Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith
Biographic Data
| ID | 669628 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gwyn |
| FAMILY NAME | Easterbrook-Smith |
| SIGNATURE | EASTERBROOK-SMITH G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Massey University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8621-3733 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Pornographic aura, AI and the value of authenticity
Boy smell
Although smell is sometimes treated with little regard, it is invested with cultural meaning and conveys a great deal of information, including about gender, sexuality and identity. This article draws on interviews with 11 transgender and nonbinary people who have accessed gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), and focuses on how they understand and explain changes in how their own bodies smell. Although it is well documented that GAHT causes c…
I've adopted it as my smell
Joie noire
Upmarket boudoirs and red lights
Working Girl
There are many slang terms for full-service sex workers, but one of my favorites is working girl. I cannot be completely sure when I first heard it, but I knew it in passing before I began sex work in the early 2010s in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Once I was working, it likely popped up from one of the more experienced working girls in a dressing room. When I talk to civilians about the sex industry, I will usually say that I do “sex work” and discus…
Transgender healthcare, telehealth, venture capital and community
Accessing reliable and competent gender-affirming medical care is often difficult for transgender people. FOLX is a telehealth and pharmaceutical delivery start-up which launched in late 2020, primarily offering gender-affirming hormone therapy for a monthly fee. FOLX’s marketing makes extensive use of social media and online influencers, and the company frequently highlights a goal of being created ‘by and for’ transgender people. This article e…
Producing the Acceptable Sex Worker
Producing the Acceptable Sex Worker considers how sex work is produced in news media narratives, a site where much of the general public draws its understanding of the industry in the absence of lived interaction with it. Taking New Zealand as a case study, this book considers an emerging discourse of acceptability for some sex workers, primarily those who do low-volume indoor work. Their acceptability is established in comparison with other kind…
Stigma, invisibility and unattainable ‘choices’ in sex work
Sex work in New Zealand was decriminalized by the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. News media is one of the key sites where stigma against sex workers is reproduced, negotiated and can be resisted. Depictions of sex workers in New Zealand vary significantly according to where and how they work. News media texts which discuss modes of sex work constructed as less acceptable sometimes call for sex workers to change how and where they work, typically t…
OnlyFans as gig-economy work
While online sex work in the form of the creation and sale of pornographic content is not a new phenomenon, the recent prominence of the platform OnlyFans drew additional attention to this sector. This article argues that OnlyFans, and other similar erotic-content platforms, can be understood as forms of platform-mediated gig-economy work, reflecting increased freedoms in some ways, but tempered with heightened financial precarity. Gig-economy wo…
Resisting division
While New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act has decriminalized sex work for citizens and permanent residents, migrants on temporary visas are still not permitted to work in the sex industry. In 2018, a series of news media texts documented complaints about migrant sex workers put forward by Lisa Lewis, a prominent sex worker. This article considers how the figure of the migrant sex worker was produced through comparison to contingently acceptable…
By Bread Alone
As the coronavirus crisis worsened, a series of news stories documented "panic buying" on grocery staples, including bread, yeast, and flour. News outlets began reporting what I had already concluded based on my own social media: in response, many people had started baking bread. Baking specialty bread, like sourdough, is a time-consuming process, which pre-COVID-19 was a leisure activity for some. Baking bread during isolation is an activity who…
Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance
Media depictions of sex work and workers are a key site where perceptions of the sex industry are established and contested, particularly for audiences who may have little to no direct interaction with it otherwise. The presence of an advertorial framing or function of news media coverage of the sex industry has been identified in previous work. This article analyses news media coverage in New Zealand post-decriminalisation to consider how advert…
Stephanie Hunter Jones, Sex Work and Female Self-Empowerment
Not on the Street Where We Live”
The phenomenon frequently described as “walking while trans” in which transgender women, particularly women of colour, are profiled by police on suspicion of soliciting, is documented as occurring in the USA. In New Zealand, sex work was decriminalised in 2003, yet this mode of harassing transgender women persists—enacted by other members of the public, often associated with self-appointed “concerned citizen” groups. An examination of news media …
OnlyFans as gig-economy work
While online sex work in the form of the creation and sale of pornographic content is not a new phenomenon, the recent prominence of the platform OnlyFans drew additional attention to this sector. This article argues that OnlyFans, and other similar erotic-content platforms, can be understood as forms of platform-mediated gig-economy work, reflecting increased freedoms in some ways, but tempered with heightened financial precarity. Gig-economy wo…
By Bread Alone
As the coronavirus crisis worsened, a series of news stories documented "panic buying" on grocery staples, including bread, yeast, and flour. News outlets began reporting what I had already concluded based on my own social media: in response, many people had started baking bread. Baking specialty bread, like sourdough, is a time-consuming process, which pre-COVID-19 was a leisure activity for some. Baking bread during isolation is an activity who…
Resisting division
While New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act has decriminalized sex work for citizens and permanent residents, migrants on temporary visas are still not permitted to work in the sex industry. In 2018, a series of news media texts documented complaints about migrant sex workers put forward by Lisa Lewis, a prominent sex worker. This article considers how the figure of the migrant sex worker was produced through comparison to contingently acceptable…
Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance
Media depictions of sex work and workers are a key site where perceptions of the sex industry are established and contested, particularly for audiences who may have little to no direct interaction with it otherwise. The presence of an advertorial framing or function of news media coverage of the sex industry has been identified in previous work. This article analyses news media coverage in New Zealand post-decriminalisation to consider how advert…
Not on the Street Where We Live”
The phenomenon frequently described as “walking while trans” in which transgender women, particularly women of colour, are profiled by police on suspicion of soliciting, is documented as occurring in the USA. In New Zealand, sex work was decriminalised in 2003, yet this mode of harassing transgender women persists—enacted by other members of the public, often associated with self-appointed “concerned citizen” groups. An examination of news media …
Pornographic aura, AI and the value of authenticity
Boy smell
Although smell is sometimes treated with little regard, it is invested with cultural meaning and conveys a great deal of information, including about gender, sexuality and identity. This article draws on interviews with 11 transgender and nonbinary people who have accessed gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), and focuses on how they understand and explain changes in how their own bodies smell. Although it is well documented that GAHT causes c…
Not on the Street Where We Live”
The phenomenon frequently described as “walking while trans” in which transgender women, particularly women of colour, are profiled by police on suspicion of soliciting, is documented as occurring in the USA. In New Zealand, sex work was decriminalised in 2003, yet this mode of harassing transgender women persists—enacted by other members of the public, often associated with self-appointed “concerned citizen” groups. An examination of news media …
Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance
Media depictions of sex work and workers are a key site where perceptions of the sex industry are established and contested, particularly for audiences who may have little to no direct interaction with it otherwise. The presence of an advertorial framing or function of news media coverage of the sex industry has been identified in previous work. This article analyses news media coverage in New Zealand post-decriminalisation to consider how advert…
Stephanie Hunter Jones, Sex Work and Female Self-Empowerment
Resisting division
While New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act has decriminalized sex work for citizens and permanent residents, migrants on temporary visas are still not permitted to work in the sex industry. In 2018, a series of news media texts documented complaints about migrant sex workers put forward by Lisa Lewis, a prominent sex worker. This article considers how the figure of the migrant sex worker was produced through comparison to contingently acceptable…
By Bread Alone
As the coronavirus crisis worsened, a series of news stories documented "panic buying" on grocery staples, including bread, yeast, and flour. News outlets began reporting what I had already concluded based on my own social media: in response, many people had started baking bread. Baking specialty bread, like sourdough, is a time-consuming process, which pre-COVID-19 was a leisure activity for some. Baking bread during isolation is an activity who…
Producing the Acceptable Sex Worker
Producing the Acceptable Sex Worker considers how sex work is produced in news media narratives, a site where much of the general public draws its understanding of the industry in the absence of lived interaction with it. Taking New Zealand as a case study, this book considers an emerging discourse of acceptability for some sex workers, primarily those who do low-volume indoor work. Their acceptability is established in comparison with other kind…
Stigma, invisibility and unattainable ‘choices’ in sex work
Sex work in New Zealand was decriminalized by the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. News media is one of the key sites where stigma against sex workers is reproduced, negotiated and can be resisted. Depictions of sex workers in New Zealand vary significantly according to where and how they work. News media texts which discuss modes of sex work constructed as less acceptable sometimes call for sex workers to change how and where they work, typically t…
OnlyFans as gig-economy work
While online sex work in the form of the creation and sale of pornographic content is not a new phenomenon, the recent prominence of the platform OnlyFans drew additional attention to this sector. This article argues that OnlyFans, and other similar erotic-content platforms, can be understood as forms of platform-mediated gig-economy work, reflecting increased freedoms in some ways, but tempered with heightened financial precarity. Gig-economy wo…
Transgender healthcare, telehealth, venture capital and community
Accessing reliable and competent gender-affirming medical care is often difficult for transgender people. FOLX is a telehealth and pharmaceutical delivery start-up which launched in late 2020, primarily offering gender-affirming hormone therapy for a monthly fee. FOLX’s marketing makes extensive use of social media and online influencers, and the company frequently highlights a goal of being created ‘by and for’ transgender people. This article e…
Working Girl
There are many slang terms for full-service sex workers, but one of my favorites is working girl. I cannot be completely sure when I first heard it, but I knew it in passing before I began sex work in the early 2010s in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Once I was working, it likely popped up from one of the more experienced working girls in a dressing room. When I talk to civilians about the sex industry, I will usually say that I do “sex work” and discus…
Pornographic aura, AI and the value of authenticity
Boy smell
Although smell is sometimes treated with little regard, it is invested with cultural meaning and conveys a great deal of information, including about gender, sexuality and identity. This article draws on interviews with 11 transgender and nonbinary people who have accessed gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), and focuses on how they understand and explain changes in how their own bodies smell. Although it is well documented that GAHT causes c…
I've adopted it as my smell
Joie noire
Upmarket boudoirs and red lights
Psychology (10 works) · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology (10 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (9 works) · Sex work and related issues (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Sex work (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)