The way we talk about an issue shapes the way we think about an issue. Much of the popular language used to describe the sex industry and those who participate in it utilize stereotypes, perpetuate stigma, and rely on assumptions about life circumstances, integrity, trauma, health, and hygiene. Reframing our language around sex workers and sex work lays a foundation for dignity and respect.
Below is a guide to terminology and concepts for talking about sex work and the sex trades.
Because everyone is entitled to be identified in the way that most reflects their experience, this is not meant to stand in for the way people personally identify, but instead to discuss the communities impacted by policies and protocols around the commercial exchange of sex.
Sex Work
Definition: The exchange of sexual services for money, goods or resources. This is the definition accepted in public health spaces and in international community spaces.
Usage Example: “Decriminalization of sex work is an important issue.” “The issue of sex work impacts people of all genders.” “Someone you know may have engaged in sex work at some point in their life.”
Terms to Avoid: Prostitution. Prostitution is a legal term which infers both criminalization and stigmatization. Not only does it only cover a specific form of sexual exchange and not include other forms of the industry such as exotic dancing or pornography, it is jurisdictionally defined and can mean different activities when crossing state lines.
Sex Worker(s), People in the sex trades
Definition: People across the race and gender spectrum who receive money or goods in exchange for sexual services, and who consciously define those activities as income generating even if they do not consider sex work as their occupation. (World Health Organization)
Usage Example: “Policies which govern the sex trades should include the voices of sex workers.” “Milo identifies as a sex worker.” “People in the sex trades face barriers to accessing services.”
Terms to Avoid: Prostitutes, prostituted people, whore, hooker
Client(s) of the Sex Trades
Definition: Commercial sexual exchange requires two parties – while sex workers provide sexual services, clients of the sex trade are the purchasers of those services.
Usage Example: “Being a client of the sex trades is not a monolithic experience.” “Clients of the sex trade may be the closest trusted individual to a sex worker in need of support.”
Terms to Avoid: Johns. Sex buyer.
Managers, Market Facilitators, Third Parties
Definition: Like every industry, the exchange of commercial sex can take a range of forms and include a range of people around that transaction. While some sex workers are fully independent, procuring and negotiating with clients on their own, some work in connection with others. Managers, like other industries, have some level of control over the circumstances of another persons’ participation, and are compensated. Market Facilitators often connect sex workers with potential clients or offer information for how to participate in the sex trades, and may be managers or peers, and may be compensated or not. Third Parties is a much more general term which also includes people who support sex workers, such as an assistant who answers calls, and may cover all categories.
Usage Example: “Because she was the one answering phones for the house while working, they charged her as a third party.” “Young people often have market facilitators who are peers to help them when they enter the sex trades.” “That club has a strict manager, but it’s where you make the most money, so it’s a trade off about working there.”
Terms to Avoid: Pimps. While common vernacular and included in some state laws, this term conveys a very specific, gendered and racialized image meant to encourage fear and judgment. This term does not reflect the wide range of sex workers, peers, community members, managers and colleagues who are covered and criminalized by third-party laws
Trafficking into the sex trades or Trafficking into Commercial Sex
Definition: Per the Department of Justice, human trafficking involves exploiting a person for labor, services, or commercial sex. The federal, legal definition bifurcates human trafficking into two charges, sex trafficking (18 USC 1591) and trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude, or forced labor (18 USC 1590). The delineation is bifurcated by the inclusion of a commercial sex act, which is also legally framed. This means that some areas of the sex trades are 1591, while others are 1590, and some other areas of labor where trafficking included sexual services would not be included in 1590. This distinction is arbitrary, and colloquially, it is better to defer to the inclusive term of human trafficking.
Other useful terms: Trafficking survivor, victim of human trafficking
Usage Example: “Because she was the one answering phones for the house while working, they charged her as a third party.” “Young people often have market facilitators who are peers to help them when they enter the sex trades.” “That club has a strict manager, but it’s where you make the most money, so it’s a trade off about working there.”
Terms to Avoid: Pimps. While common vernacular and included in some state laws, this term conveys a very specific, gendered and racialized image meant to encourage fear and judgment. This term does not reflect the wide range of sex workers, peers, community members, managers and colleagues who are covered and criminalized by third-party laws
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