Voluntary sex work and stigma in the United States

Abstract

This study explores voluntary sex work in the United States with three chapters exploring sex work in Oklahoma in the early 20th century in Hell’s Half Acre, midcentury in Tulsa, and the current sex work hotspots in metropolitan Oklahoma City. This study emphasizes voluntary sex work in which a human being chooses sex work to differentiate it from forced sex work, such as a husband forcing his wife into sex work, or forced human trafficking, such as being kidnapped, drugged, and forced into this industry. The stigma surrounding sex work has not diminished over time. However, it now constitutes a type of civil death for the sex worker, yet the stigma for the sex client has decreased over time. This study also examines how societal stigma has impacted sex workers in Oklahoma by exploring the trends in the early 20th century and modern sex practices in Oklahoma. I argue that sex work and stigma have deep roots in Oklahoma that have contributed to the country’s stigma due to the Moral Purity Movement that originated in the southern United States. Oklahoma’s statehood condition of prohibiting alcohol, and by extension, sex work, also influenced the rest of the United States that these prohibitions were necessary to preserve moral values and to drive away these vices and disregard sex workers as human beings.