The State of Sex

Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland

Barbara Brents author Crystal Jackson author Kathryn Hausbeck author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:15th Dec '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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The State of Sex cover

The State of Sex is a study of Nevada’s brothels that situates the nation's only legal brothel industry in the political economy of contemporary tourism. Nevada is part of the "new American heartland," as its pastimes, people, and politics have become more central to the nation. The rise of a service and leisure economy over the past sixty years has propelled sexuality into the heart of contemporary markets. Yet, neoliberal laws in the United States promote business but limit sexual commerce.

How have Nevada's legal brothels survived, while the rest of the country criminalizes prostitution? How do brothels operate? Who works in them? This book brings social theory on globalizing economies, politics, leisure consumption, and emotional labor in interactive service work together with research on contemporary prostitution and sexual commerce. The authors employ an innovative, multi-method sociological approach, combining historical analysis of how the brothels came to be with over a decade's worth of ethnographic research on the current state of the industry.

'Drawing upon a decade of qualitative research in Nevada's legalized brothel system, this collaborative effort by Barbara Brents, Crystal Jackson, and Kathryn Hausbeck fills a void in contemporary sociological research on sex work.'

'[O]riginal and very interesting empirical material'

'The State of Sex constitutes a welcome addition to contemporary sociological treatments of commercial sex and a much needed examination of Nevada's burgeoning leisure industry.'
-Elizabeth Bernstein, Columbia University in Contemporary Sociology, vol. 40, no. 3


"This book brings together rich empirical data that builds new sociological theory to help explain the state of commercial sex in the global leisure consumer society. The voices of sex workers from the Nevada brothels make this book an essential for anyone reading about or studying the sex industries."—Teela Sanders, University of Leeds, UK

"This book is a strong contribution to sociology and our understanding of sex work and the sex industry. The authors' extensive fieldwork captures an intricate snapshot of the Nevada legal brothel industry…undergraduate students along and the sex worker community will benefit from this book."—Carly Chillmon, University of California, Santa Barbara

ISBN: 9780415929486

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

320 pages