He applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, The Rise of Digital Sex Work, and reported the following:
From page 99:Learn more about The Rise of Digital Sex Work at the NYU Press website.“Am I supposed to say I realize I’m privileged? I’m a white dude. There’re some sex workers who sometimes don’t have the choice. I’ll express that I’m aware of that.”Does the “Page 99 Test” work on my book?
He let out a dry cough and dropped his gaze from behind his horn-rimmed glasses. “It sucks, and it’s complicated.... I’m white, I’m already high on the ladder outside of the industry. One can assume I’m fairly high-ish on the ladder within the ‘whorearchy,’ other than I make less money than almost literally everyone.”
The way Edward addressed issues of race, class, and privilege mirrored the way the overwhelming majority of providers expressed these concerns. He realized well after describing his entrance that his personal privilege played a role in his decision to become a provider. But these contexts were largely unspoken or unrecognized in his original story.
I’d have to say yes, but with a caveat. The Rise of Digital Sex Work is about how, as Edward put it earlier in the novel, “certain populations” of people now have access to more choices for a safer and more profitable working environment, due to the Internet. But these issues are tied to complex social statuses like race, class, gender, education, and a host of other concerns that intersect with the decisions we make on a daily basis.
The Rise of Digital Sex Work explores not just how technology is changing society and the human experience, but the question of who benefits first and who benefits most from the proliferation of digitally facilitated business. So when taken as a microcosm of the book’s themes, does the page 99 test work? Definitely. But if taken simply as a single data point, it does limit the scope of the book’s explorations- since race is only one (in fairness, a large one) of the variables that impact people’s decisions to enter sex work, their access to resources, and the proliferation of a world-wide virtual community of providers.
Last, I’d say that page 99 does a good job of exemplifying how my conversations with workers from across the globe unfolded. Providers were casual, funny, and articulate. They always had an entertaining anecdote to support their observations and were never shy about saying the quiet part loud. As a group, sex workers showed themselves to be early adopters of any new technology that could benefit their safety and business and were a never-ending source of clever and compelling ways to find, create, and utilize apps and platforms to keep themselves safe, grow their business, and share useful information with their community.
--Marshal Zeringue
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