Where to find how social media has influenced attitudes on sex work?

January 11, 2016 6:38 AM

Has there been any scholarly work or research done on how attitudes toward sex workers/pornographic performers have changed due to social media?

The dehumanization of sex workers/performers has been a brutally awful constant through history. I would be fascinated to see if social media might be changing that. Thanks to social media, there is an unprecedented direct line of communication between sex workers/performers and consumers. But has this direct communication had a humanizing effect on consumers' attitudes?

I tried Google Scholar but was overwhelmed by irrelevant results. Any pointing in the right direction would be enormously helpful. If there isn't much research existing on the topic, my preference is, in order:

1.) Research
2.) Journalism
3.) Memoirs, Blog posts, and other personal anecdotes/accounts

posted by anonymous to Society & Culture (2 answers total)

AV Flox writes a lot about sex work. She also edits the Slantist. I know she's posted on these topics on her Facebook page. Maybe drop her a line and see if she has any resources for you.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:42 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sex worker and writer here. Anecdotally social media has helped quite a lot with visibility of our issues.

I'm not aware of any research on the impact social media has had.
posted by Mistress at 12:50 AM on January 12, 2016