ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I briefly trace sex work in a historical context. This overview illustrates how and why society has come to view sex workers with taboo and stigma. I then move to explore the politics and stigma around sex work including common misunderstandings and misconceptions about sex trafficking and the conflation of sex trafficking and sex work. I outline the stigma associated with sex workers as contributors to public health concerns and how all of these issues have come to fuel disdain for sex workers. This disdain has resulted in paternalism in their lives and livelihoods through harmful legislation such as SESTA (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act) and FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act), none of which are suited to address/eradicate trafficking in any material way, and, in actuality, they harm sex workers.
