The re-emergence of ‘trafficking’: sex work between slavery and freedom

Activists find that sex work is considered a less legitimate occupation today than it was in the 1980s
and early 1990s. They now confront representations of sex workers as victims, sold and bought
across national borders and reduced to the status of things. In this climate, labour rights seem
irrelevant. Recent shifts in the language of consent and compulsion in the UK are explored in the
light of historical parallels in order to suggest a general ambivalence towards all forms of work. Is it
possible to experience freedom or only subjugation at work? What is the role of gender in
differentiating these polar opposites?