%0 Journal Article
%T ¡®I¡¯m Not a Bloody Slave, I Get Paid and if I Don¡¯t Get Paid Then Nothing Happens¡¯: Sarah¡¯s Experience of Being a Student Sex Worker
%A Jessica Simpson
%A Sarah Smith
%J Work, Employment and Society
%@ 1469-8722
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0950017018809888
%X Sex work remains a contentious area of debate. Whether or not sex work is considered to be a form of labour is in itself contested. As discussion is often about rather than with sex workers, this article brings Sarah¡¯s experiences of being both a student and a sex worker, in two different areas of the UK, to centre stage. This candid account highlights the precarious and competitive nature of being self-employed within the current neoliberal climate, as well as the similarities sex work shares with other ¡®mainstream¡¯ forms of labour particularly within the ¡®gig economy¡¯. Existing research has focused on how/why students enter the sex industry leaving a gap in the literature regarding what happens after university in this context. It appears from Sarah¡¯s account that leaving sex work behind may not be as straightforward as she had originally anticipated, for reasons other than just making money
%K gig economy
%K self-employment
%K sex work
%K students
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0950017018809888