Generally speaking, if you’re getting paid to get someone else hot and bothered, you’re doing some kind of sex work. Sex workers of all kinds, even if they aren’t actually having sex with anyone, have many of the same lifestyle pros and cons, as well as face the same “whore” stigma. More specific job titles can include:

• prostitute (streetwalkers, rent boys, hookers, escorts, call girls, and courtesans alike)
• stripper
• porn performer
• webcam model
• professional dominant (offline and on)
• professional submissive
• phone sex operator
• “happy ending” massage parlour workers
• peep show performers

Sex workers are of every gender and no gender. Sex workers are young, old, and middle aged. Sex workers are rich, poor, or in the middle—hopefully comfortable. Sex workers come in every size and color, with any kind of body you can imagine. We run the gamut from glam to dowdy.

You can’t tell a whore by looking.

This is not meant to be a complete list and obviously there are some practises that fall into a grey area, like sugar baby/daddy(or mommy) relationships. As some commenters have pointed out, a lot of sex work is opportunistic, and thus many more people will trade sex for compensation, in practice, than will ever think of themselves as “sex workers”.

If there’s anything we’ve left out, send us an ask or an email!