Popular representations of third-world sex workers as sex slaves and vectors of HIV have spawned abolitionist legal reforms that are harmful and ineffective, and public health initiatives that provide only marginal protection of sex workers' rights. This book asks how we might understand sex workers' demands that they be treated as workers. "Kotiswaran's book is a welcome addition to the literature on sex work. . . . [The] book is exceptional in the way that it weaves depth of theory with integrity of field work. Kotiswaran not only leaves the reader with many new thoughts but also makes material feminism and legal ethnography a pleasure to engage with."---Sameena Dalwai, Social & Legal Studies