The sex industry also called the sex trade consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. Sex channels for television and pre-paid sex movies for video on demand , are part of the sex industry, as are adult movie theaters , sex shops , peep shows , and strip clubs.
The sex industry employs millions of people worldwide, [ 2 ] mainly women. These range from the sex worker, also called adult service provider ASP , who provides sexual services, to a multitude of support personnel. The origins of the term sex industry are uncertain, but it appears to have arisen in the s. When people talked of commercial sex they meant Playboy. Prostitution is a main component of the sex industry and may take place in a brothel , at a facility provided by the prostitute, at a client's hotel room, in a parked car, or on the street.
Often this is arranged through a pimp or an escort agency. Prostitution involves a prostitute or sex worker providing commercial sexual services to a client.
Socialist and radical feminists have cited poverty, oppressive capitalistic processes, and patriarchal societies that marginalizes people based on race and class as reasons for the continued presence of prostitution, as these aspects all work together to maintain oppression.
The legality of prostitution and associated activities soliciting, brothels, procuring varies by jurisdiction. Yet even where it is illegal, a thriving underground business usually exists because of high demand and the high income that can be made by pimps, brothel owners, escort agencies, and traffickers. A brothel is a commercial establishment where people may engage in sexual activity with a prostitute, [ 13 ] though for legal or cultural reasons they may describe themselves as massage parlors , bars , strip clubs or by some other description.
