SEX WORK TOOLKIT

2SLGBTQI+ community: Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse and non-confirming, queer and intersex community. Please note that terminology related to gender, sexuality, and in particular Indigenous expressions of these is always evolving and being reclaimed; resources we recommend for further learning are https://transformingembers.com/about-us and QMuntiy’s “Queer Glossary”. 

Agency (brothel): A house, apartment or other location where sexual services are sold.

Bad date (bad trick): An incident where someone who purchases sex from a sex worker does something that a sex worker would not want done to anyone else. This can include  wasting a sex workers’ time, stealing from a sex worker, being physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually or spiritually violent, outting or doxxing, stalking, removal of condoms, knowingly passing on STBBIs, non-consensually publishing intimate images, confinement, etc. 

Backpage: A popular online platform used by sex workers to advertise services, which was taken down by FOSTA/SESTA (legislation in the United States). 

Bathhouse: A place where cis gay men go to have sex, buy sexual services, or sell sexual services. These establishments are typically obscured and have historically been cis-centric, but are also used by trans men and women and non-binary workers.

Bawdy house: An indoor site where sex work regularly takes place (this term is not typically used anymore)

Brothel: A house, apartment or other property where sexual services are sold (this term is typically not used anymore).

Cisgender/ “cis”: A term that refers to a person whose gender identity does aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. 

Decriminalization: Removing laws relating to sex work, such as communication and purchasing sexual services, which are currently regarded as offences in the Criminal Code. It also includes the view that no other laws at the federal, provincial or municipal level should be introduced to take their place.

Exiting: The process of transition that people undergo as they cease to work in the sex industry. A term used by sex workers to describe leaving the sex industry for normative jobs. This term is still used by some sex workers, but has also been co-opted by sex work prohibitionists to bolster the idea that sex work is unsafe and illegitimate. 

Experiential: Individuals who identify themselves as people who are currently, or have in the past, supported themselves in part or in full through paid labour in sex work.

Exploitation: A person who controls the life of another person by taking advantage of an inequality or vulnerability (i.e. age, addiction, poverty, etc.) through use of threats, violence, fraud, manipulation, deception, abuse of power, financial incentive or promise of benefits to force someone, against his or her will, to perform labour or services. Sexual exploitation refers to people who are required, against their will, to undertake sexual acts. Youth sexual exploitation refers to children under the age of 18 years.

Hustler: Term typically used for cis men in sex work.

Incall: A location, like an apartment, used as a working space by a sex worker. Also referred to as a type of service where a client goes to a sex workers’ location for services. 

Indie: An independent sex worker, who typically manages their own business. 

John (trick, date, customer, client): Someone who trades or buys sexual services.

Legalization: Permitting sex work under regulated conditions by having government set legislation governing the work and businesses of sex workers.

Massage parlour (body rub parlour): An establishment where people can purchase a massage with additional sexual services.

Outcall: A type of service where a sex worker goes to a location, like the client’s apartment or a hotel, to work with a client.  

Pimp: A person who manipulates or controls and uses power over a sex worker for profit.

Prohibition: A legal approach that aims to eliminate all forms of paid sex by making sex work, or certain activities associated with sex work, illegal.

Sex assigned at birth: Also referred to as “biological sex”, “sex assigned at birth” refers to the sex categorization assigned to a newborn by a medical doctor. Newborns are assigned “male”, “female” or “intersex” based on physical and chromosomal traits.

Sex industry/sex trade: All-encompassing term covering all forms of sex work including selling online sex, erotic dancing, stripping, massage, pornography, escorting, BSDM, etc. 

Sex work: The exchange of sexual labour for money or goods.

Sex worker: Someone who works in the sex industry. (Derogatory words/slurs and phrases are: prostitute, hooker, whore, ho, scarlet, streetwalker, which sex workers may use to refer to themselves, but people who are not sex workers should not use.)

Stroll (corner, track): Well-known areas where customers go to buy sexual services. They are usually separated into different geographical locations based on perceived gender: cis men, cis women, and trans workers.

Survival sex work:  This term refers to sexual services provided by people experiencing extreme basic needs scarcity (lack of access to shelter, food, water, substances, clothing, money, etc). There is often reduced choice in survival sex work, often to due systemic oppression. 

Trafficking in persons: This refers to the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person for the purpose of exploitation, forced labour or services or slavery. Trafficking happens for many purposes (sex work, domestic work, factory labour, the removal of organs, etc.).

Transgender:  A term that refers to a person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Youth sexual exploitation: Youth sexual exploitation holds different meaning for different people who have experienced it. Canadian law says that if a youth under 18 exchanges sexual services for money, clothes, food, shelter, etc., they are being exploited and not working in sex work. There is an obligation to disclose to the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) if you know that a youth is being sexually exploited. This includes the direct use of children and youth for sex and the use of children in sexual images (pornography).

While LIC does not work with or regarding youth, we consider youth sexual exploitation to be part of many systems of power and control, and not exclusive to sex trafficking frameworks– which can misrepresent lived experiences of youth sexual exploitation.