Linda LeMoncheck
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195105568
- eISBN:
- 9780199852949
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195105568.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Feminists from a variety of theoretical backgrounds target the sex industry as a paradigm of the institutionalized sexual subordination of women. Liberal feminists, who believe women's sexual ...
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Feminists from a variety of theoretical backgrounds target the sex industry as a paradigm of the institutionalized sexual subordination of women. Liberal feminists, who believe women's sexual liberation can be won with women's equal protection under the law, would add that even where prostitution or pornography is legal, it typically remains extremely difficult for sex workers to demand better pay or working conditions or to expose their mistreatment by clients and employers. This chapter describes some of the variety of sex workers and their work and examines what some feminists mean when they say that sex work is degrading to women. It shows how a feminist sexual ethic of care respects that appreciation of the dialectic between gender and sexuality can help feminists and sex workers understand the strengths of each others' positions and find common ground in their efforts to secure the sexual agency and self-definition of all women.Less
Feminists from a variety of theoretical backgrounds target the sex industry as a paradigm of the institutionalized sexual subordination of women. Liberal feminists, who believe women's sexual liberation can be won with women's equal protection under the law, would add that even where prostitution or pornography is legal, it typically remains extremely difficult for sex workers to demand better pay or working conditions or to expose their mistreatment by clients and employers. This chapter describes some of the variety of sex workers and their work and examines what some feminists mean when they say that sex work is degrading to women. It shows how a feminist sexual ethic of care respects that appreciation of the dialectic between gender and sexuality can help feminists and sex workers understand the strengths of each others' positions and find common ground in their efforts to secure the sexual agency and self-definition of all women.
Travis S.K. Kong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099876
- eISBN:
- 9789882206625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099876.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter concentrates on the male sex workers in Beijing and Shanghai. There are forty-five in-depth interviews of money boys mainly coming from rural or semi-rural areas to big cities in China. ...
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This chapter concentrates on the male sex workers in Beijing and Shanghai. There are forty-five in-depth interviews of money boys mainly coming from rural or semi-rural areas to big cities in China. Contrary to the overtly one-sided and dominant representation of male sex workers as depressed, depraved, dissolute and violent sociopaths in popular Chinese culture and media representations, it is found that the option of sex work has offered new possibilities for survival, livelihood, and self-development for young migrants in a class-stratified society confronted with massive tensions between rural and urban developments. In the discussion of male prostitution, one view is that it is a survival strategy enforced by poverty, homelessness, and powerlessness — a form of slavery arising from economic, social, and cultural deprivation. The other view is that prostitution is a “rational” choice for men who are constrained by their marginalized positions in a highly class-stratified social structure. Male prostitution is a contested but negotiated arena of power, and the identity of the male sex worker involves a strategic self that constantly negotiates risks and dangers, excitements and gains, in the process of sexual transaction.Less
This chapter concentrates on the male sex workers in Beijing and Shanghai. There are forty-five in-depth interviews of money boys mainly coming from rural or semi-rural areas to big cities in China. Contrary to the overtly one-sided and dominant representation of male sex workers as depressed, depraved, dissolute and violent sociopaths in popular Chinese culture and media representations, it is found that the option of sex work has offered new possibilities for survival, livelihood, and self-development for young migrants in a class-stratified society confronted with massive tensions between rural and urban developments. In the discussion of male prostitution, one view is that it is a survival strategy enforced by poverty, homelessness, and powerlessness — a form of slavery arising from economic, social, and cultural deprivation. The other view is that prostitution is a “rational” choice for men who are constrained by their marginalized positions in a highly class-stratified social structure. Male prostitution is a contested but negotiated arena of power, and the identity of the male sex worker involves a strategic self that constantly negotiates risks and dangers, excitements and gains, in the process of sexual transaction.
Susan Dewey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520266902
- eISBN:
- 9780520948310
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520266902.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This book examines the lives of five topless dancers in the economically devastated “rust belt” of upstate New York. With insight and empathy, the book shows how these women negotiate their lives as ...
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This book examines the lives of five topless dancers in the economically devastated “rust belt” of upstate New York. With insight and empathy, the book shows how these women negotiate their lives as parents, employees, and family members while working in a profession widely regarded as incompatible with motherhood and fidelity. Neither disparaging nor romanticizing the book's subjects, this text investigates the complicated dynamic of performance, resilience, economic need, and emotional vulnerability that comprises the life of a stripper. An accessibly written text that uses academic theories and methods to make sense of feminized labor, this book shows that sex work is part of the learned process by which some women come to believe that their self-esteem, material worth, and possibilities for life improvement are invested in their bodies.Less
This book examines the lives of five topless dancers in the economically devastated “rust belt” of upstate New York. With insight and empathy, the book shows how these women negotiate their lives as parents, employees, and family members while working in a profession widely regarded as incompatible with motherhood and fidelity. Neither disparaging nor romanticizing the book's subjects, this text investigates the complicated dynamic of performance, resilience, economic need, and emotional vulnerability that comprises the life of a stripper. An accessibly written text that uses academic theories and methods to make sense of feminized labor, this book shows that sex work is part of the learned process by which some women come to believe that their self-esteem, material worth, and possibilities for life improvement are invested in their bodies.
Richard Parker, Regina Maria Barbosa, and Peter Aggleton
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520218369
- eISBN:
- 9780520922754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520218369.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter discusses the political economy of sexual oppression. It maps the diverse social and cultural spaces of female and male sex work, and studies the intersecting structures of economic ...
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This chapter discusses the political economy of sexual oppression. It maps the diverse social and cultural spaces of female and male sex work, and studies the intersecting structures of economic marginalization, racism, sexism, and heterosexism that shape the possibilities for risk reduction on the part of sex workers in Durban, South Africa. It notes that sex work and sex workers have been often treated as no more than vectors of infection and danger. This chapter focuses on the ways various forms of sex work in different parts of Durban slowly take shape as part of a broader range of survival strategies by poor and marginalized men and women.Less
This chapter discusses the political economy of sexual oppression. It maps the diverse social and cultural spaces of female and male sex work, and studies the intersecting structures of economic marginalization, racism, sexism, and heterosexism that shape the possibilities for risk reduction on the part of sex workers in Durban, South Africa. It notes that sex work and sex workers have been often treated as no more than vectors of infection and danger. This chapter focuses on the ways various forms of sex work in different parts of Durban slowly take shape as part of a broader range of survival strategies by poor and marginalized men and women.
Mary Whowell and Justin Gaffney
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847421067
- eISBN:
- 9781447303169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847421067.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter highlights some of the progress that has been made in research on male sex work, and explores the diversity of the male scene. It considers the current policy context in England and ...
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This chapter highlights some of the progress that has been made in research on male sex work, and explores the diversity of the male scene. It considers the current policy context in England and Wales in relation to what is known about patterns, places, and forms of male sex work. The chapter provides supporting evidence by research and data emanating from the UK, but also draws on international work. It outlines the current policy context, paying particular attention to A Coordinated Prostitution Strategy (Home Office, 2006). The chapter then contextualizes the male sex industry in terms of its broad demographics and details a new model for thinking about research on male sex work. It also explores different forms and practices of male sex work in public and indoor locations. The chapter draws conclusions regarding the current regulation of the male sex industry, and makes recommendations as to where legislative attention should be focused.Less
This chapter highlights some of the progress that has been made in research on male sex work, and explores the diversity of the male scene. It considers the current policy context in England and Wales in relation to what is known about patterns, places, and forms of male sex work. The chapter provides supporting evidence by research and data emanating from the UK, but also draws on international work. It outlines the current policy context, paying particular attention to A Coordinated Prostitution Strategy (Home Office, 2006). The chapter then contextualizes the male sex industry in terms of its broad demographics and details a new model for thinking about research on male sex work. It also explores different forms and practices of male sex work in public and indoor locations. The chapter draws conclusions regarding the current regulation of the male sex industry, and makes recommendations as to where legislative attention should be focused.
Gillian Abel and Lisa Fitzgerald
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847423344
- eISBN:
- 9781447303664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847423344.003.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Crime and Justice
Prior to the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 (PRA), although sex work in New Zealand was not deemed illegal, the activities associated with it, such as soliciting, brothel keeping, ...
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Prior to the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 (PRA), although sex work in New Zealand was not deemed illegal, the activities associated with it, such as soliciting, brothel keeping, living on the earnings of prostitution, and procuring, were criminalised. This criminalisation of sex-work-related activities led to violence, coercion, and exploitation. For nearly two decades the New Zealand Prostitutes's Collective (NZPC), together with politicians, women's rights activists, academics, and other volunteers, advocated and lobbied for legislative change. And in June 2003, New Zealand became the first country to decriminalise sex work when the PRA was voted and passed. This legislative approach is different from other international approaches as it represents a shift from regulating sex work from a moral perspective to acknowledging the human rights of this section of the population. By decriminalisation, prostitution and sex work were acknowledged as service work. And through the legislative reform, sex workers in New Zealand were able to operate under the same employment and legal rights accorded to any other occupational group. This book examines the decriminalisation of prostitution in New Zealand. It looks at the particularities of the history of prostitution in the country, how it evolved, and how it has gained acceptance by the public. Chapters Two to Six examine the passing of the PRA in 2003. Chapter Seven outlines the statutory authority for the Prostitution Law Review Committee, its membership, and its role. Chapter Eight presents a research project commissioned by the Ministry of Justice for the review of the PRA. Chapter Ten to Fourteen provide a detailed review of the research done by the Christchurch School of Medicine. In these four chapters, the methodological approach, the public health authorities's experiences, the role of media, the decriminalisation and harm minimisation, and the ongoing perceptions of stigma, form the focus. The concluding chapter brings together the material covered in the book by summarising the effects of decriminalisation of the sex industry in New Zealand.Less
Prior to the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 (PRA), although sex work in New Zealand was not deemed illegal, the activities associated with it, such as soliciting, brothel keeping, living on the earnings of prostitution, and procuring, were criminalised. This criminalisation of sex-work-related activities led to violence, coercion, and exploitation. For nearly two decades the New Zealand Prostitutes's Collective (NZPC), together with politicians, women's rights activists, academics, and other volunteers, advocated and lobbied for legislative change. And in June 2003, New Zealand became the first country to decriminalise sex work when the PRA was voted and passed. This legislative approach is different from other international approaches as it represents a shift from regulating sex work from a moral perspective to acknowledging the human rights of this section of the population. By decriminalisation, prostitution and sex work were acknowledged as service work. And through the legislative reform, sex workers in New Zealand were able to operate under the same employment and legal rights accorded to any other occupational group. This book examines the decriminalisation of prostitution in New Zealand. It looks at the particularities of the history of prostitution in the country, how it evolved, and how it has gained acceptance by the public. Chapters Two to Six examine the passing of the PRA in 2003. Chapter Seven outlines the statutory authority for the Prostitution Law Review Committee, its membership, and its role. Chapter Eight presents a research project commissioned by the Ministry of Justice for the review of the PRA. Chapter Ten to Fourteen provide a detailed review of the research done by the Christchurch School of Medicine. In these four chapters, the methodological approach, the public health authorities's experiences, the role of media, the decriminalisation and harm minimisation, and the ongoing perceptions of stigma, form the focus. The concluding chapter brings together the material covered in the book by summarising the effects of decriminalisation of the sex industry in New Zealand.
Edward Dallam Melillo
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300206623
- eISBN:
- 9780300216486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300206623.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter focuses on the communities known as Chilecito (Little Chile) and Spanishtown formed by Latin American immigrants in the nineteenth century. These sites were once focal points of the ...
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This chapter focuses on the communities known as Chilecito (Little Chile) and Spanishtown formed by Latin American immigrants in the nineteenth century. These sites were once focal points of the extensive Chilean presence in Northern California. During the summer of 1849, Little Chile became crucible of interethnic conflict when a Yankee mob known as the Hounds ransacked the neighborhood, robbing, raping, and killing many of its residents. The attack exemplified nativist aggression and presaged the violent reception that Chileans encountered in California's mining regions, Chilecito and neighboring Chinatown also became the heart of San Francisco's sex-work district, forecasting later trends in the city's sexual geography.Less
This chapter focuses on the communities known as Chilecito (Little Chile) and Spanishtown formed by Latin American immigrants in the nineteenth century. These sites were once focal points of the extensive Chilean presence in Northern California. During the summer of 1849, Little Chile became crucible of interethnic conflict when a Yankee mob known as the Hounds ransacked the neighborhood, robbing, raping, and killing many of its residents. The attack exemplified nativist aggression and presaged the violent reception that Chileans encountered in California's mining regions, Chilecito and neighboring Chinatown also became the heart of San Francisco's sex-work district, forecasting later trends in the city's sexual geography.
Mark B. Padilla
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195374643
- eISBN:
- 9780199865390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374643.003.0006
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
For nearly two decades, the AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean—now showing HIV prevalence rates that are second only to Sub-Saharan Africa—has been officially described in public health and ...
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For nearly two decades, the AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean—now showing HIV prevalence rates that are second only to Sub-Saharan Africa—has been officially described in public health and epidemiological reports as “heterosexual.” At the same time, men with a history of same-sex exchanges or who are involved in sexual commerce have been largely neglected or under-prioritized in HIV/AIDS policies and programs, despite persistently high HIV infection rates in this population. This chapter draws on three years of ethnographic research in two cities in the Dominican Republic among men involved in informal sexual exchanges in tourism areas, and considers how men's experiences with tourists problematizes static public health labels such as “the heterosexual epidemic.” It is argued that traditional public health approaches are largely incapable of capturing the nuances of men's experiences or the ways their behavior is shaped by the large-scale transformations in gender, sexuality, and work.Less
For nearly two decades, the AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean—now showing HIV prevalence rates that are second only to Sub-Saharan Africa—has been officially described in public health and epidemiological reports as “heterosexual.” At the same time, men with a history of same-sex exchanges or who are involved in sexual commerce have been largely neglected or under-prioritized in HIV/AIDS policies and programs, despite persistently high HIV infection rates in this population. This chapter draws on three years of ethnographic research in two cities in the Dominican Republic among men involved in informal sexual exchanges in tourism areas, and considers how men's experiences with tourists problematizes static public health labels such as “the heterosexual epidemic.” It is argued that traditional public health approaches are largely incapable of capturing the nuances of men's experiences or the ways their behavior is shaped by the large-scale transformations in gender, sexuality, and work.
Nicola Mai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226584959
- eISBN:
- 9780226585147
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585147.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The book draws on unique and original research on the experiences of women, men, transgender people, minors and third party agents working in the sex industry in a variety of settings and jobs in the ...
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The book draws on unique and original research on the experiences of women, men, transgender people, minors and third party agents working in the sex industry in a variety of settings and jobs in the European Union, the Balkans and North Africa. Mobile Orientations addresses a critical issue within the transformation of global societies: the relation between the increase in migration flows, the expansion of the sex industry and the emergence of new forms of agency and exploitation. Moral panics about migrant ‘sex slaves’ being exploited in the global sex industry obfuscate the reality that only a minority is actually trafficked. The original research evidence analysed in Mobile Orientations counters the scenario of hegemonic exploitation presented by such moral panics. It shows that by migrating and working in the global sex industry, young women and men find opportunities to counter the increased precariousness and exploitability they meet in neoliberal times. The book’s autoethnographic writing style expresses the main theoretical contribution Mobile Orientations aims to make: to provide a nuanced and emic analysis of the complex understandings of agency and exploitation of migrants working in the global sex industry. The discussion of the methodological and expressive opportunities (and challenges) offered by ethnography and participatory filmmaking is integral part of the argument made by Mobile Orientations, which ultimately challenges the criteria of scientific and documentary authenticity and the forms of social exclusion engendered by the convergence between sexual humanitarianism and neoliberalism.Less
The book draws on unique and original research on the experiences of women, men, transgender people, minors and third party agents working in the sex industry in a variety of settings and jobs in the European Union, the Balkans and North Africa. Mobile Orientations addresses a critical issue within the transformation of global societies: the relation between the increase in migration flows, the expansion of the sex industry and the emergence of new forms of agency and exploitation. Moral panics about migrant ‘sex slaves’ being exploited in the global sex industry obfuscate the reality that only a minority is actually trafficked. The original research evidence analysed in Mobile Orientations counters the scenario of hegemonic exploitation presented by such moral panics. It shows that by migrating and working in the global sex industry, young women and men find opportunities to counter the increased precariousness and exploitability they meet in neoliberal times. The book’s autoethnographic writing style expresses the main theoretical contribution Mobile Orientations aims to make: to provide a nuanced and emic analysis of the complex understandings of agency and exploitation of migrants working in the global sex industry. The discussion of the methodological and expressive opportunities (and challenges) offered by ethnography and participatory filmmaking is integral part of the argument made by Mobile Orientations, which ultimately challenges the criteria of scientific and documentary authenticity and the forms of social exclusion engendered by the convergence between sexual humanitarianism and neoliberalism.
Susan Dewey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520266902
- eISBN:
- 9780520948310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520266902.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter describes the lives of people who engage in sex work, through a combination of ethnographic analysis and self-representation. Sex work is always embedded in a life matrix of individual ...
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This chapter describes the lives of people who engage in sex work, through a combination of ethnographic analysis and self-representation. Sex work is always embedded in a life matrix of individual choices and responsibilities, and it is thus appropriate to consider the broader factors that influence women's perceptions of their opportunities. The chapter chronicles the lives of bar dancers and presents through their narratives, their lives, ambitions, and dreams. These narratives are representative of how people can find themselves left out of systems designed to help them even in resource-rich states. They reflect how the structural violence of poverty and, in some cases, serious gender discrimination, helped to shape the lives of individual women. Furthermore, they reveal the agency and work ethic that dancers prove in the face of a stigma that often seriously complicates their intimate and family lives.Less
This chapter describes the lives of people who engage in sex work, through a combination of ethnographic analysis and self-representation. Sex work is always embedded in a life matrix of individual choices and responsibilities, and it is thus appropriate to consider the broader factors that influence women's perceptions of their opportunities. The chapter chronicles the lives of bar dancers and presents through their narratives, their lives, ambitions, and dreams. These narratives are representative of how people can find themselves left out of systems designed to help them even in resource-rich states. They reflect how the structural violence of poverty and, in some cases, serious gender discrimination, helped to shape the lives of individual women. Furthermore, they reveal the agency and work ethic that dancers prove in the face of a stigma that often seriously complicates their intimate and family lives.
Nicola Mai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226584959
- eISBN:
- 9780226585147
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585147.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Drawing on original and unique research material—interviews with thirty-three male third-party agents from Albania and Romania—chapter 8 questions the usefulness of profiling male agents as ...
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Drawing on original and unique research material—interviews with thirty-three male third-party agents from Albania and Romania—chapter 8 questions the usefulness of profiling male agents as “traffickers” to understand their diverse life and work experiences in the sex industry. The experiences of agents who managed sex work through violence (and ended up in jail) in early postcommunist Albania are compared with the more consensual and fluid management techniques adopted by Albanian and Romanian agents in later postcommunist times. The chapter shows that the sex-gendered subjectivities, interpersonal relations, and roles that agents embody reflect ambivalences and contradictions mirroring those faced by the women they manage. These shared ambivalences and contradictions are embedded in the deep socioeconomic and geopolitical transformations taking place in the societies of origin and destination of migrants working in the sex industry. The chapter also discusses the implications of these intersubjective dynamics and socioeconomic transformations for antitrafficking interventions, which should acknowledge that migrant and nonmigrant sex workers, including minors and people working under the management of third-party agents, can and do consent to work in the sex industry in order to fulfill their mobile orientations.Less
Drawing on original and unique research material—interviews with thirty-three male third-party agents from Albania and Romania—chapter 8 questions the usefulness of profiling male agents as “traffickers” to understand their diverse life and work experiences in the sex industry. The experiences of agents who managed sex work through violence (and ended up in jail) in early postcommunist Albania are compared with the more consensual and fluid management techniques adopted by Albanian and Romanian agents in later postcommunist times. The chapter shows that the sex-gendered subjectivities, interpersonal relations, and roles that agents embody reflect ambivalences and contradictions mirroring those faced by the women they manage. These shared ambivalences and contradictions are embedded in the deep socioeconomic and geopolitical transformations taking place in the societies of origin and destination of migrants working in the sex industry. The chapter also discusses the implications of these intersubjective dynamics and socioeconomic transformations for antitrafficking interventions, which should acknowledge that migrant and nonmigrant sex workers, including minors and people working under the management of third-party agents, can and do consent to work in the sex industry in order to fulfill their mobile orientations.
Gillian Abel, Lisa Fitzgerald, and Catherine Healy (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847423344
- eISBN:
- 9781447303664
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847423344.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Crime and Justice
New Zealand was the first country in the world to decriminalise all sectors of sex work. This book looks its experience of decriminalisation. It provides first-hand views and experiences of this ...
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New Zealand was the first country in the world to decriminalise all sectors of sex work. This book looks its experience of decriminalisation. It provides first-hand views and experiences of this policy from the point of view of those involved in the sex industry, as well as people involved in developing, implementing, researching, and reviewing the policy. The book presents an example of radical legal reform in an area of current policy debate.Less
New Zealand was the first country in the world to decriminalise all sectors of sex work. This book looks its experience of decriminalisation. It provides first-hand views and experiences of this policy from the point of view of those involved in the sex industry, as well as people involved in developing, implementing, researching, and reviewing the policy. The book presents an example of radical legal reform in an area of current policy debate.
Jane Scoular, Jane Pitcher, Rosie Campbell, Phil Hubbard, and Maggie O'Neill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847421067
- eISBN:
- 9781447303169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847421067.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter utilizes both critical and empirical forms of enquiry to uncover the relationship between dominant constructions of the ‘problem of prostitution’ and the associated norms that operate ...
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This chapter utilizes both critical and empirical forms of enquiry to uncover the relationship between dominant constructions of the ‘problem of prostitution’ and the associated norms that operate across various historical epochs, focusing in particular on the recent association between street sex work and anti-social behaviour. It shows that the alleged antithesis of sex work to community safety owes as much to the ideological operation of the law as to any inherent feature of commercial sex. The chapter considers the practical implications of recent reforms, which continue to follow this ideology. It outlines some of the dangers of policy frameworks and techniques of control that continue to situate sex work as antithetical to the cultivation of community safety, by reflecting on a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation-funded study, which examined the experiences of those living and working in areas of street sex work.Less
This chapter utilizes both critical and empirical forms of enquiry to uncover the relationship between dominant constructions of the ‘problem of prostitution’ and the associated norms that operate across various historical epochs, focusing in particular on the recent association between street sex work and anti-social behaviour. It shows that the alleged antithesis of sex work to community safety owes as much to the ideological operation of the law as to any inherent feature of commercial sex. The chapter considers the practical implications of recent reforms, which continue to follow this ideology. It outlines some of the dangers of policy frameworks and techniques of control that continue to situate sex work as antithetical to the cultivation of community safety, by reflecting on a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation-funded study, which examined the experiences of those living and working in areas of street sex work.
Nicola Mai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226584959
- eISBN:
- 9780226585147
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585147.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Chapter 6 draws on the findings of Migrant Workers in the UK Sex Industry, a research project directed by the author between 2007 and 2009. The study found that the large majority of migrants working ...
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Chapter 6 draws on the findings of Migrant Workers in the UK Sex Industry, a research project directed by the author between 2007 and 2009. The study found that the large majority of migrants working in the London sex industry are neither forced nor trafficked, and that by selling sex they try to avoid the unrewarding and exploitative conditions they meet in other sectors. The chapter discusses the resistance that the research findings met among sexual-humanitarian institutions and organizations targeting all sex workers as potential victims of trafficking by contextualizing it within the emergence of new forms of affective and ‘post-truth’ global governance. Drawing on the interview with Alina, a young woman from Moldova who had been trafficked and subsequently went on to work in the sex industry autonomously, the chapter shows how the deployment of irony in interviews with former victims of trafficking facilitates the emergence of complex experiences of agency and exploitation. The chapter also discusses the politics of representation of migrant sex workers by introducing Normal, the third film in the author’s Sex Work Trilogy as the interview with Alina inspired the film and formed the basis of one of its six characters.Less
Chapter 6 draws on the findings of Migrant Workers in the UK Sex Industry, a research project directed by the author between 2007 and 2009. The study found that the large majority of migrants working in the London sex industry are neither forced nor trafficked, and that by selling sex they try to avoid the unrewarding and exploitative conditions they meet in other sectors. The chapter discusses the resistance that the research findings met among sexual-humanitarian institutions and organizations targeting all sex workers as potential victims of trafficking by contextualizing it within the emergence of new forms of affective and ‘post-truth’ global governance. Drawing on the interview with Alina, a young woman from Moldova who had been trafficked and subsequently went on to work in the sex industry autonomously, the chapter shows how the deployment of irony in interviews with former victims of trafficking facilitates the emergence of complex experiences of agency and exploitation. The chapter also discusses the politics of representation of migrant sex workers by introducing Normal, the third film in the author’s Sex Work Trilogy as the interview with Alina inspired the film and formed the basis of one of its six characters.
Chi Adanna Mgbako
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479817566
- eISBN:
- 9781479844647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479817566.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
The introduction presents the issue of sex workers’ rights and the movement in Africa through both first-hand examples and stories as well as historical, societal, and scholarly context. It also sets ...
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The introduction presents the issue of sex workers’ rights and the movement in Africa through both first-hand examples and stories as well as historical, societal, and scholarly context. It also sets out the framework of the rest of the book, discusses the research methodology used, and explains how this book seeks to fill a void in both sex work studies and African feminist scholarship.Less
The introduction presents the issue of sex workers’ rights and the movement in Africa through both first-hand examples and stories as well as historical, societal, and scholarly context. It also sets out the framework of the rest of the book, discusses the research methodology used, and explains how this book seeks to fill a void in both sex work studies and African feminist scholarship.
Chi Adanna Mgbako
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479817566
- eISBN:
- 9781479844647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479817566.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
The introduction presents the issue of sex workers’ rights and the movement in Africa through both first-hand examples and stories as well as historical, societal, and scholarly context. It also sets ...
More
The introduction presents the issue of sex workers’ rights and the movement in Africa through both first-hand examples and stories as well as historical, societal, and scholarly context. It also sets out the framework of the rest of the book, discusses the research methodology used, and explains how this book seeks to fill a void in both sex work studies and African feminist scholarship.Less
The introduction presents the issue of sex workers’ rights and the movement in Africa through both first-hand examples and stories as well as historical, societal, and scholarly context. It also sets out the framework of the rest of the book, discusses the research methodology used, and explains how this book seeks to fill a void in both sex work studies and African feminist scholarship.
Nicola Mai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226584959
- eISBN:
- 9780226585147
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585147.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The chapter focuses on migrant sex workers’ complex understandings of agency and exploitation in sentimental and economic terms, which are intimately interwoven and cannot be read, let alone ...
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The chapter focuses on migrant sex workers’ complex understandings of agency and exploitation in sentimental and economic terms, which are intimately interwoven and cannot be read, let alone intervened in, according to reductive, free/forced binaries. The chapter focuses on the experience of Candy, a nineteen-year-old Romanian woman who followed her boyfriend to the United Kingdom and ended up being forced to work in the sex industry. Her story highlights the role played by “love” in the experience of being trafficked, which was corroborated by the accounts of many other female research participants. The chapter also engages with the experiences of Nigerian sex workers in France, who tend to work under the management of older women and to accept being exploited within set time and economic limits in order to reduce the hardship of their families (and themselves) in the long term. Overall, the dynamics analyzed in this chapter show that it is respect for (or betrayal of) the economic and/or sentimental arrangements framing women’s involvement in the sex industry, rather than the involvement in sex work per se, that determines whether they feel exploited, trafficked or not.Less
The chapter focuses on migrant sex workers’ complex understandings of agency and exploitation in sentimental and economic terms, which are intimately interwoven and cannot be read, let alone intervened in, according to reductive, free/forced binaries. The chapter focuses on the experience of Candy, a nineteen-year-old Romanian woman who followed her boyfriend to the United Kingdom and ended up being forced to work in the sex industry. Her story highlights the role played by “love” in the experience of being trafficked, which was corroborated by the accounts of many other female research participants. The chapter also engages with the experiences of Nigerian sex workers in France, who tend to work under the management of older women and to accept being exploited within set time and economic limits in order to reduce the hardship of their families (and themselves) in the long term. Overall, the dynamics analyzed in this chapter show that it is respect for (or betrayal of) the economic and/or sentimental arrangements framing women’s involvement in the sex industry, rather than the involvement in sex work per se, that determines whether they feel exploited, trafficked or not.
Matthew H. Sommer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520287037
- eISBN:
- 9780520962194
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520287037.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book uses over 1,200 legal cases from Qing dynasty archives to analyze polyandry, wife-selling, and other practices that mobilized a woman’s sexual and reproductive labor to help support her ...
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This book uses over 1,200 legal cases from Qing dynasty archives to analyze polyandry, wife-selling, and other practices that mobilized a woman’s sexual and reproductive labor to help support her family. This analysis reveals the roles played by marriage, sex, and reproduction in survival strategies under conditions of overpopulation, worsening sex ratios, and shrinking farm sizes. If we focus on social practice among the poor (instead of the normative discourse), normative boundaries between marriage and the traffic in women—and between marriage and sex work—cannot be sustained. With polyandry, an outside male would be incorporated into a couple’s household as the wife’s second husband or the first husband’s sworn brother. Polyandry was a strategy to keep the family together by expanding it, raising the ratio of laborers to consumers. In contrast, wife sale was a strategy to survive by breaking up the family, creating a new marriage in the process. In the mid-range of the spectrum, there were less formal arrangements (including polyamory and marital prostitution), whereby a wife would have sex with other men in exchange for their support. This book analyzes the interplay of ideology and practice in Qing law by showing how magistrates charged with enforcing a fundamentalist vision of female chastity coped with widespread wife sales. This contradiction illuminates both the pragmatism of routine adjudication and the increasingly dysfunctional nature of the dynastic state facing mounting social crisis. These prohibited transactions were part of a broader field of illicit customs that flourished in defiance of prohibition.Less
This book uses over 1,200 legal cases from Qing dynasty archives to analyze polyandry, wife-selling, and other practices that mobilized a woman’s sexual and reproductive labor to help support her family. This analysis reveals the roles played by marriage, sex, and reproduction in survival strategies under conditions of overpopulation, worsening sex ratios, and shrinking farm sizes. If we focus on social practice among the poor (instead of the normative discourse), normative boundaries between marriage and the traffic in women—and between marriage and sex work—cannot be sustained. With polyandry, an outside male would be incorporated into a couple’s household as the wife’s second husband or the first husband’s sworn brother. Polyandry was a strategy to keep the family together by expanding it, raising the ratio of laborers to consumers. In contrast, wife sale was a strategy to survive by breaking up the family, creating a new marriage in the process. In the mid-range of the spectrum, there were less formal arrangements (including polyamory and marital prostitution), whereby a wife would have sex with other men in exchange for their support. This book analyzes the interplay of ideology and practice in Qing law by showing how magistrates charged with enforcing a fundamentalist vision of female chastity coped with widespread wife sales. This contradiction illuminates both the pragmatism of routine adjudication and the increasingly dysfunctional nature of the dynastic state facing mounting social crisis. These prohibited transactions were part of a broader field of illicit customs that flourished in defiance of prohibition.
Flanigan Jessica
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190659882
- eISBN:
- 9780190659929
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190659882.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Many scholars, activists, and officials oppose decriminalization. First, some people argue that criminal penalties do not violate rights because people do not have rights to buy or sell sex. Others ...
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Many scholars, activists, and officials oppose decriminalization. First, some people argue that criminal penalties do not violate rights because people do not have rights to buy or sell sex. Others object that decriminalization would increase the prevalence of sex work, which is worse than other jobs, and so paternalistic limits on the industry are justified. Another set of objections presses the claim that the sex industry has negative externalities, such as increased rates of sexual transmission of disease, human trafficking, rape, or crime. Finally, some claim that a decriminalized sex industry would exacerbate existing economic or social inequalities. This chapter shows that these objections do not succeed in justifying alternatives to decriminalization.Less
Many scholars, activists, and officials oppose decriminalization. First, some people argue that criminal penalties do not violate rights because people do not have rights to buy or sell sex. Others object that decriminalization would increase the prevalence of sex work, which is worse than other jobs, and so paternalistic limits on the industry are justified. Another set of objections presses the claim that the sex industry has negative externalities, such as increased rates of sexual transmission of disease, human trafficking, rape, or crime. Finally, some claim that a decriminalized sex industry would exacerbate existing economic or social inequalities. This chapter shows that these objections do not succeed in justifying alternatives to decriminalization.
Cynthia M. Blair
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226055985
- eISBN:
- 9780226056005
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226056005.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
For many years, the interrelated histories of prostitution and cities have perked the ears of urban scholars, but until now the history of urban sex work has dealt only in passing with questions of ...
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For many years, the interrelated histories of prostitution and cities have perked the ears of urban scholars, but until now the history of urban sex work has dealt only in passing with questions of race. This book urban explores African American women's sex work in Chicago during the decades of some of the city's most explosive growth, expanding not just our view of prostitution, but also of black women's labor, the Great Migration, black and white reform movements, and the emergence of modern sexuality. Focusing on the notorious sex districts of the city's south side, the book paints a complex portrait of black prostitutes as conscious actors and historical agents; prostitution, it argues here, was both an arena of exploitation and abuse, as well as a means of resisting middle-class sexual and economic norms. The book ultimately illustrates just how powerful these norms were, offering stories about the struggles that emerged among black and white urbanites in response to black women's increasing visibility in the city's sex economy.Less
For many years, the interrelated histories of prostitution and cities have perked the ears of urban scholars, but until now the history of urban sex work has dealt only in passing with questions of race. This book urban explores African American women's sex work in Chicago during the decades of some of the city's most explosive growth, expanding not just our view of prostitution, but also of black women's labor, the Great Migration, black and white reform movements, and the emergence of modern sexuality. Focusing on the notorious sex districts of the city's south side, the book paints a complex portrait of black prostitutes as conscious actors and historical agents; prostitution, it argues here, was both an arena of exploitation and abuse, as well as a means of resisting middle-class sexual and economic norms. The book ultimately illustrates just how powerful these norms were, offering stories about the struggles that emerged among black and white urbanites in response to black women's increasing visibility in the city's sex economy.
