Controllable Laughter

This article contributes to the sociology of work by analysing the nature and prevalence of humour as a coping strategy in the sex industry. In conjunction with describing six different types of humour observed in the female sex industry, this article establishes humour as a form of ‘emotion work’ (Hochschild, 1979). Evidence from an empirical study of female prostitution in a large British city documents how sex workers consciously manipulate humour as a social and psychological distancing technique. First, humour is adopted as a business strategy where impression management and ‘body work’ (Tyler and Abbott, 1998) enable individuals to conform to the aesthetic ideal of the ‘prostitute’. Second, joking relations shape the emotions aroused by selling sex, manage client interaction and establish support networks with colleagues. They are also a vehicle for defining group membership, dissent and divisions. It is argued that these social and psychological processes are an example of how women in extreme professions perform ‘ emotion work’. In the case of sex workers, humour contributes to a range of defence mechanisms that are necessary to protect personal and emotional well being.