scholarly journals Sex work, containment and the new discourse of public health in French colonial Levant

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 330-346
Author(s):  
Pascale N. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Commercial Sex Work ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Sex Work Policy ◽  
French Colonial

AbstractThis article addresses how French academics, doctors and state bureaucrats formulated sex work as a pathology, an area of inquiry that had to be studied in the interest of public safety. French colonisation in the Levant extended the reach of this ‘expertise’ from the metropole to Lebanon under the guise of public health. Knowledge produced by academics was used to buttress colonial state policy, which demanded that sex workers be contained to protect society against medical contagion. No longer drawing conclusions based on speculation, the medical establishment asserted its authority by harnessing modern advances in science and uniting them with extensive observation. ‘Empirical facts’ replaced ‘opinions’, as doctors forged new approaches to studying and containing venereal disease. They accomplished this through the use of statistics and new methods of diagnosing and treating maladies. Their novel approach was used to treat sex workers and to support commercial sex work policy both at home and abroad. Sex workers became the objects of scientific study and were consequently problematised by the state in medicalised terms.

Men in Transit and Prostitution: Using Political Conventions as a Natural Experiment

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Cunningham ◽  
Todd D Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Commercial Sex Work ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
In Transit

Abstract Approximately 100,000 visitors came to Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Economic theory suggests that men in transit can shift demand for commercial sex work. We estimate the responsiveness of labor supply to these two conventions, focusing on a previously neglected but increasingly important segment of the prostitution market: indoor sex workers who advertise on the Internet. Using a differences-in-differences estimator of prostitution advertisements posted on a major classified ads website, we find that the conventions caused a 29-44 percent increase in advertisements in Minneapolis and a 47-77 percent increase in Denver. Given the key role prostitution plays in the transmission of STIs, these results imply that focusing public health resources on men in transit may be beneficial.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole von Germeten
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

The conclusion surveys how in nineteenth-century Mexico, Europe, and regions around the world under European colonial rule, sex work took place in an environment of increasing government intervention, a phase in the history of sexuality that extends into the twenty-first century. The concern about disease control took on a more scientific, sanitary tone in the eighteenth century. This discourse remained critical to sex work law, as it does to the present day. Through prolific regulations, scientific studies, works of literature, and statements made by sex workers themselves, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw an enormous increase in the archiving and inscribing of women who sold sex. But their roles remained the same: either pathetic victims (usually of non-whites or non-Christians or other feared populations), lascivious and scandalous disturbers of the peace, or dehumanized and horrific threats to public health. Imperialism and international conceptions of race/gender difference led to increasing government regulation in locations as dispersed as the disappearing Spanish American viceroyalties, extending outwards to Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

The Work of Sex Work

2020 ◽  
pp. 192-209
Author(s):  
Katie Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Commercial Sex Work ◽  
Structural Coupling ◽  
Work Relations ◽  
Structural Context

This chapter analyses the legal treatment of sex work, and specifically prostitution, from the perspective of Marxist feminism. Here, the work of sex work must be understood in its wider structural context of gendered and racialized capitalism. The chapter argues that sex work should be understood as work. Furthermore, the features of ‘unfreedom’ associated with sex work do not vitiate its identity as a form of work, and therefore as an activity that warrants the application of protective norms of labour law. This marks an important distinction from the previous chapter’s taxonomy of commercial sex work. In fact, this chapter argues that all work under capitalism is structurally coupled with exploitation and alienation (unfreedom) that ebbs and flows according to the balance of class forces. Given this structural coupling, it is problematic to use the exploitation and alienation in sex work as a basis for excluding it from the domain of personal work relations and for barring sex workers from worker protective laws.

From Victim to Criminality

2021 ◽  
pp. 288-308
Author(s):  
Vipin Vijay Nair ◽  
Sandra Anil Varkey
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Commercial Sex Work ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Society Today

Trafficking of persons, primarily women and children, is one of the growing social dilemmas concerning global society today. Not only is human trafficking a highly sensitive and polarizing subject, but it is also considered a common norm in many countries. Many women recruited into commercial sex work are coerced into the profession exploiting their financial and economic condition but continue to work in the profession to survive through easy money. The chapter focuses on a theoretical framework for understanding the victimization of female sex workers. It also reflects various lacuna in the present criminal justice system and law enforcement mechanism in criminalizing victims within the sex work industry. The chapter narrates the voices of commercial sex workers in India over the prejudices and criminalization by various laws and regulations towards their consensual sex work. The chapter recommends sensitization training and awareness amongst various stakeholders of the criminal justice system.

scholarly journals Criminalisation, Health, and Labour Rights Among Im/migrant Sex Workers Globally

2021 ◽  
pp. 153-171
Author(s):  
Bronwyn McBride ◽  
Trachje Janushev
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Health Access ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Labour Rights ◽  
Sti Testing ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThis chapter introduces the structural determinants that shape health and labour rights among im/migrant sex workers globally. It explores issues related to criminalisation, mandatory health testing, precarious immigration status, economic marginalisation, racialisation, racism and discrimination, language barriers, and gender. This chapter examines how these factors shape health access, health outcomes, and labour rights among im/migrant sex workers in diverse contexts. These issues were explored through a review of academic literature, which was complemented by community consultations that elucidate the lived experiences of gender-diverse im/migrant sex workers from Europe and across the globe. Findings illustrate how shifting sex work criminalisation, public health and immigration regulations (e.g. sex worker registration, mandatory HIV/STI testing), and policing practices impact im/migrant sex workers and shape the labour environments in which they work. The chapter subsequently presents recommendations on policy and programmatic approaches to enhance health access and labour rights among im/migrant sex workers. Finally, it concludes by highlighting the ways in which im/migrant sex workers resist social and structural exclusion, stigma, and ‘victim’ stereotypes, highlighting their tenacity and leadership in the fight to advance labour and human rights among im/migrants and sex workers worldwide.

Decriminalisation of sex work in the post-truth era? Strategic storytelling in neo-abolitionist accounts of the New Zealand model

2020 ◽  
pp. 174889582091889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynzi Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Sex Work Policy ◽  
Knowledge Claims

In the context of on-going debates regarding sex work laws, in most jurisdictions forms of criminalisation continue to dominate. Despite decades of sex workers calling for the decriminalisation of sex work and collectively organising against repressive laws, decriminalisation remains uncommon. New Zealand was the first full country to decriminalise sex work with the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act in 2003, which aimed to improve occupational health and safety. Several empirical studies have documented positive impacts of this framework. However, despite this, neo-abolitionists persistently describe the New Zealand model as a failed approach. This article examines neo-abolitionist knowledge claims regarding the New Zealand model and in doing so unpacks the strategic stories told about this approach, considering the implications for sex work policy making.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-194
Author(s):  
Christina Elizabeth Firpo
Keyword(s):  
Informal Economy ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Black Market ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Vietnamese Women ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
The Government

This chapter concludes that Tonkin's flourishing black market for sex during the interwar years owed its success in large part to French colonial rule. Colonial rule gave rise to sites of tension — economic disparity, an urban–rural divide, an uneven distribution of colonial law, and cultural shifts — and it was within them that the black market thrived. The colonial state's blind spots allowed this market to flourish. For one thing, colonial officials miscalculated the unintended effects of their strictly regulated “tolerance” system. In marginalizing certain colonized populations — in this case impoverished Vietnamese women — the French colonial state lost much of its ability to monitor and control them. Despite numerous regulations and ordinances, as well as exhaustive policing efforts, sex workers easily sidestepped the reach of the government and found ways to make money in an informal economy. The chapter also states that the stories of the women and girls in this book reveal a close relationship between choice and coercion. Taken individually, it is tempting to reduce these people's experiences to a binary of either agency or victimhood. But placing their stories within the context of larger historical trends such as mass poverty, migration, and cultural change reveals that this binary is misleading.

“You’re selling a brand”: Marketing commercial sex online

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110561
Author(s):  
Gillian Abel
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Commercial Sex Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Marketing Tool ◽  
Approach Working

Sex work has undergone a change, with the rise of the internet economy with more ‘middle class’ sex workers coming into the industry. In this paper, I explore the social status hierarchy within online direct-contact commercial sex work in New Zealand. I draw on findings from an in-depth qualitative investigation of online sex work, undertaken between 2017 and 2018. I took a participatory approach, working closely with NZPC – Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective to provide an understanding of two interrelated issues: the role web platforms play in shaping the social status of sex workers who advertise for clients online; and how sex workers brand and market themselves online. The findings suggest that sex workers strive to represent themselves as authentic in their marketing to enhance social status. Furthermore, the web platform on which over 90% of indoor sex workers in New Zealand advertise has embedded a status system among sex workers through the advertising packages they offer. Social status has thus become the most powerful marketing tool indoor direct-contact sex workers have to stand out from their competitors and attract sufficient clients to make a liveable income.

The Prostitute's Allure: The Return to Beauty in Commercial Sex Work

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Arunachalam ◽  
Manisha Shah
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Commercial Sex Work ◽  
Communication Ability ◽  
Compensating Differential ◽  
Using Data

Abstract We estimate the earnings premium for beauty in an occupation where returns to physical attractiveness are likely to be important: commercial sex work. Using data from sex workers in Ecuador and Mexico, we find that a one standard deviation increase in attractiveness yields 10-15 percent higher earnings. Including controls for personal characteristics (communication ability and desirability of personality) cuts the beauty premium by up to one-half. Beautiful sex workers earn higher wages, have more clients, and enjoy a larger compensating differential for disease risk.

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