ABSTRACT
There is no red light district in Chennai; rather, sex work takes place all across the town. Therefore, in order to write about the context of sex work in Chennai, one must describe the various people, places and ideas that contribute to the social construction of sex work there. In this chapter I discuss the Chennai’s recent economic changes, due to it becoming a target for migration within Tamil Nadu (as well as from neighbouring states) and its role in Tamil Nadu’s film industry. Furthermore, sex workers operate not only in geographic spaces, but also in conceptual environments; therefore, I will also consider the discourses on gender and sexuality that inform opinions and ideas about sex work in the context of Tamil Nadu.
