feminism, and I highly recommend it to any woman (or man) with an open mind who isn't afraid to think for herself.

This book will change you.
The perspectives presented in Nagle's revolutionary book made me re-think a lot of my politically correct feminist assumptions. I realized that perhaps prostitutes are not victims. In fact, they may possibly be the most empowered women of all. Men are charged for every minute they spend with them, the smart ones carefully screen their clients, and they don't sugarcoat the services they provide with dishonest romantic rhetoric.
I was left with the astonishing conclusion that misogyny's victims are most often housewives, mistresses and girlfriends. These women allow men free access to their bodies, while often serving as maids, cooks, nurturers, escorts, masseuses and companions. Whores prove that a woman's time and sexual attention has real and significant economic value.
This book is a must read for any critical thinker. It will change you.