The Political Economy of the Sex Industry

This short chapter has two central tasks. The first is to give an overview of the size and nature of the sex industry. This can be achieved by marshalling together the available evidence that is derived from an array of secondary sources to demonstrate the overall size of the industry and the sizes of its constituent parts. The second is to very briefly sketch out an understanding of how this industry is now an integral part of contemporary society and economy, both in terms of national units (i.e. countries) and globally. The thrust of this consideration is not only to show how the sex industry is a major part of economic activity under late capitalism on a par with other leisure industries and activities but that it is one which has reached an unprecedented ‘lift off’ in the last ten or fifteen years as a result of the growth and development of information technologies. So the rising consumption of commmodified sex, sexual services and sexual artefacts has become a major cultural and consumerism ‘turn’. At the same time, it is also to suggest that the sex industry is a primary manifestation of, and tool by which, this social and political system of capitalism objectifies and commodifies sexuality, sexual desire, and women, their sexuality and their bodies in particular.