Sex work research: Positionality in practice

Sex work research has the potential to drive policy shifts, reshape societal attitudes, and inform the reallocation of resources towards the improvement of sex workers’ lives. In this paper, we explore how conscious and unconscious biases about sex work come into play during the research process and, if left unquestioned, contribute to the drafting of research findings that misinterpret, misframe, and misrepresent sex workers’ collective struggle for rights and recognition. Drawing from our unique experiences as researchers with lived experience of the adult industry, we explore some of the possible challenges of sex work research that scholars - especially early career researchers and those with no sex work experience, who may observe the industry through their civilian gaze, should consider. Our paper challenges the epistemic injustice against sex workers and contends that reflecting on the stigma associated with sex work and sex work research, on the biases of the civilian gaze, and on the risks of research that lacks nuance and does not centre sex workers’ lived experience are crucial to produce studies that can truly benefit the community.