Anthropological Research with Sex Workers: An Introduction

Abstract

At 4 am on an isolated highway, Kristi turns to me and asks, “Do you mind if I rest my eyes for a minute? I haven’t slept for three days.” The brilliant red-silver of daybreak is just beginning to cast the snowy fields around us with a shimmering glow as we drive toward another town, where Kristi hopes to retrieve her belongings from a motel notorious for drug and prostitution activity. I have known Kristi for about eight hours, most of which we have spent talking about the tumultuous events she has experienced in the past week. “I’m done,” she says, crossing her forearms emphatically as we sat together in the back room of a homeless shelter, “I’m just done.” Even at this point in my research on street sex workers’ notions of risk, when I feel like I have heard everything, I have to work hard to hold back tears as she tells me about her last few days on the streets, during which was assaulted by her partner, almost raped by a client, and ignored by police officers when she tried to file complaints about both.