ED156 - The Sex Industry in Science Fiction
ROOM 704/706 - SciFi/Fantasy TV/Film
Saturday June 1, 2019 - 1:30 pm to 2:20 pm
Whether in literature, television, movies, gaming or comics, sex has always be a strong influence in sci-fi/fantasy genre. Since the beginning, innuendo and subtext focused on the sexual repression of the Victorian era in Dracula, the Women's Lib movement and Sexual Revolution of the sixties as portrayed in Star Trek to current trends of sex work portrayed in every type of entertainment and represented in almost every fandom. Firefly, Farscape, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Buffy, Total Recall, Bladerunner, and countless others all feature sex workers. Mantis, Mia Dearden and many other comic book characters were in the commercial sex industry. Books like "Company Town" by Madeline Ashby and the "Kushiel's Dart" series by Jacqueline Carey also feature consensual sex work. In this presentation, I'll briefly define the differences between trafficking/slavery and consensual sex work. We'll dive deeper into how the commercial sex industry has evolved with the times and how it's portrayed in our different fandoms. With humor and insight, we'll walk a path together to understanding. Given time, we'll do a Q&A at the end.
