Ching Yau
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099876
- eISBN:
- 9789882206625
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This volume poses new challenges to queer studies and demonstrates the study of Chinese sexuality as an emergent field currently emanating from multiple disciplines. Issues related to sexuality have ...
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This volume poses new challenges to queer studies and demonstrates the study of Chinese sexuality as an emergent field currently emanating from multiple disciplines. Issues related to sexuality have acquired a new visibility in China in the past several years. The growth of religious fundamentalists and global gay discourses, heightened media attention and even more intense censorship, LBGTIQ activist movements, and the struggles of sex workers, have all contributed to this visibility. There is an urgent need for intellectual work to articulate and analyze the complexity of issues of sexuality, and the ways in which different norms line up and become synonymous with one another, in order to build situated knowledge in strengthening the discursive power of non-normative sexual-subjects-in-alliance. This book showcases the work of scholars working mostly outside Euro-America and focuses on cities including Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. It is a sustained collections on Chinese non-normative sexual subjectivities and contemporary sexual politics published in English. It highlights the various ways in which different individuals and communities — including male sex workers, transsexual subjects, lesbians, and Indonesian migrants — negotiate with notions of normativity and modernity, fine-tuned according to the different power structures of each context, and making new and different meanings.Less
This volume poses new challenges to queer studies and demonstrates the study of Chinese sexuality as an emergent field currently emanating from multiple disciplines. Issues related to sexuality have acquired a new visibility in China in the past several years. The growth of religious fundamentalists and global gay discourses, heightened media attention and even more intense censorship, LBGTIQ activist movements, and the struggles of sex workers, have all contributed to this visibility. There is an urgent need for intellectual work to articulate and analyze the complexity of issues of sexuality, and the ways in which different norms line up and become synonymous with one another, in order to build situated knowledge in strengthening the discursive power of non-normative sexual-subjects-in-alliance. This book showcases the work of scholars working mostly outside Euro-America and focuses on cities including Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. It is a sustained collections on Chinese non-normative sexual subjectivities and contemporary sexual politics published in English. It highlights the various ways in which different individuals and communities — including male sex workers, transsexual subjects, lesbians, and Indonesian migrants — negotiate with notions of normativity and modernity, fine-tuned according to the different power structures of each context, and making new and different meanings.
Adelyn Lim
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9789888139378
- eISBN:
- 9789888313174
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139378.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter examines advocacy for the recognition of prostitution as legitimate work and sex workers as working women. The global restructuring of capital has reinforced the exploitation of gendered ...
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This chapter examines advocacy for the recognition of prostitution as legitimate work and sex workers as working women. The global restructuring of capital has reinforced the exploitation of gendered and racialized labor within regional and national sites and the flow of migrants who engage in sexual labor has become a site of intense feminist specification and engagement. In Hong Kong, women activists may disagree on prostitution itself as a practice, but there is extensive agreement that sex workers' entitlement to do their work and demand for recognition of their human rights are essential to cultural-political transformation and women's empowerment. The framing of feminism involves integrating sex workers into agenda setting, reflecting on local organizational forms, rhetoric, and strategies in response to global socio-cultural, economic, and political forces, and imagining new priorities, initiatives, and activities in acknowledgment of evolving feminist understandings.Less
This chapter examines advocacy for the recognition of prostitution as legitimate work and sex workers as working women. The global restructuring of capital has reinforced the exploitation of gendered and racialized labor within regional and national sites and the flow of migrants who engage in sexual labor has become a site of intense feminist specification and engagement. In Hong Kong, women activists may disagree on prostitution itself as a practice, but there is extensive agreement that sex workers' entitlement to do their work and demand for recognition of their human rights are essential to cultural-political transformation and women's empowerment. The framing of feminism involves integrating sex workers into agenda setting, reflecting on local organizational forms, rhetoric, and strategies in response to global socio-cultural, economic, and political forces, and imagining new priorities, initiatives, and activities in acknowledgment of evolving feminist understandings.
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.
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479810024
- eISBN:
- 9781479845996
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479810024.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter draws on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” to show how prior to HIV/AIDS, sexual minorities experienced the state only through “raw power,” where rampant violence and abuse were ...
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This chapter draws on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” to show how prior to HIV/AIDS, sexual minorities experienced the state only through “raw power,” where rampant violence and abuse were the norm and the state freely consigned individuals to death by depriving them of resources. The management of “risk” in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic brought attention to the violence faced by sexual minorities, especially arbitrary police violence supported by criminal laws. During the earlier phases of the epidemic, peer educators and outreach workers—who were drawn from “high-risk” groups themselves—faced challenges and even violence in reaching out to their peers. Even carrying condoms for outreach purposes was seen as evidence of “criminal” sexual activity. This tension between peer educators and police reveals internal contradictions in the state; peer educators, who are at the cusp of state juridical and biopower, bring this contradiction in the state to the foreground.Less
This chapter draws on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” to show how prior to HIV/AIDS, sexual minorities experienced the state only through “raw power,” where rampant violence and abuse were the norm and the state freely consigned individuals to death by depriving them of resources. The management of “risk” in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic brought attention to the violence faced by sexual minorities, especially arbitrary police violence supported by criminal laws. During the earlier phases of the epidemic, peer educators and outreach workers—who were drawn from “high-risk” groups themselves—faced challenges and even violence in reaching out to their peers. Even carrying condoms for outreach purposes was seen as evidence of “criminal” sexual activity. This tension between peer educators and police reveals internal contradictions in the state; peer educators, who are at the cusp of state juridical and biopower, bring this contradiction in the state to the foreground.
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.
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.
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/9781847423344.003.0013
- Subject:
- Social Work, Crime and Justice
In the sex-worker population, the priority of harm minimisation has been to minimise disease transmission through educating the workers on safe-sex practices. This harm-minimisation approach assumes ...
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In the sex-worker population, the priority of harm minimisation has been to minimise disease transmission through educating the workers on safe-sex practices. This harm-minimisation approach assumes that by educating the sex workers on HIV/AIDS and informing them of their responsibility in preventing transmission, they would make rational choices to protect themselves and others. However, the assumption that sex workers are vectors of diseases marginalises and blames them without considering the implications of poverty, gender, public fear, and law. For a more effective health approach in the sex industry, it is hence vital to consider structural and political issues such as poverty and law. Within this context, public-health workers have been challenged to take a more holistic approach to health promotion for sex workers. In addition to taking into consideration the health of the workers, their human rights and the need to create a safer working environment were also considered in the risk-management and harm-minimisation assessment of the sex industry. Within the broad context of harm minimisation commenced the advocacy for the decriminalisation of the sex industry. It was envisaged that by repealing the laws which criminalised sex-work activities, the autonomy of the sex workers and their capability to protect themselves would increase. It was theorised that under a decriminalised system, human rights and set standards for working environments would improve the health and safety of the workers. This chapter examines whether there have been gains for sex-worker health and safety in a decriminalised environment. It examines the main threats to health and safety identified by the participants: risks to sexual health, risks of violence and exploitation, and risks to emotional health.Less
In the sex-worker population, the priority of harm minimisation has been to minimise disease transmission through educating the workers on safe-sex practices. This harm-minimisation approach assumes that by educating the sex workers on HIV/AIDS and informing them of their responsibility in preventing transmission, they would make rational choices to protect themselves and others. However, the assumption that sex workers are vectors of diseases marginalises and blames them without considering the implications of poverty, gender, public fear, and law. For a more effective health approach in the sex industry, it is hence vital to consider structural and political issues such as poverty and law. Within this context, public-health workers have been challenged to take a more holistic approach to health promotion for sex workers. In addition to taking into consideration the health of the workers, their human rights and the need to create a safer working environment were also considered in the risk-management and harm-minimisation assessment of the sex industry. Within the broad context of harm minimisation commenced the advocacy for the decriminalisation of the sex industry. It was envisaged that by repealing the laws which criminalised sex-work activities, the autonomy of the sex workers and their capability to protect themselves would increase. It was theorised that under a decriminalised system, human rights and set standards for working environments would improve the health and safety of the workers. This chapter examines whether there have been gains for sex-worker health and safety in a decriminalised environment. It examines the main threats to health and safety identified by the participants: risks to sexual health, risks of violence and exploitation, and risks to emotional health.
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.
Ruth Morgan Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847421067
- eISBN:
- 9781447303169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847421067.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter puts forward a sex workers' rights perspective in relation to the notion of ‘zero tolerance’ of prostitution. It records some of the experiences and voices of sex workers, and presents ...
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This chapter puts forward a sex workers' rights perspective in relation to the notion of ‘zero tolerance’ of prostitution. It records some of the experiences and voices of sex workers, and presents some of the evidence that calls into question the ‘zero-tolerance’ approach. The chapter notes that this evidence was gathered over the last two decades by SCOT-PEP, a community-based organization that was set up by sex workers for sex workers in 1989 in Edinburgh and which the author currently manages. It mainly argues that zero tolerance, in the context of violence against women and sex work, has become dogmatic and unresponsive to the actual needs of sex workers, silences the voices of sex workers, and undermines fundamental human rights.Less
This chapter puts forward a sex workers' rights perspective in relation to the notion of ‘zero tolerance’ of prostitution. It records some of the experiences and voices of sex workers, and presents some of the evidence that calls into question the ‘zero-tolerance’ approach. The chapter notes that this evidence was gathered over the last two decades by SCOT-PEP, a community-based organization that was set up by sex workers for sex workers in 1989 in Edinburgh and which the author currently manages. It mainly argues that zero tolerance, in the context of violence against women and sex work, has become dogmatic and unresponsive to the actual needs of sex workers, silences the voices of sex workers, and undermines fundamental human rights.
LaShawn Harris
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040207
- eISBN:
- 9780252098420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040207.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter explores black women's multilayered roles within New York's sex commerce, moving beyond widely accepted historical interpretations that position black sex laborers primarily as street ...
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This chapter explores black women's multilayered roles within New York's sex commerce, moving beyond widely accepted historical interpretations that position black sex laborers primarily as street solicitors. Identifying black women as madam-prostitutes, casual prostitutes, and sex-house proprietors and entrepreneurs, this chapter addresses the difficulties of documenting sex work within black communities, the broad socioeconomic conditions and personal circumstances outlining black women's entrance into the urban sexual economy, and the occupational benefits of indoor prostitution. In an attempt to avoid or limit their presence on New York streets, black sex workers—when the opportunity arose—sold and performed sexual services in furnished rooms and hotels, in their own homes, in massage parlors and nightclubs, and in other legitimate and illegitimate commercial businesses. Furthermore, indoor and residential sexual labor was significant to sex laborers' working and personal lives.Less
This chapter explores black women's multilayered roles within New York's sex commerce, moving beyond widely accepted historical interpretations that position black sex laborers primarily as street solicitors. Identifying black women as madam-prostitutes, casual prostitutes, and sex-house proprietors and entrepreneurs, this chapter addresses the difficulties of documenting sex work within black communities, the broad socioeconomic conditions and personal circumstances outlining black women's entrance into the urban sexual economy, and the occupational benefits of indoor prostitution. In an attempt to avoid or limit their presence on New York streets, black sex workers—when the opportunity arose—sold and performed sexual services in furnished rooms and hotels, in their own homes, in massage parlors and nightclubs, and in other legitimate and illegitimate commercial businesses. Furthermore, indoor and residential sexual labor was significant to sex laborers' working and personal lives.
Hendrik Wagenaar, Helga Amesberger, and Sietske Altink
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781447324249
- eISBN:
- 9781447324256
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447324249.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Chapter Six argues for collaborative governance as an effective response to the domain-specific challenges of prostitution policy, as well as to the inadequacy of the traditional policy responses of ...
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Chapter Six argues for collaborative governance as an effective response to the domain-specific challenges of prostitution policy, as well as to the inadequacy of the traditional policy responses of adversarial interest group policy and managerialist policy implementation. Collaborative governance is a mode of governance in which public agencies engage with various stakeholders to jointly deliberate about public problems in a carefully designed arrangement. This, however, requires the presence of sex worker advocacy organizations to establish a productive working relationship with government partners. The chapter explores the literature on sex worker organisations and concludes that their preferred organizational form of independent collectivism does not need to be an obstacle to long-term working relationships with others. The chapter then discusses several successful cases in Vancouver, The Netherlands and New Zealand in which sex worker organizations established long-term relationships of trust with government partners, successfully managed complex contracts, and exerted moral leadership in the domain of prostitution. In all these instances, prostitution policy was more effective and humane.Less
Chapter Six argues for collaborative governance as an effective response to the domain-specific challenges of prostitution policy, as well as to the inadequacy of the traditional policy responses of adversarial interest group policy and managerialist policy implementation. Collaborative governance is a mode of governance in which public agencies engage with various stakeholders to jointly deliberate about public problems in a carefully designed arrangement. This, however, requires the presence of sex worker advocacy organizations to establish a productive working relationship with government partners. The chapter explores the literature on sex worker organisations and concludes that their preferred organizational form of independent collectivism does not need to be an obstacle to long-term working relationships with others. The chapter then discusses several successful cases in Vancouver, The Netherlands and New Zealand in which sex worker organizations established long-term relationships of trust with government partners, successfully managed complex contracts, and exerted moral leadership in the domain of prostitution. In all these instances, prostitution policy was more effective and humane.
Catherine Healy, Calum Bennachie, and Anna Reed
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847423344
- eISBN:
- 9781447303664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847423344.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Crime and Justice
This chapter outlines the history of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC). It traces the collective's efforts to fight against social stigma and to overturn legislation that had a negative ...
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This chapter outlines the history of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC). It traces the collective's efforts to fight against social stigma and to overturn legislation that had a negative implication on the lives of sex workers in New Zealand. The chapter begins by providing a short outline of the socio-political context in which the NZPC emerged in the late 1980s. After tracing the composition of the NZPC, it then proceeds to the ways in which the collective built support for decriminalising sex work in New Zealand.Less
This chapter outlines the history of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC). It traces the collective's efforts to fight against social stigma and to overturn legislation that had a negative implication on the lives of sex workers in New Zealand. The chapter begins by providing a short outline of the socio-political context in which the NZPC emerged in the late 1980s. After tracing the composition of the NZPC, it then proceeds to the ways in which the collective built support for decriminalising sex work in New Zealand.
Annuska Derks
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824831288
- eISBN:
- 9780824869182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824831288.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses how the poor conditions in the red-light districts in Phnom Penh have contributed to the image of a “gruesome” sex industry in Cambodia. Western media reports depict Cambodia ...
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This chapter discusses how the poor conditions in the red-light districts in Phnom Penh have contributed to the image of a “gruesome” sex industry in Cambodia. Western media reports depict Cambodia as a country where the “sex trade” flourishes, and where the associated AIDS epidemic threatens to result in its “next Killing Fields.” While ideas about sex workers as immoral women persist among many Cambodians, images of sex workers as slaves, commodities, and viruses have come to dominate reports on sex work. These reports portray young rural women, anxious to do anything to provide financial support for their families, have become tricked into a life of debt and virtual slavery. The chapter argues that these views reveal more about the moral attitudes of observers than about the daily lives, struggles, and experiences of the workers themselves.Less
This chapter discusses how the poor conditions in the red-light districts in Phnom Penh have contributed to the image of a “gruesome” sex industry in Cambodia. Western media reports depict Cambodia as a country where the “sex trade” flourishes, and where the associated AIDS epidemic threatens to result in its “next Killing Fields.” While ideas about sex workers as immoral women persist among many Cambodians, images of sex workers as slaves, commodities, and viruses have come to dominate reports on sex work. These reports portray young rural women, anxious to do anything to provide financial support for their families, have become tricked into a life of debt and virtual slavery. The chapter argues that these views reveal more about the moral attitudes of observers than about the daily lives, struggles, and experiences of the workers themselves.
Megan Rivers-Moore
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226373386
- eISBN:
- 9780226373553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226373553.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Although sex work remains highly stigmatized, it allows sex workers to attain some level of economic, if not social, mobility. This chapter challenges the idea that sex work is always about mere ...
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Although sex work remains highly stigmatized, it allows sex workers to attain some level of economic, if not social, mobility. This chapter challenges the idea that sex work is always about mere subsistence. Instead, it suggests that sex tourism workers work to survive, but they also demonstrate significant personal ambition and aim not only to increase their own consumption levels, but to get ahead. Women are clear about what sex work enables for their families and themselves: a level of consumption otherwise unavailable to them as low-income and poor women. Sex work offers an opportunity to consume and to get ahead that these women have been unable to attain in other kinds of employment, primarily domestic and factory work. Furthermore, sex work allows women to think of themselves as particularly good mothers, able to provide for and spend important quality time with their kids. The chapter argues that survival, consumption, and motherhood are deployed, often in contradictory and conflicting ways, in order to counteract the effects that stigma has on sex workers. It also suggests that sex workers may very well be the quintessential subjects of neo-liberalism in Latin America, in their embrace of entrepreneurial work and consumption.Less
Although sex work remains highly stigmatized, it allows sex workers to attain some level of economic, if not social, mobility. This chapter challenges the idea that sex work is always about mere subsistence. Instead, it suggests that sex tourism workers work to survive, but they also demonstrate significant personal ambition and aim not only to increase their own consumption levels, but to get ahead. Women are clear about what sex work enables for their families and themselves: a level of consumption otherwise unavailable to them as low-income and poor women. Sex work offers an opportunity to consume and to get ahead that these women have been unable to attain in other kinds of employment, primarily domestic and factory work. Furthermore, sex work allows women to think of themselves as particularly good mothers, able to provide for and spend important quality time with their kids. The chapter argues that survival, consumption, and motherhood are deployed, often in contradictory and conflicting ways, in order to counteract the effects that stigma has on sex workers. It also suggests that sex workers may very well be the quintessential subjects of neo-liberalism in Latin America, in their embrace of entrepreneurial work and consumption.
Sverre Molland
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824836108
- eISBN:
- 9780824871505
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824836108.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines cross-border oscillations of Lao sex workers and some of their implications for how anti-trafficking programs envisage trafficking and mobility to take place. It begins with an ...
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This chapter examines cross-border oscillations of Lao sex workers and some of their implications for how anti-trafficking programs envisage trafficking and mobility to take place. It begins with an overview of migration patterns between Laos and Thailand and how the anti-trafficking sector has participated in articulating meanings of cross-border migration. It then considers income and price stratification in Laos and in Nong Kai, along with the role of customer frequency in sex workers' migratory trajectories. It also discusses the spatial dimension of trafficking and concludes by analyzing the ways that the imagery of socioeconomic differentiations across the Thai-Lao border has distorted understandings of actual migration practices within the arena of sex commerce.Less
This chapter examines cross-border oscillations of Lao sex workers and some of their implications for how anti-trafficking programs envisage trafficking and mobility to take place. It begins with an overview of migration patterns between Laos and Thailand and how the anti-trafficking sector has participated in articulating meanings of cross-border migration. It then considers income and price stratification in Laos and in Nong Kai, along with the role of customer frequency in sex workers' migratory trajectories. It also discusses the spatial dimension of trafficking and concludes by analyzing the ways that the imagery of socioeconomic differentiations across the Thai-Lao border has distorted understandings of actual migration practices within the arena of sex commerce.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226055985
- eISBN:
- 9780226056005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226056005.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the racial structure of the sex economy in Chicago during the period from 1870 to 1900. It explains that African American prostitutes confronted a racial hierarchy that ...
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This chapter examines the racial structure of the sex economy in Chicago during the period from 1870 to 1900. It explains that African American prostitutes confronted a racial hierarchy that determined where they worked and how much they earned and highlights the racial segregation of the sex workers in the Levee district. It also mentions that African American prostitutes and brothels consistently charged the lowest rates for their sexual services. This chapter also describes who African American sex workers found ways to cross the lines that defined the economy's racial hierarchy.Less
This chapter examines the racial structure of the sex economy in Chicago during the period from 1870 to 1900. It explains that African American prostitutes confronted a racial hierarchy that determined where they worked and how much they earned and highlights the racial segregation of the sex workers in the Levee district. It also mentions that African American prostitutes and brothels consistently charged the lowest rates for their sexual services. This chapter also describes who African American sex workers found ways to cross the lines that defined the economy's racial hierarchy.
Chimaraoke Izugbara
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814785089
- eISBN:
- 9780814785102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814785089.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the intricate set of arrangements employed by sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, to defy arrest and regulation by law enforcement agents and to protect themselves and one another ...
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This chapter examines the intricate set of arrangements employed by sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, to defy arrest and regulation by law enforcement agents and to protect themselves and one another from violent assaults by police and clients, along with the implications of these strategies for their well-being and vulnerability. Drawing on the author's three and half years of ethnographic work among sex workers in urban Nairobi, the chapter considers how the city's sex workers unite into a community of victims and inventors to counter the efforts of law enforcement agents to regulate prostitution. It also discusses the effects of criminalization, and specifically Nairobi's antiprostitution law, on sex workers and suggests that sex work in the city is intertwined with the postcolonial politics of Kenyan life.Less
This chapter examines the intricate set of arrangements employed by sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, to defy arrest and regulation by law enforcement agents and to protect themselves and one another from violent assaults by police and clients, along with the implications of these strategies for their well-being and vulnerability. Drawing on the author's three and half years of ethnographic work among sex workers in urban Nairobi, the chapter considers how the city's sex workers unite into a community of victims and inventors to counter the efforts of law enforcement agents to regulate prostitution. It also discusses the effects of criminalization, and specifically Nairobi's antiprostitution law, on sex workers and suggests that sex work in the city is intertwined with the postcolonial politics of Kenyan life.
Karen Corteen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447338765
- eISBN:
- 9781447339182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447338765.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
Female sex worker victim characteristics and their social, situational and interactive contexts have not substantially changed. Yet, the manner in which female sex worker victimisation is currently ...
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Female sex worker victim characteristics and their social, situational and interactive contexts have not substantially changed. Yet, the manner in which female sex worker victimisation is currently understood has changed in some quarters. This chapter documents the unusual inclusion of female sex workers into Merseyside police hate crime policy and practice. Given that female sex workers embody a ‘non-ideal’ victim identity the focus here is to consider what this development may mean for Christie’s (1986) ‘ideal victim’ thesis. In so doing the role (or lack of) emotion and compassion will be discussed. The chapter concludes that victims and victimisation have been reimagined and new victimisations have arisen. However, with regard to hate crime, and the social construction of, and criminal justice responses to the victimisation of female sex workers Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ thesis remains contemporarily relevant and predominantly intact.Less
Female sex worker victim characteristics and their social, situational and interactive contexts have not substantially changed. Yet, the manner in which female sex worker victimisation is currently understood has changed in some quarters. This chapter documents the unusual inclusion of female sex workers into Merseyside police hate crime policy and practice. Given that female sex workers embody a ‘non-ideal’ victim identity the focus here is to consider what this development may mean for Christie’s (1986) ‘ideal victim’ thesis. In so doing the role (or lack of) emotion and compassion will be discussed. The chapter concludes that victims and victimisation have been reimagined and new victimisations have arisen. However, with regard to hate crime, and the social construction of, and criminal justice responses to the victimisation of female sex workers Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ thesis remains contemporarily relevant and predominantly intact.
Megan Rivers-Moore
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226373386
- eISBN:
- 9780226373553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226373553.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Following the previous chapter’s focus on what men are purchasing in San José, this chapter asks what kind of work the women involved in providing sexual services for tourists are actually ...
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Following the previous chapter’s focus on what men are purchasing in San José, this chapter asks what kind of work the women involved in providing sexual services for tourists are actually performing, according to their own analysis of their experiences. Chapter three explores how and why sex workers define their work as involving care rather than just sexual-economic exchange. Drawing on a burgeoning literature on care work and gender relations, the chapter argues that sex work in the tourism sector is best understood as affective labor, and then assesses what this conceptual move allows for studies of sex work as well as for studies of care work. The chapter suggests that theorizing sex work as care allows a way around the ongoing debates about empowerment versus exploitation in prostitution, as well as a useful means of linking sex work to other kinds of labor provided by women in the global economy. Sex tourism is assessed here as part of a broader gendered service sector and leisure economy that has blossomed in a globalized context.Less
Following the previous chapter’s focus on what men are purchasing in San José, this chapter asks what kind of work the women involved in providing sexual services for tourists are actually performing, according to their own analysis of their experiences. Chapter three explores how and why sex workers define their work as involving care rather than just sexual-economic exchange. Drawing on a burgeoning literature on care work and gender relations, the chapter argues that sex work in the tourism sector is best understood as affective labor, and then assesses what this conceptual move allows for studies of sex work as well as for studies of care work. The chapter suggests that theorizing sex work as care allows a way around the ongoing debates about empowerment versus exploitation in prostitution, as well as a useful means of linking sex work to other kinds of labor provided by women in the global economy. Sex tourism is assessed here as part of a broader gendered service sector and leisure economy that has blossomed in a globalized context.
