This book challenges the framing of prostitution as “sex work”, which asserts that it is a legitimate and acceptable form of work which can and should be regulated as a normal part of the market economy. Terms such as sexual commerce, sexual transactions, sexual exchange and consumer demand reflect the current trend towards situating prostitution as a legitimate business by those promoting the commercial sex trade. Sex work academics and advocates argue that the selling of “sexual services” is comparable to other forms of services, including domestic labour and care work and therefore “sex work” can and should be governed within a legal labour rights framework (Agustin 2007; Chapkis 2009; Sanders et al. 2009). It is asserted that the majority of women exercise individual choice and agency in entering and remaining in the commercial sex trade, choosing it as a better economic option than other forms of low status occupations (Bettio et al. 2017; Ditmore 2005; Doezema 2010). Given the right working conditions, it is claimed, the prostitution contract can be an equal, respectful, commercial sexual exchange where any harmful or negative consequences are minimized and through which the rights of both the worker and the consumer are protected. In recent discourse, there is also an emerging emphasis on the sex buyers’ demand for intimacy within the indoor setting and that the present-day consumer has a legitimate expectation of intimacy, emotional relationship, a “girlfriend experience” to be part of the financial transaction (Bernstein 2010; Brents et al. 2010; Milrod & Monto 2012; Sanders 2008; Weitzer 2010). It is argued that the emotional labour (Russell Hochschild 1983) this demands is also required in other areas of the gendered economy, including child care and elder care, and that the “sex worker” also develops strategies to manage the physical and the emotional needs of their “clients” (Oerton & Phoenix 2001; Sanders 2005).

The negative aspects of the sex trade including pimping, coercion, violence, child sexual exploitation and trafficking are recognized but, it is claimed, legalization will remove these undesirable elements and deliver a safe working environment where the norms of labour rights and laws can be implemented.