11/18/19 listing of the plays I called Shakespeare's "sex work trilogy"

Here is the link to my November 18, 2019, Twitter thread of the threads reviewing the three plays I'd decided to call Shakespeare's "sex work trilogy" -- Measure for Measure, Pericles, and Timon of Athens.

I'm not totally sure I think this idea of mine was thought through very well -- when you consider, for instance, that Henry IV, Part 1, can essentially be seen largely to have taken place within a brothel; that a play like Taming of the Shrew can, in the relation between Christophero Sly and the boy hired to play his girlfriend, be considered to deal with sex work (say, as a kind of escort service); and probably numerous other examples I'm not considering right now.

While the three plays in what I call Shakespeare's "sex work trilogy" absolutely discuss prostitution, a lot of Shakespeare's works touched on the subject -- and with sympathy, at the very least.

As people say all the time, the stage and sex work are historically closely related. This shows quite well in Shakespeare's plays. And I think that someone who considers sex work as work, as a valid profession, could do well to do an analysis of the role of sex work in Shakespeare's plays.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.