Description
Book SynopsisPrecarious Empowerment: Sexual Labor in the Coffee Shops of Chileâs Santiago provides a textured and telling exploration into the lives and experiences of sex workers in Chile, their encounters with discrimination and economic precarity, and their empowered resistance.
Set in and around âtinted cafesâ â spaces hidden from public view where women dance for their male clients and perform sexual services â within Chileâs capital city of Santiago, author Pilar Ortiz traces connections between sex work in the present day and the lasting legacies of colonialism and gender and sexual norms. Drawing on her careful ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with the workers and their clients, the book reveals the many challenges women face at the intersection of class, racial, and gender inequalities. It also documents their resistance to stigma and stifling social norms and predetermined gender roles. In their practice of sexual labor, the book argues that women display
