Melissa Gira Grant Books
Melissa Gira Grant is an American journalist, author, and former sex worker. She writes extensively on politics, gender, sexuality, and labor, contributing to publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times.
Known for: Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work
Books by Melissa Gira Grant
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work
In this incisive and provocative book, journalist Melissa Gira Grant dismantles the myths and moral panic surrounding sex work. She argues that debates about prostitution often obscure the real issues of labor rights, bodily autonomy, and social justice. Drawing on her experience as a reporter and former sex worker, Grant exposes how media, politics, and feminism have shaped public perceptions of sex work, calling for a shift from criminalization and stigma toward recognition and respect for sex workers as workers.
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The Politics of Representation
So much of what we think we know about sex work is mediated through images—through television dramas, newspaper exposés, NGO campaigns. In these portrayals, the sex worker is rarely a subject. She is an object, an emblem, a body through which other people tell their stories about morality or depravi...
From Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work
Feminism and Sex Work
One of the most painful and enduring divisions in feminist politics centers on prostitution. For decades, feminist movements have struggled over whether sex work can ever be compatible with gender equality. Abolitionists claim that prostitution reproduces patriarchal domination; sex worker–led femin...
From Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work
About Melissa Gira Grant
Melissa Gira Grant is an American journalist, author, and former sex worker. She writes extensively on politics, gender, sexuality, and labor, contributing to publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Her work often explores the intersections of feminism, human rights, a...
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Melissa Gira Grant is an American journalist, author, and former sex worker. She writes extensively on politics, gender, sexuality, and labor, contributing to publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Her work often explores the intersections of feminism, human rights, a...
Melissa Gira Grant is an American journalist, author, and former sex worker. She writes extensively on politics, gender, sexuality, and labor, contributing to publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Her work often explores the intersections of feminism, human rights, and social policy.
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Melissa Gira Grant is an American journalist, author, and former sex worker. She writes extensively on politics, gender, sexuality, and labor, contributing to publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times.
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