ABSTRACT
Sex work is the exchange of sexual activities for money or other goods, and it has raised a series of fundamental, hotly debated questions. This chapter focuses on the issue of sexual surrogacy, for people with disabilities, to see how that practice challenges our background assumptions about what it means to treat sex as part of work. It argues that evaluating the arguments, and the fit between sex and work –requires reflection not only on the social meaning of sex, but also on the social meaning of work. Sex workers can be among the most vulnerable people in a society, and they are often exploited and abused in a range of ways. Some people think sex work cannot be understood as a free context exchange making everyone better off. Yolanda Estes’ argument concerns the inherent contradictions and harms associated with buying and selling sex, but a different way of approaching the issue considers sex work in context.
