No respect: sex research as sex work

ABSTRACT

In this scholarly conversation, Dr Rebecca Sullivan and Dr Valerie Webber share their experiences in sex work and how it has informed their research in their different areas of sexuality studies. Dr Webber, who has worked as both a porn and cam performer, is a postdoctoral scholar at Dalhousie University’s Sexual Health and Gender (SHaG) Research Lab. Dr Sullivan, a professor in the Department of English at University of Calgary, had a brief stint as a phone sex operator during her undergraduate studies. Together, they reflect on the similarities between sex labour and academic labour, from precarity to gig economies. Their research has deepened their understanding of stigma and emphasized the importance of allied scholarship in order to imagine new research frameworks for porn studies that foreground sexual health and rights for vulnerable communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex work
• sexuality studies
• sexual health
• sexual rights
• academic labour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.