性交易中的性行為究竟是「性」抑或「工作」，向來是女性主義者論戰的核心。將性交易的存在視為是性別壓迫的女性主義者，傾向於將之視為是「性」；技權團體與倡議性解放的女性主義者則將之視為「工作」。然而，即使在將性行為視為「工作」的陣營，性工作的勞動內涵與性質也都未能獲得進一步的澄清。本文將以本土性工作者的深度訪談與觀察為基礎，藉由深入考察性工作者的勞動過程，揭示性工作者必須從事一系列包括美學勞動、異化的性勞動以及（肉體化的）情緒勞動來展現專業。本文也將指出，性工作者往往藉由運用「角色距離」的技術來區辨工作中的自我與非工作中的自我。同時，作為性主體，性工作者也有區辨「性作為性」與「性作為工作」的能力，進而發展出各種管理技術以維持這兩者的邊界。然而，意識到邊界管理的重要性，也暗示著邊界模糊、崩潰的危險。從而，性工作中的性與工作，曖昧不清，進而釋放出客人變情人的空間。

Feminists have been disputing the nature of commercial sex acts for nearly four decades. Some radical feminists argue that the existence of commercial sex signifies women's oppression and see prostitution as nothing but selling sex. In contrast, prostitutes' rights groups and pro-sex feminists tend to consider commercial sex acts as work or labour. The latter group, however, fails to elaborate the kinds of labour that are involved in commercial sex. Based on in-depth interviews with Taiwanese sex workers, I argue that sex workers are expected to perform aesthetic labour, alienated sexual labour, and (embodied) emotional labour in order to be recognized (and paid) as professional sex workers. Moreover, I argue that performing sex workinvolves multi-layered boundary negotiation. Many interviewees exercised “role distance” when performing sex work and differentiated work sex from their personal sexual intimacy. They expended great effort managing the boundary between sex and work because of the dangers associated with failing to do so. However, the dangers involved did not rule out their enjoying some specific sexual encounters with clients or falling in love with them.