Sex Work in a Digital Era

In recent years, scholars have begun to investigate the role of digital technologies, namely the Internet, in facilitating growth in sexual commerce. Recent studies investigate the ways the Internet shapes the experiences of sex workers and how sex workers use the Internet to maximize profits and reduce risk exposure. Overall, scholars strategically frame sex work in a digital era in terms of affordances. In doing so, they can note the positive changes in the work experiences of these workers. However, I argue that this literature is altogether too optimistic, and in focusing primarily on the affordances of Internet‐based sex work, these scholars neglect the new dangers that emerge online. In addition, by focusing only on the online practices of escorts, these scholars paint a homogenized portrait of digital sex work and neglect the diversity of labor performed by sex workers. This literature also neglects the diversity among sex workers themselves (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, and ability). In order to address these limitations, I make nine specific suggestions for future lines of inquiry.     

Disability at the intersections

Complete and accurate understandings of stratification depend on more regular consideration of disability. To build sociologists' recognition of disability as a socially constructed axis of stratification, we first demonstrate the construction of the disability category through classic legitimating processes: moral attributions, biological attributions, separation, and dichotomization. Expanding understandings of basic processes of stratification, we then document the centrality of disability in the social construction of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and age. Finally, we show various ways disability functions as an axis of stratification in intersection with other key axes of stratification.     

Feminism and the socialist tradition … undone?

This article proposes that Butler's recent writing encourages understanding of an intersection of forces, specifically the undoing of feminism and the socialist tradition. This occurs as the traces or residues left behind by these now outmoded movements are seemingly taken into account, so that they are all the more repudiated and discounted. Re-regulation takes place by these means in the fields of sexuality and kinship. There is also a crisis in the politics of hegemony through processes of disarticulation, as queer politics breaks its earlier ties with socialist feminism through narrowly presenting claims of entitlement in terms of being for (or against) marriage. If radical democracy is itself radically insufficient (so that it remains open and necessarily unrealizable), nonetheless this produces vulnerabilities. Butler leads us in this context towards Levinasian ethics, as both other than and prior to politics. This permits, through the encounter with the face of the other, a steadfastness and defiant presence and proximity in terms of being for the other, while that other – for example, the woman of Afghanistan – is being sought as the subject of liberation by western hegemony. Thus, ethics can be expansive of the ‘sheerly political’.     

Preparing Social Work Doctoral Students for Teaching

The results of a national survey of 51 social work doctoral program directors indicate that, although the majority of doctoral programs include preparation for teaching as a program objective, they offer limited formal course work and few opportunities for supervised teaching experiences. The authors discuss the results of this survey and make recommendations for better preparing social work doctoral students for their roles as teachers.     

Parental reactions to developmental disabilities in Chinese American families

Families of Chinese American children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities were interviewed regarding their attitudes and coping experiences. Chinese American parents, like other American parents, reacted to the crisis with intense feelings and needs. The parents revealed a lack of knowledge and understanding of the diagnosis. Chinese belief systems about health and illness were present in the parents' concepts of causation and treatment.Hunter College School of Social Work.     

Female harassment after ending a relationship: A preliminary study

While dramatic instances of male aggression directed toward women, such as rape and wife battering, have been frequently studied, a more subtle form of male aggression—female harassment—has been investigated less often. In the present study, 50 women who had terminated relationships with males and then were harassed were interviewed. In general, the harassment lasted for about a year, and episodes which occurred on a daily basis consisted of calls, letters, visits to home or work, being followed, verbal threats, and physical aggression. For the most part, these aggressive actions were perceived as both threatening and disturbing. Findings indicated that assertive female strategies were not more effective in reducing harassment than more sex-role stereotyped passive and nonassertive responses to male aggression. In the second phase of this study a sample of college undergraduates was interviewed on the topic of harassment. Fifty-six percent of the women indicated that they had been harassed by men.My thanks to Lyn De Amicis and LaVome Robinson for their instructive and helpful comments.     

Influence of Perceived Economic Strain on the Relationship Between Caregiver BMI and Child BMI

As maternal BMI is a risk factor for higher child BMI, this exploratory study investigated perceived economic strain as a protective factor modifying this well-established relationship. Primary low-income female caregivers (n = 432) of preschoolers ages 3–5 years were interviewed using the Family Economic Strain Scale. Caregiver and child heights and weights were measured. Significant differences were found in perceived economic strain between normal versus underweight, overweight, and obese caregivers. A moderating effect approaching significance was noted such that at low levels of reported economic strain, caregiver BMI classification had no effect on child BMI z-score for normal weight, overweight, or obese caregivers. This study is the first to demonstrate that reduced perception of economic strain may act to buffer the impact of maternal overweight/obesity on child weight status. Given this biologically strong relationship, the potential for any modifiable factor to be detected is encouraging. Further collaborative research between economists and family resiliency researchers is suggested.     

Lessons from the Niagara Movement: Prosopography and Discursive Protest

This article uses a case study of the Niagara Movement, which functioned from 1905–1910, to demonstrate that the use of prosopography (collective biographies) is a propitious methodological tool, particularly for those interested in the social-psychological analysis of movement actors within networks. I present a prosopography of the founders of the Niagara Movement. Learning more about the identity of political actors provides clues to the ways strategic choices are made and how collective action frames are developed. The prosopography of the Niagara Movement also provides theoretical insights into discursive processes that are often lost in studies of long movement trajectories. I analyze potential explanations for the absence of organizations such as the Niagara Movement from the civil rights canon, and, through an analysis of talk as a resource for mobilization, pinpoint directions for future researchers interested in micro theories of mobilization.