Sex work provides a particularly good example to consider the relationships of money, authenticity, and intimacy. Many scholars who research intimacy point to the fact that seeing sex work as an exchange of money (or goods) for sex is a simplistic and reductive approach. Building on the existing research that complicates the idea of sex work as an emotionally detached sex‐for‐money transaction, this article looks at the coexistence of references to gift exchange, informal economy, and service economy in the narratives of street sex workers from the cities of Kropyvnyts'kyi and Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine. Focusing on sex workers' attempts at discursive legitimization of sex work and on the narratives of their relationships with clients, I argue that the market rhetoric and the gift economy are not incommensurable for my participants. I show that though sex workers' local “workplace ethic” is permeated with references to competition and productivity, they still don't see sex work as qualitatively different from other forms of intimacy and don't treat their clients as mere customers because of multiple emotional and affectionate attachments that exist between them. I conclude by considering the coexistence of various economic narratives in relation to the economic self.

中文翻译：

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高速公路上的诚实与经济：乌克兰性工作者的叙述中天赋，金钱和感情的纠缠

性工作为考虑金钱，真实性和亲密关系之间的关系提供了一个特别好的例子。许多研究亲密关系的学者指出，将性工作视为性交易是金钱（或商品）的交换，是一种简化和简化的方法。在现有研究使性工作这一情感分离的性交易变得复杂的现有研究的基础上，本文着眼于在街头性工作者的叙述中，礼物交换，非正式经济和服务经济的参考并存。乌克兰中部的Kropyvnyts'kyi和Kryvyi Rih个城市。我将重点放在性工作者试图使性工作合法化的尝试上以及他们与客户关系的叙述上，我认为，市场言论和礼物经济对我的参与者而言并非无与伦比。我的研究表明，尽管性工作者的本地“工作场所道德”充斥着竞争和生产力，但他们仍然不认为性工作与其他形式的亲密关系有本质上的区别，也不会将客户视为单纯的客户，因为它们之间存在情感和深情的依恋。最后，我考虑了各种与经济自我相关的经济叙事的共存。