Location: Home :: Books in General :: General AAS :: Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)

Need a quick gift? Try Amazon gift certificates.

Don't Forget To Visit:

The New Social Worker Online

SocialWorkJobBank

Online Continuing Education for Social Workers

Amazon.com Widgets

Related Categories

•	General AAS

Psychology

Social Sciences

New Used Textbooks

•	Gender Studies

Social Sciences

New Used Textbooks

Custom Stores

•	General AAS

Social Sciences

New Used Textbooks

Custom Stores

Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)

enlarge

Author: Elizabeth Bernstein
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$24.00~~
Buy New: $21.60
You Save: $2.40 (10%)

New (11) Used (10) from $14.63

Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.8

ISBN: 0226044580
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.740973
EAN: 9780226044583
ASIN: 0226044580

Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Similar Items:

•	Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category
•	Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
•	Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement
•	Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)
•	Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
DIVGenerations of social thinkers have assumed that access to legitimate paid employment and a decline in the #8216;double standard#8217; would eliminate the reasons behind women#8217;s participation in prostitution. Yet in both the developing world and in postindustrial cities of the West, sexual commerce has continued to flourish, diversifying along technological, spatial, and social lines. In this deeply engaging and theoretically provocative study, Elizabeth Bernstein examines the social features that undergird the expansion and diversification of commercialized sex, demonstrating the ways that postindustrial economic and cultural formations have spawned rapid and unforeseen changes in the forms, meanings, and spatial organization of sexual labor.BRBRDrawing upon dynamic and innovative research with sex workers, their clients, and state actors, Bernstein argues that in cities such as San Francisco, Stockholm, and Amstersdam, the nature of what is purchased in commercial sexual encounters is also new. Rather than the expedient exchange of cash for sexual relations, what sex workers are increasingly paid to offer their clients is an erotic experience premised upon the performance of authentic interpersonal connection. As such, contemporary sex markets are emblematic of a cultural moment in which the boundaries between intimacy and commerce#8212;and between public life and private#8212;have been radically redrawn. Not simply a compelling exploration of the changing landscape of sex-work, ITemporarily Yours/I ultimately lays bare the intimate intersections of political economy, desire, and culture./DIV (20070612)

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Understanding a Not-So-Underground Trade November 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Elizabeth Bernstein's ethnography *Temporarily Yours* is arguably the most illuminating account of the domestic sex trade to be published in the last decade. In it Bernstein shows how large-scale transformations to the U.S. political economy have affected prostitution work in urban areas. Her argument is that a large segment of sex work in America has "gone indoors" as the country's economy has shifted from an industrial to a postindustrial structure. With more and more people working in the service economy and thinking of paid sex not as a stigmatized vice but as a flexible, leisurely activity that fits nicely into their schedules, the world of prostitution has expanded beyond its streetwalking stereotype to include Internet-savvy, upwardly mobile, high-end escorts.br /br /Bernstein's book is especially relevant given the media's fascination with the lives of escorts over the past year, ever since Eliot Spitzer was fingered in a federal prostitution ring bust. Now we have brothel prostitutes on *Tyra*, Showtime's *Secret Diary of a Call Girl*, and a host of news programs on the subject (Bernstein was featured in MSNBC's *Dirty Money*).br /br /Before you get caught up in the hype, though, I urge you to read *Temporarily Yours*. Bernstein's even-handed analysis avoids sensationalizing the work of escorts by showing how what they do is part and parcel of well-established social structures and economic practices. In addition, excerpts from her interviews with prostitutes and johns illuminate the very real, even mundane, decisions that go into purchasing and selling sex. Bernstein's genius as an ethnographer lies in her ability to present her subjects in a way that makes us see their struggles as our own: caring for a dependent or wanting to succeed in running a small business; finding an intimate companion during a busy work week or enjoying safe, no-strings attached sex.br /br /In addition to these highlights, *Temporarily Yours* includes a fascinating chapter on prostitution and the law in the United States and Europe, as well as a section critiquing so-called "John Schools" (where johns are penalized for purchasing sex and made to sit through a traffic school-type reeducation program) in San Francisco. All in all, then, Bernstein's study is smart, comprehensive, and endlessly generative of new questions and ideas. In its broadest interpretation, *Temporarily Yours* uses the domestic sex trade to offer up a mirror to our own conceptions of love, pleasure, risk, and work in our postindustrial age.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
Disclaimer: The products referenced on this site are manufactured and sold by parties other than The New Social Worker/White Hat Communications. We make no representations regarding either the products or any information vendors offer about their products.

Visit our poster store for unique social issues posters.

Amazon.com Widgets