Temporarily Yours – Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex (Worlds of Desire (CHUP)) - Tapa dura

"This is an ambitious book - highly readable, compelling, and original. Bernstein's claim is that the character and organization of sex work has shifted. Whereas the signature form of sex work used to be the nonwhite streetwalker working in largely marginal neighborhoods, today, she reveals, sex work is largely private, relying heavily on the Internet, and provided by someone that is as often white and middle-class as nonwhite and poor." - Steven Seidman, author of Beyond the Closet"

Despite increased economic opportunities for women, sexual commerce has not only thrived in the Western world, it has diversified along technological, spatial, and social lines. For example, contemporary sex workers often meet their clinets through the Internet, offering new kinds of encounters that are a far cry from the quick and impersonal contacts that we normally associate with prostitution. For "Temporarily Yours", sociologist Elizabeth Bernstein walked the streets and went behind closed doors, interviewing sex workers, their clients, and the government officials who regulate the business. Along the way, she discovered a significant transformation that is occurring in the urban sex trade. Many middle-class johns are now seeking to fulfill fantasies of intimacy and affection - to purchase an authentic interaction that is gratifying emotionally, not just physically. Drawing on innovative research in San Francisco, Stockholm, and Amsterdam, Bernstein paints a provocative picture of the current state of global sexual commerce and its relationship to a burgeoning consumer culture.