Social Construction of Sex Work – Ethnography of Escort Agencies in Poland

The great advantage of the book is its rare sensitivity, combined with the reliability and insight of the researcher’s attitude. The author was able to gain the trust of the researched women, but at the same time she avoids becoming their advocate or an impartial observer who watches a researched scene dispassionately. Without moralizing or judging, this book provides the reader with a reliable picture of sex work performed by women who are made of flesh and blood. They have their concerns and hopes, plans for the future, doubts, and thoughts—they are one of us, to put it briefly. The author disenchants prostitution, presenting it more in terms of work rather than a vice. Therefore, this highly stereotyped fragment of the social world gets a human face. The author has done work that is the essence of a sociologist’s task—to get insight into a social reality and comprehend it. -- Elżbieta Zakrzewska-Manterys, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, Warsaw University