BEYOND THE MARKED WOMAN: THE NEW SEX WORKER IN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE, 2006-2016 By Lauren Kirshner Bachelor of Education, University of Toronto, 2009 Master of Arts, University of Toronto, 2007 Honours Bachelor of Arts, University of Toronto, 2005 A dissertation presented to Ryerson University and York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the joint program of Communication and Culture Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2019 © Lauren Kirshner, 2019 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A DISSERTATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation. This is a true copy of the dissertation, including any required final revision, as required by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this dissertation to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to lend this dissertation by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my dissertation may be made electronically available to the public. ii BEYOND THE MARKED WOMAN: THE NEW SEX WORKER IN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE, 2006-2016 Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Lauren Kirshner Communication and Culture, Ryerson University and York University This dissertation argues that between 2006 and 2016, in a context of rising tolerance for sex workers, economic shifts under neoliberal capitalism, and the normalization of transactional intimate labour, popular culture began to offer new and humanizing images of the sex worker as an entrepreneur and care worker. This new popular culture legitimatizes sex workers in a growing services industry and carries important de-stigmatizing messages about sex workers, who continue to be among the most stigmatized of women workers in the U.S. These new representations challenge stereotypical portrayals of sex workers – as immoral criminals or exploited victims – that support conservative and patriarchal ideologies. Drawing upon feminist theories of sex work, labour theory, and feminist media studies methodology for exploring the nexus of gender, sexuality, and popular culture, this dissertation examines feature films, TV series, and TV and online documentaries that depict five sex work occupations – erotic dancers, massage parlour workers, webcam models, call girls, and sex surrogates – to illustrate the new figure of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker under neoliberal capitalism. By emphasizing sex workers’ agency to choose their work, dignifying their skills, underscoring sex work as a means of economic mobility, and highlighting the positive contributions sex workers make to their clients’ lives, these popular culture representations challenge the anti-sex work position espoused by conservative patriarchal ideology and prohibitionist feminists. Some of these new representations, however, intertwine with a neoliberal post-feminist sensibility that frames empowerment as realizable through individualism and the market alone, rather than in collective ways, and pose few concrete solutions to the challenges faced by sex workers today, namely criminalization. Even so, this dissertation argues that these emerging twenty-first century representations of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker are progressive and mark a growing social tolerance for the idea that, for some women, sex work is legitimate work. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Ruth Panofsky, for her unwavering intellectual generosity, wisdom, insight, and encouragement, which allowed me to explore this topic without reserve. Without Dr. Panofsky’s knowledge, grace, guidance, and persistent support, this dissertation would not have been possible. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Nima Naghibi for her superb editorial insights and steadfast encouragement, which helped me tremendously. I’m particularly thankful to her for asking me important feminist theoretical questions which prompted me to focus my research in valuable ways. Finally, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Podnieks for her substantial support and expert guidance. I am especially grateful for her illuminating feedback about the motherhood sections of this work. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Introduction: The New Sex Worker in American Popular Culture, 2006-2016 1 Historical and Social Context: From Pornification to Sex Worker Rights 2 From Virgin/Whore to Entrepreneur: Literature Review 7 Feminist Theories of Sex Work 14 The Prohibitionist/Oppression Paradigm 15 The Labour/Empowerment Paradigm 18 Feminist Debates about Sex Work: Critiques of Both Sides 23 The Polymorphous Paradigm 26 Sex Work as Entrepreneurship: Sex Work Under Post-Fordist Neoliberalism 27 Popular Culture: Showing the Work of Sex Work 29 Entrepreneurship 30 Erotic Capital 31 Emotional Labour 32 Care Work 33 Body Work 34 Aesthetic Labour and Display Work 35 Occupational Distinctions 35 Methodology: Doing Feminist Media Studies 36 Terminology and Scope 41 Chapter Outline 43 Why These Representations Matter: From the Personal to the Political 46 Chapter 1: Dancing to the American Dream The Erotic Dancer as Entrepreneur in “Road Strip,” Life of a Stripper: P.O.P., and Magic City 50 Contexts: History, Popular Culture, Theory 52 “Road Strip”: Erotic Dancers as Travelling Entrepreneurs 58 Erotic Dancing: An Escape from Low-Waged Service Jobs 59 “An Entirely New Type”: The Erotic Dancer as Entrepreneur 61 Performing Heterosexual Femininity: Erotic Dancing as Aesthetic Labour and Display Work 63 Pretending Interest, Feigning Desire: Erotic Dancing and Emotional Labour 68 Erotic Dancing Challenges: Emotional Labour, Uncertainty, and Stigma 71 An Erotic Dancing Sisterhood: P.O.P. 74 From Minimum Wage to Feminist Collectivity: Escape and Opportunity 76 Magic City: The Glamour, Cash, and Aspiration 82 Critique: The Limits of Erotic Capital 88 Conclusion 92 Chapter 2: Massage Parlour Mothers on Prime Time Reconstituting the Fallen Woman as Mompreneur in The Client List 94 Contexts: History, Popular Culture, Theory 96 v The Massage Parlour Worker as Mompreneur: The Client List 102 Massage Parlour Work: An Escape from Low-Waged Service Work and Unemployment 103 From Worker to Owner: Massage Parlour Mompreneurship 106 Showing the Work of Massage Parlour Work: Body Work and Emotional Labour 111 Harmonizing Sex Work and Mothering Through Intensive Mothering 116 Massage Parlour Challenges: Criminalization, Custody, and Whore Stigma 119 Sex Work vs. Sex Trafficking: Elucidating a Stratified Industry 124 Critique: Mompreneurs with Boundless Agency in a Neoliberal Society 126 Conclusion 131 Chapter 3: The Twenty-First Century Peepshow Webcam Models and Feminist Entanglements in CamGirlz 133 Contexts: History, Popular Culture, Theory 135 CamGirlz: A Day in the Life of Sex Entrepreneurship 139 Webcam Modeling: An Escape from Precarious Low-Wage Service Work 140 It’s Just My Business: Webcam Modeling as Creative Entrepreneurship 142 Webcam Modeling as Counter-Porn Performance Art 146 Webcam Modelling as Catalyzing Women’s Sexual Self-Discovery/Self-Actualization 149 Critique: CamGirlz’s “Postfeminist Sensibility” 157 Conclusion 163 Chapter 4: Sex and Self-Commodification in the City Sex Work as Intimate Business in The Girlfriend Experience 164 Contexts: History, Popular Culture, Theory 166 The Girlfriend Experience: Performing Bounded Authenticity 169 The Entrepreneurship of a GFE Call Girl 174 Conspicuous Consumption: Aesthetic Labour 178 Call Girls and Gym Boys: The World of Transactional Service Work 183 The Costs of Self-Commodification 187 Conclusion 192 Chapter 5: Sexual Healers The Sex Surrogate as Care Worker in The Sessions and She’s Lost Control 193 Contexts: History, Popular Culture, Theory 195 Refuting Stereotypes: The Sex Surrogate as Care Worker and Body Worker in The Sessions 199 The Sex Surrogate as Care Worker 199 The Sex Surrogate as Body Worker 202 Showing Professional Boundaries and Emotion Management Techniques 205 Sex Surrogates: Enriching the Lives of People with Disabilities 207 Sex Postitive Sex Surrogacy: Relational Rewards 213 Relational Burdens: The Cost of Emotional Labour 215 vi She’s Lost Control: Sex Surrogates as Care and Body Workers 219 Sex Surrogates: Relational Rewards and the Costs of Emotional Labour 224 The Burden of Criminalization 226 Conclusion 231 Conclusion: From Victimhood and Vice to Sex Worker Rights 234 The Limits of These Representations 239 The Stakes: Continued Stigmatization of Sex Workers 244 Directions for Further Research 247 Reference List 253 vii Introduction: The New Sex Worker in American Popular Culture, 2006-2016 Popular culture has been the greatest purveyor of images of sex workers for over 100 years. Since 1896, sex workers have appeared as main characters in over 1,400 films, most made in Hollywood (Campbell, 2006). From epics like East of Eden to romantic comedies such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s to dramas like Klute, American popular culture has made sex workers iconic, and more actresses have won Oscars for playing sex workers than for any other role (Parish, 1992). 1 Yet, for over 100 years, the U.S. has also criminalized and stigmatized sex workers; today, they continue to be criminalized in 49 out of 50 U.S. states. During this time, popular culture has contributed to this criminalization and stigmatization by recycling stereotypical