 Front cover | |
| Author | Melissa Gira Grant |
|---|---|
| Subject | Sex work |
| Publisher | Verso Books |
Publication date | March 2014 |
| Pages | 144 |
| ISBN | 9781781683231 |
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work is a 2014 book by Melissa Gira Grant about the politics of sex work. The author—a journalist and former sex worker—views sex work as labor and analyzes public narratives about what a prostitute is. Grant identifies systemic economic issues relating to sex work while dissenting with anti–sex-work feminists and organizations which aim to "rescue" sex workers. She argues against efforts to criminalize sex work and describes how traditional methods of sex-work solicitation such as red-light districts have changed as such districts become gentrified and much sex work moves online. The book was published by Verso Books in collaboration with Jacobin and received positive critical reception.