“You can’t make a living doing porn”: Laith

Abstract

In this chapter, extent literature on ‘exiting’ sex work is presented and then problematise due the limitations of role transition theories that underpin this scholarship, the overreliance on the experiences of the most visible sex workers, who are street-based, and ideological standpoints that view sex work as wholly exploitation, all contributes to simplistic dichotomy conceptualisations of as something people are either trapped in or have survived. Drawing on the lived experiences and practices of Contributors who operate at the intersection of sex work and square work, and research that offers a nuanced understanding of the factors that influence decisions about involvement in sex work. The Continuum of Sex Industry Work and Square Work (SIWSQ) is introduced as an alternative framework to understand this complex issue. The chapter ends with a detailed accounting by participants of their diversified earnings derived from duality compared to the general population, time investments in work in both industries, and how participating in concurrent sex work and square work provides ‘flexicurity’. Contributors discuss how duality staves off poverty, provides money for emergencies, seed money and funding for interim projects such as tuition, and facilitates social mobility if engaged in as a longer-term financial strategy to pay for life.