who’s on top?

Let’s face it: sex work is a highly stigmatized occupation. Although we might expect the shared experience of stigmatization to foster solidarity among sex workers, a recent study by Madeline Toubiana and Trish Ruebottom reveals that the reality is more complex: in addition to experiencing stigma from those outside the occupation, sex workers stigmatize one another.

Published in Administrative Science Quarterly, this six-year qualitative study examines stigmatization processes occurring within the Canadian sex work industry. Toubiana and Ruebottom identify a clear status hierarchy within the occupation, referred to by the sex workers themselves as “the whorearchy.” The authors identify physicality as the main criterion for this hierarchy, with those engaging in the highest degree of physical intimacy (especially intimacy with clients) at the bottom of the status hierarchy. Thus, a dominatrix would generally have higher status than a stripper, who would in turn enjoy higher status than an escort. The same principle applied within different specialties, based on variations in what individual workers were willing to do for clients. These hierarchies were further shaped by demographic characteristics (with those occupying privileged class and racial positions experiencing less stigma than others) and by workers’ motivation for their involvement (with those motivated by intrinsic enjoyment experiencing less stigma than those driven to sex work by financial need).The findings offer a nuanced view of stigma, and they illustrate how such processes can undermine occupational solidarity—potentially deterring collective action.

The findings offer a nuanced view of stigma, including how members of a stigmatized group can act as stigmatizers themselves. And they illustrate how such processes can undermine occupational solidarity—potentially deterring collective action. To the extent that sex workers are fragmented into smaller clusters of solidarity instead of identifying with the broader occupation, they may have less power to advocate for shared interests and effect social change.