Transformations in Sex and Race: Black Women and Sex Work

Given the history of racialized violence against bodily autonomy and Black women’s sexual exploitation, sex work has traditionally been viewed as detrimental to Black women’s racial identity and self-worth. However, the landscape of sexual commerce has changed markedly over the past several decades, including its diversification and expansion into online markets. Newer scholarship points to the potential for social mobility, increased self-confidence, and pleasure in sex work (Miller-Young 2014; Jones 2022). Therefore, the expansion of the industry portends a significant impact on Black women’s intersecting identities, but the effects remain unclear. To understand this effect, this research asks the question: Given the expansion of sexual commerce, how does participation in sex work affect racial identity and feelings of self-worth for Black women? To answer this question, I will interview a sample of Black women sex workers. To reflect diversity in this industry, this project will include full-service workers who have sex with clients, “sugarbabies” and escorts who sell sex and/or companionship, and online camgirls and models who interact with clients remotely. I will also include sex workers who engage in BDSM practices to further understand the impact of fantasy on identity. As a control group, I interviewed Black women who participate in other gig-economy jobs that are not sex-work related and investigate racial identity meaning-making in their sex/dating lives. By utilizing a Black feminist lens that centers pleasure and agency, this project disrupts dichotomous thinking, seeking to understand the complex ways that Black women navigate pervasive capitalistic racism in the labor force and how and when they experience sex work as a site of agentic self-expression, exploitative commodification, or something entirely different. Given the expansion of the sex work industry, this project contributes to timely and essential conversations around race, identity, intimacy, and the commodification of sex.