These are notes towards a combined guest lecture for Prof. Cutiepants' class on sex work and Dr. Wonderful's class on queer theory and pop culture. (If you knew them, you'd think the silly fake names are totally apt.) It will be (I hope) a complete, coherent lecture by early February. Or it will be an outline, accompanied by MISSION TO ACTUALLY WRITE A LECTURE by three days before. Close enough.

But seriously: mission for Wednesday: turn this into a lecture.

How to research sex work context and detail “cultural studies of commercial sex” this lecture: gives you information about sex work in the context of these (queer theory and sex work) classes, but also an example of how to do sex work research

Sex worker students

fictional representations: “her worlds collide” = worst thing that can happen

clips from “Angel” (1984) and “The West Wing” (tk)

Angel (Trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA83BTUtojQ

Angel (1:05:53-1:10:33)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJJob3KTdmE&t=1h5m53s 

The West Wing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j84V3jgXgY

what stereotypes do these representations employ?

what are the actual barriers sex workers face to education?

why do they conceive of sex workers as students first, and sex workers to fund that?

media representations: “students turn to sex work”

reciprocal relationship between fictional representations and media representations

moral panic: reports released consistently for at least the last decade

tied to sterotypes of youth and especially students as excessive

youth and unemployment

if students are “turning to” sex work, what are they turning from?

Sex work and the university

university as conceived in sex work

professor/student porn trope

extending the meaningfulness of “coed”

“student” as sex marketing strategy

sex work as academic marketing strategy

“debate” simplifies sex work in a way that makes academic careers easier but doesn’t help sex workers

good sexuality teaching = material you can use outside of the classroom

but how to be a sex worker in a class about sex work? (re: Margot’s suggestion about racialized students, queer students also having to be “in” or “out” or marked in classes about racism, queerness; also: do sex workers need the debate or sex work 101?)

are sex workers served by universities? (e.g., contrast UVic website that mentions sex workers only in context of social work placements and McGill website that lists sex shops as sexual health resources.)

neoliberalism and the university

rising tuition fees and new realities for students

contingency, tenure, and teaching porn

“homonormativity” and the sexual politics of neoliberalism

universities’ roles in displacing sex workers (e.g., UoIT’s role in gentrification of downtown Oshawa)