Key Terms
Author
Nathan Dawthorne, queer sociocultural anthropologist, PhD from University of Western Ontario.
Study location
London, Ontario, Canada — a midsized city (~500,000 metro population), 200 km from Toronto and Detroit. Chosen because i
Sample
43 male sex workers; semistructured life-history interviews; 2014–2017.
General definition
The exchange of intimate services for payment.
Forms of sex work include
Escorting, massage, prostitution, erotic dance/stripping, pornographic performance, professional domination (sadomasochi
Feminist counter-position
Some feminists define prostitution as violence against women, as a symptom of patriarchal oppression. From this view, se
Result
All aspects of street prostitution criminalized; systematic murders of poor, racialized, and disproportionately Indigeno
Cisnormativity
The assumption that privileges cisgender identity as the norm. The erasure of non-binary individuals in antiprostitution
Hegemonic masculinity in law
Men are socially constructed as dominant, in-control, virile — not the objects of lust. This assumption makes male sex w
Heteronormativity
Social institutions and policies that reinforce heterosexuality as normal, gender and sex as binary, and monogamous repr
John schools
Forced rehabilitation programs for men arrested for solicitation; teach negative consequences of prostitution on communi
Structural context
In Canada, rental costs exceed what a full-time minimum-wage worker earns in any province. Disability and unemployment p
Structural violence
The systematic ways social structures harm or disadvantage individuals, creating and maintaining social inequalities.
Inner-city low-income housing residents face
Poverty, single parenthood, working poor conditions, mental health struggles, substance use, crime, financial insecurity
Paths after family rejection
Streets, couch-surfing, survival sex work.