useful scholarly interventions

this book makes a number of useful interventions into sex work scholarship and Marxist theory. in terms of the former, she introduces and uses the tools of class analysis and dialectical thinking amidst a literature that under theorizes workplace conflict. to the latter, she introduces new concerns (e.g. subjectivities around the concept of work), and complicates the picture of class in a context where class positionalities are fluid.


although some of her statements about the gig economy seem overly optimistic, I appreciate her analysis and nuanced critique. this work is all the stronger for the inclusion of feminist and queer porn production, which is Rife with the same kind of class conflict.


however, this work is not without it's flaws. her focus is on Studio work and performers who could be called porn stars. despite the acknowledgment that direct to Consumer clip sales and other "side hustles" often make up the majority of a performers income stream, there is relatively little discussion of this kind of work in and of itself. for example, her argument that studio performers use these scenes as a branding tool is interesting, but it raises questions about performers who do not do Studio work. this Gap desperately needs to be filled because direct to consumer clip sales put performers with a variety of different social capitals (e.g. pornstar, cam moddel, amiture couples) into Direct competition with one another. this Gap is worth underlining, because her Focus is on a particular mode of porn production rather than porn itself.

Edit: I apologize for uneven capitalization and other formatting issues. the formatting always gets messed up when I use my phone keyboard.

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