The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland

Authors

Barbara G. Brents, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Crystal A. Jackson, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Kathryn Hausbeck, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Chapter

Publication Date

12-23-2009

Publication Title

The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publisher Location

New York

First page number:

1

Last page number:

320

Abstract

The State of Sex is a study of Nevada’s brothels that situates the nation's only legal brothel industry in the political economy of contemporary tourism. Nevada is part of the "new American heartland," as its pastimes, people, and politics have become more central to the nation. The rise of a service and leisure economy over the past sixty years has propelled sexuality into the heart of contemporary markets. Yet, neoliberal laws in the United States promote business but limit sexual commerce.

How have Nevada's legal brothels survived, while the rest of the country criminalizes prostitution? How do brothels operate? Who works in them? This book brings social theory on globalizing economies, politics, leisure consumption, and emotional labor in interactive service work together with research on contemporary prostitution and sexual commerce. The authors employ an innovative, multi-method sociological approach, combining historical analysis of how the brothels came to be with over a decade's worth of ethnographic research on the current state of the industry.

Keywords

Brothels; Ethnology; Prostitution; Prostitution--Law and legislation; Sex-oriented businesses; Social history; Sociology; Tourism; Tourists

Disciplines

Community-Based Research | Criminal Law | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Gender and Sexuality | Sociology | Women's Studies

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Brents, B. G., Jackson, C. A., Hausbeck, K. (2009). The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland. The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland 1-320. New York: Taylor & Francis.