scholarly journals The Impact of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on the Health and Social Needs of Sex Workers in Singapore

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayner Kay Jin Tan ◽  
Vanessa Ho ◽  
Sherry Sherqueshaa ◽  
Wany Dee ◽  
Jane Mingjie Lim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Permanent Resident ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractWe evaluated the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the sex work industry and assessed how it has impacted the health and social conditions of sex workers in Singapore. We conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods study amidst the COVID-19 pandemic from April to October 2020, including in-depth interviews with 24 stakeholders from the sex work industry and surveyor-administered structured surveys with 171 sex workers. COVID-19 had a substantial impact on sex workers' income. The illegality of sex work, stigma, and the lack of work documentation were cited as exclusionary factors for access to alternative jobs or government relief. Sex workers had experienced an increase in food insecurity (57.3%), housing insecurity (32.8%), and sexual compromise (8.2%), as well as a decrease in access to medical services (16.4%). Being transgender female was positively associated with increased food insecurity (aPR = 1.23, 95% CI [1.08, 1.41]), housing insecurity (aPR = 1.28, 95% CI [1.03, 1.60]), and decreased access to medical services (aPR = 1.74, 95% CI [1.23, 2.46]); being a venue-based sex worker was positively associated with increased food insecurity (aPR = 1.46, 95% CI [1.00, 2.13]), and being a non-Singaporean citizen or permanent resident was positively associated with increased housing insecurity (aPR = 2.59, 95% CI [1.73, 3.85]). Our findings suggest that COVID-19 has led to a loss of income for sex workers, greater food and housing insecurity, increased sexual compromise, and reduced access to medical services for sex workers. A lack of access to government relief among sex workers exacerbated such conditions. Efforts to address such population health inequities should be implemented.

scholarly journals Unfinished Decriminalization: The Impact of Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 on Migrant Sex Workers’ Rights and Lives in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Calum Bennachie ◽  
Annah Pickering ◽  
Jenny Lee ◽  
P. G. Macioti ◽  
Nicola Mai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Fear Of Deportation ◽  
Permanent Residency ◽  
The Impact

In 2003, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) passed the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA), which decriminalized sex work for NZ citizens and holders of permanent residency (PR) while excluding migrant sex workers (MSWs) from its protection. This is due to Section 19 (s19) of the PRA, added at the last minute against advice by the Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective (NZPC) as an anti-trafficking clause. Because of s19, migrants on temporary visas found to be working as sex workers are liable to deportation by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Drawing on original ethnographic and interview data gathered over 24 months of fieldwork, our study finds that migrant sex workers in New Zealand are vulnerable to violence and exploitation, and are too afraid to report these to the police for fear of deportation, corroborating earlier studies and studies completed while we were collecting data.

scholarly journals The Female Sex Work Industry in a District of India in the Context of HIV Prevention

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raluca Buzdugan ◽  
Shiva S. Halli ◽  
Jyoti M. Hiremath ◽  
Krishnamurthy Jayanna ◽  
T. Raghavendra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sex Workers ◽  
Work Setting ◽  
Vulnerability Factors ◽  
Modes Of Operation ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Female Sex Work

HIV prevalence in India remains high among female sex workers. This paper presents the main findings of a qualitative study of the modes of operation of female sex work in Belgaum district, Karnataka, India, incorporating fifty interviews with sex workers. Thirteen sex work settings (distinguished by sex workers' main places of solicitation and sex) are identified. In addition to previously documented brothel, lodge, street,dhaba(highway restaurant), and highway-based sex workers, under-researched or newly emerging sex worker categories are identified, including phone-based sex workers, parlour girls, and agricultural workers. Women working in brothels, lodges,dhabas, and on highways describe factors that put them at high HIV risk. Of these,dhabaand highway-based sex workers are poorly covered by existing interventions. The paper examines the HIV-related vulnerability factors specific to each sex work setting. The modes of operation and HIV-vulnerabilities of sex work settings identified in this paper have important implications for the local programme.

“Sex Work Is Star Shaped”

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-590
Author(s):  
Vanessa Carlisle
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Sexual Performance ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
Real Work ◽  
The Common

This article interrogates the common sex worker rights’ slogan “sex work is real work,” a claim that yokes sex worker struggles to labor struggles worldwide. This article argues that US-based sex worker rights activism, which relies on the labor rights framework to confront stigma and criminalization, is unable to undo how racial capitalism constructs sex work as not a legitimate form of work. While labor protections are important, sex work offers opportunity for the development of antiwork potentials. Many people engaging in sexual performance or trading sex are already creating spaces where sex work itself exceeds analysis as a job. By foregrounding sex workers’ lived experiences and the theoretical moves of antiracist anticapitalism, antiwork politics, queer liberationists, and disability justice, this article locates sex workers at the nexus of important forms of subjugated knowledge crucial for undermining the criminalization of marginalized people.

Stigma, decriminalisation, and violence against street-based sex workers: Changing the narrative

Sexualities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1288-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynzi Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Multiple Risks ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Starting Point

It is well documented that sex workers manage risks in their work – such as the potential for violence and the multiple risks associated with stigma. While sex workers are commonly understood to be a stigmatised population, few studies have considered in depth how stigma operates in different legislative contexts, how it relates to sex-worker safety, and how it may be reduced. Stigma is understood to be exacerbated by the criminalisation of sex work, which defines sex workers as deviant others and consequently renders them more vulnerable to violence. However, as full decriminalisation of sex work is still relatively rare, there has been little in-depth exploration into the relationship between this legislative approach, risks of violence, and stigma. Drawing on the findings of in-depth interviews with street-based sex workers and sex-worker rights advocates, in this article I explore the links between stigma and violence, and discuss the challenges of reducing stigma associated with sex work in New Zealand, post-decriminalisation. I argue that while decriminalisation has undoubtedly benefited sex workers in New Zealand, stigma continues to have a negative impact – particularly for street-based sex workers. Decriminalisation should therefore be considered an essential starting point. However, ongoing work must focus on countering stigmatising narratives, to enable a safer society for all sex workers.

Migration, Agency, and the Sex Industry: Practitioners’ Perspectives on Foreign Sex Workers in Turkey

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (10) ◽  
pp. 2954-2981
Author(s):  
Omur Kaya ◽  
Edna Erez
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
Sex Market ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

The article presents the political, economic, and sociocultural factors that make Turkey an attractive destination for foreign sex workers, and reviews trends in official statistics of arrested traffickers, rescued victims, and deportation of migrant illegal sex workers. In-depth interviews of 20 law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations staff members, who in the course of their work come into close contact with foreign sex workers, shed light on the statistics. The interview data provide insights into the structure of the Turkish sex market, the factors that bring foreign women to work in this market, and the impact of legal reforms on the circumstances of foreign sex workers. The article concludes with the implications of the findings for public policy.

scholarly journals Of Raids and Returns: Sex work movement, police oppression, and the politics of the ordinary in Sonagachi, India

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-139
Author(s):  
Simanti Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Red Light ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Labour Rights ◽  
Red Light District

Drawing on ethnographic work with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a grassroots sex worker organisation in Sonagachi, the iconic red-light district in Kolkata, India, this paper explores the politics of the detritus generated by raids as a form of state violence. While the current literature mainly focuses on its institutional ramifications, this article explores the significance of the raid in its immediate relation to the brothel as a home and a space to collectivise for labour rights. Drawing on atyachar (oppression), the Bengali word sex workers use to depict the violence of raids, I argue that they experience the raid not as a spectacle, but as an ordinary form of violence in contrast to their extraordinary experience of return to rebuild their lives. Return signals both a reclamation of the detritus as well as subversion of the state’s attempt to undermine DMSC’s labour movement.

scholarly journals BEYOND THE MARKED WOMAN: THE NEW SEX WORKER IN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE, 2006-2016

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Kirshner
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Patriarchal Ideology ◽  
Feminist Media Studies ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
Care Worker

This dissertation argues that between 2006 and 2016, in a context of rising tolerance for sex workers, economic shifts under neoliberal capitalism, and the normalization of transactional intimate labour, popular culture began to offer new and humanizing images of the sex worker as an entrepreneur and care worker. This new popular culture legitimatizes sex workers in a growing services industry and carries important de-stigmatizing messages about sex workers, who continue to be among the most stigmatized of women workers in the U.S. These new representations challenge stereotypical portrayals of sex workers – as immoral criminals or exploited victims – that support conservative and patriarchal ideologies. Drawing upon feminist theories of sex work, labour theory, and feminist media studies methodology for exploring the nexus of gender, sexuality, and popular culture, this dissertation examines feature films, TV series, and TV and online documentaries that depict five sex work occupations – erotic dancers, massage parlour workers, webcam models, call girls, and sex surrogates – to illustrate the new figure of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker under neoliberal capitalism. By emphasizing sex workers’ agency to choose their work, dignifying their skills, underscoring sex work as a means of economic mobility, and highlighting the positive contributions sex workers make to their clients’ lives, these popular culture representations challenge the anti-sex work position espoused by conservative patriarchal ideology and prohibitionist feminists. Some of these new representations, however, intertwine with a neoliberal post-feminist sensibility that frames empowerment as realizable through individualism and the market alone, rather than in collective ways, and pose few concrete solutions to the challenges faced by sex workers today, namely criminalization. Even so, this dissertation argues that these emerging twenty-first century representations of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker are progressive and mark a growing social tolerance for the idea that, for some women, sex work is legitimate work.

scholarly journals Sex Work and Occupational Homicide: Analysis of a U.K. Murder Database

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart Cunningham ◽  
Teela Sanders ◽  
Lucy Platt ◽  
Pippa Grenfell ◽  
P.G. Macioti
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Prostitution Policy ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

This article presents an analysis of occupational homicides of sex workers in the United Kingdom, 1990-2016. Characteristics of 110 people murdered between 1990 and 2016 are explored including the location of their murder, ethnicity, migration status, and gender. Key changes over time are noted including an increase in the number of sex workers murdered indoors as well as an increase in murdered migrant sex workers. By developing the concept of “occupational homicide,” we argue that sex worker homicide should be viewed as an occupational issue and that the distinction between work-related homicide and nonwork-related homicide should be accounted for in future studies and is essential to inform prostitution policy.

Anti-Social Powers and the Regulation of Street Sex Work

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Knowledge Gap ◽  
Network Research ◽  
Public Nuisance ◽  
Street Sex Work ◽  
The Impact

This article focuses on the use of anti-social behavior powers in relation to a group of vulnerable women – street sex workers. It illustrates how the use of legal tools – anti-social behavior orders and public nuisance injunctions – against sex workers has been both misplaced and ineffective. The article also considers the use of anti-social powers in light of the government's leaning towards the coercive (or some might argue the compulsory) rehabilitation of sex workers. In doing so, it draws attention to the lack of research on the impact of both exclusion orders and rehabilitation orders for sex workers. Whilst it is important to fill this knowledge gap, it is argued that future investigations in this area would benefit from social network research approaches.

Aprosba

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Lorraine Williams
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Transnational Networks ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Training Initiative ◽  
State Regional

This chapter examines the racial and class dynamics of Aprosba (Association of Prostitutes of Bahia), the only organization in Bahia run by and for sex workers, as well as its impact on the lives of some of its members. It first provides a background on Aprosba's history and activities and goes on to describe its place in state, regional, and transnational networks of sex workers' associations. It then considers the ethnography of Aprosba members in relation to the theoretical and political distinctions related to terms such as prostitute and sex worker as well as into the debate regarding whether sex work can be understood as a practice or an identity. It also explores the activism and organizing efforts of grassroots Brazilian sex workers on the local, national, and transnational scenes, focusing on Aprosba's training initiative called Projeto sem Vergonha (Without Shame Project). The chapter highlights the racial politics of sex work in Salvador, and especially the politics of naming in Aprosba's preference for the term prostituta (prostitute) over profissional do sexo or trabalhadora do sexo (sex worker).

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