Definition

Sex worker:

(1) a prostitute

(2) anyone in a sex-related occupation, including a psychiatrist with a specialization in sexual disorders or a cashier in a convenience store that rents adult videos

(3) someone in an occupational category broader than (1) and narrower than (2), the precise specification of which is known only to the person using the term


Examples of (3):

(a) Anyone who acts in an adult video, is a sex worker, but someone who works in distribution of adult videos is not.

(b) Anyone who has, on camera, actual penetrative intercourse involving an actual male member, is a sex worker, but someone who engages, on camera, in Lesbian sex acts, including those that involve penetration, is not.

(c) Anyone who interacts sexually directly with a client, whether or not that interaction includes an actual sex act, and whether the interaction is in person or over some kind of telecommunication network, is a sex worker, but someone who performs sex acts on camera, for distribution as entertainment, is not.

Unpronounceable?

Everybody says my nom de blog is unpronounceable. First of all, if you can’t pronounce it, just spell it out, and you’ll do just fine. Second of all, if people spent more time on important things like Indo-European paleolinguistics instead of silliness like settling international conflicts and engineering economic growth, they would realize that N can be pronounced as a vowel. Vocalic N is a standard feature in proto-Greek. If only some pre-Homeric bards would read my blog, we’d be off and running.

μηνιν αειδε θεα

It's just an excuse to use the beginning of the Iliad as a title for this post, but here's a link to Greg Mankiw's post on anger.