Exploring the Everyday Lives of Religious and Spiritual Sex Workers

Bridging sex work scholarship and the sociology of religion, this book will be of interest to academics, sex work support organisations, and policy makers seeking a more inclusive understanding of sex work and religiosity.

This book explores the everyday lives of religious and spiritual sex workers in the United Kingdom and the United States. Challenging dominant assumptions that religiosity and sex work are inherently incompatible, it centres the voices of those whose experiences are routinely marginalised within dominant religious and secular discourse. Drawing on qualitative research, including participant-driven photographs, diaries, and in-depth interviews, the book examines how sex workers navigate belief, identity, stigma, intimacy, and belonging in their everyday lives. It reveals the complex ways religious and spiritual sex workers negotiate their occupational, religious, spiritual, familial, and personal identities, offering a nuanced account of lived religion and sex work. By focusing on micro-level experiences, the book moves beyond moral debates to illustrate how both religiosity and sex work are practised in ordinary moments and intimate spaces. In doing so, it challenges reductive portrayals of sex workers as either victims or sinners. Bridging sex work scholarship and the sociology of religion, this book will be of interest to academics, sex work support organisations, and policy makers seeking a more inclusive understanding of sex work and religiosity.