In this poem, Justin Ducharme reflects upon his experiences as a sex worker. He explains the emotional challenges that sex work entails, while delving into the personal changes he undergoes through sex work. This poem demonstrates themes of both emotional and body labor. The line “calm, cool, collected” despite the fact that “at times his bones ache from the pressure” demonstrates Ducharme’s efforts to exude a certain disposition to influence his client’s experience. He suppresses his exhaustion and any emotional distress, which is a form of surface acting. This reveals how sex workers engage in emotional labor when managing their own emotions in order to conform with expected feeling rules for sexual encounters. This may involve trying to create a client’s desired emotional experience, such as trying to make a client feel cared for or desired.
Ducharme’s poem also demonstrates that sex workers perform body labor for compensation. This involves managing and using their body, as well as the clients’ body, to influence clients’ experiences. This is expressed in the line, “he remembers this body is medicine, curing… confused white men who think I need them… more than they need me.” Here, Ducharme compares his body to medicine due to its transformative, healing effect on people. He recognizes that his body’s performance strongly influences not only his clients’ physical experiences, but their emotional experiences. In fact, his clients are more dependent on him than he is on them, which indicates that the labor he does involves more than just physical labor.
Repeated use of the word “transform” further illustrates the personal changes that sex work instills in both Ducharme and his clients. The first line “I transform for pay” lays the groundwork for the later line, “(the pressure) that is transforming people.” Sex work involves emotional processes in which both people are changed, and the client is transformed as a result of the labor, or pressure, that Ducharme exercises. The word “transform” also indicates that Ducharme’s performance is not only surface-level. Rather, he is also utilizing deep acting by influencing his own emotional states. His efforts to manage his emotions and impression on others do not only change how clients perceive him. They turn him into a different version of himself and a different person.
Writer and poet Rax King writes about her experiences working in a strip club and how men treat her. In a patriarchal society, women tend to do more emotional and body labor than men. These services are often expected to be provided to men. The first line juxtaposes her job being “the most beautiful thing in the room” with “He hates me most after he rents my ass.” This illustrates the hypocrisy of men objectifying and degrading sex-workers, even despising them, while still insisting upon using their services. Whether her descriptions about a man are actually referring to one man or several is not entirely clear, but the multitude of ways in which they take advantage of and objectify King are repeatedly evident. Men’s objectification of sex workers is expressed through King referring to herself as “the dream, the prize” and later, “the set dressing of his life.” Her humanity and emotionality is erased through him seeing her primarily as an object for fulfilling his desires.
King reveals that even telling clients her real name would “uncurse the opaque magics of my (her) life. “Hiding and suppressing oneself, even one’s name, is a form of emotional labor that sex work involves. This involves suppressing one’s true emotions and authentic self to control other people’s impressions, which is a form of surface acting. The line “there is no room for mash-vomit, vinegar tears…” shows the pressure that sex workers face to maintain the appearance that men desire and hide any pain they may be experiencing or carrying. King’s emotionality is neglected and dismissed as unimportant, as she is reduced to a sexual object only meant to fulfill his sexual wants.
Another worker telling King “tell him nothing” indicates that King and other sex workers have learned to hide information about themselves from men in order to protect themselves.This showcases that female sex workers find ways to resist men’s emotional domination and preserve their inner lives. Similarly, in the final line, King asserts her authenticity to herself by thinking “Rax, Rax,” (her own name) in her head, while he is calling her a fake name. She first describes his animalistic, dehumanizing domination of her through the mention of “paws” on her neck and the sensation of being “like prey.” Despite this, King reclaims her humanity and reconnects with herself by repeating her name in her mind.
Stickie Stackedhouse’s poem, “to my clients who tell me i look tired” describes the emotional toll that sex work has taken on her. Her clients’ questioning her tired appearance is a criticism of her looks and disposition, suggests that she is not adequately displaying the emotions they desire. If societal (or men’s) feeling rules dictate that sex workers are supposed to be energetic and enthusiastic about sex with clients, Stackedhouse is falling short of meeting these expectations. The whole poem explains why she is tired and unable to consistently exude the disposition and affect that men wish to see. By explaining herself and what plagues her, she challenges the importance of societal, patriarchal feeling rules. She does this by implying that these expectations may be unrealistic and unfair for her and other sex workers considering the struggles she encounters.
Stackedhouse calls attention to the societal injustice and discrimination that she and other sex workers face. This arises when describing “the neighbors call the city on our house of made up family” and “the cops follow me and harass me for wearing garter belts.” These hurtful experiences have contributed to her feelings of exhaustion and illustrate how identity factors such as class, gender, and sexuality greatly impact people’s emotional lives. The stigma she receives from society has taken a deep emotional toll on her. Stackedhouse concludes the poem by stating that despite her exhaustion and emotional pain, she still does her best to put on a performance that men will desire. She does this by calling clients “honey” and feigning interest in them by asking what their real name is. This poem, in fact all of the poems, demonstrate that despite the emotional labor, psychological toll, and sexism that sex work involves, sex workers find ways to challenge norms and sexism, asserting their power and preserving themselves in the process.