The term sex industry can be understood as metaphorical, comprising multiple forms of sex-for-money exchanges. Many people refer to broad categories such as prostitution, adult entertainment and commercial sex.
Prostitution involves the provision of sexual services to another person in return for payment. The services are labour intensive, usually involving direct contact between the sex worker and a client. Other participants in the sector are the managers of the sex workers (sometimes pejoratively referred to as "pimps") and those who provide facilities where the sexual services are provided, sometimes referred to as brothels. Some businesses, such as massage parlours and saunas, also provide sex services. Prostitution can also be provided from locations chosen by the client, sometimes referred as by escort agencies, such as at a client's hotel room or home and at other locations. Another form is street prostitution.
Adult entertainment includes live performances. These can be in sex shows or strip clubs and can involve lapdance or other erotic dance. These generally do not involve actual contact between the performer and the audience. Non-contact interaction between the sex worker and a client can also be made through the webcam or telephone. Live performances can also be taped and distributed through the Internet in a variety of forms.
Adult entertainment can also involve portrayals through any media of material which provides sexual excitement and erotic satisfaction to the viewer, usually referred to as pornography or erotica. The media through which pornography can be presented includes films, animation, photographs, drawings, literature and other ways. They are distributed in a variety of ways, including publication in adult magazines, books, DVD etc, and can be sold through sex shops or over the internet. Adult films can also be obtained or rented through sex shops or over the internet or viewed on DVD, on pay-tv, in adult movie theaters and adult video arcades. It is also available on home video and DVD, pay-per-view, live streaming video and video on demand.
The industry also includes businesses which produce and distribute sex toys and which enable people to meet to engage in sexual activities, such as sex clubs, gay bathhouse, darkroom, and others.
In the United States, the pornographic film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, with an estimated 200 production companies in the region employing as many as 1,500 performers, making up to 11,000 films and estimated to earn as much as $13 billion a year. In 2002, there were at least 2,500 strip clubs in the United States generating an estimated revenue of US$3.1 billion, 19% of the legal adult entertainment. By 2010, the number of clubs in the U. S. has grown to approximately 4,000.
Researcher Laura Agustín has called for a cultural study of commercial sex that would document all participants and locations associated with the sex industry, de-centre and thereby de-stigmatise sex workers and reveal the extent to which ordinary society is involved.
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