Sex work abolitionism and hegemonic feminisms: Implications for gender-diverse sex workers and migrants from Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 852-869
Author(s):  
Lua da Mota Stabile
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Global South ◽  
Radical Feminism ◽  
Trafficking In Persons ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Decolonial Feminism ◽  
Brazilian Case

This article investigates and analyses the main characteristics and issues involving Western hegemonic feminisms, especially so-called ‘radical feminism’, on the topic of sex work and trafficking in persons/migration, to understand how these discussions have influenced the main conventions, regulations and legislation on this global subject. In particular, it enables understanding of how these regulations invisibilize and, sometimes, criminalize trans* and gender-diverse people in migratory contexts. The contributions to decolonial feminism and transfeminism made by decolonial trans writers are essential to analyse and critique some of the conceptions espoused by Western hegemonic and especially trans-exclusionary feminisms that have influenced the international anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution discourse today. These discourses often affect the voluntary migration of trans* and gender-diverse sex workers, mainly from the Global South, such as in the Brazilian case.

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.

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.

scholarly journals “I Walked into the Industry for Survival and Came Out of a Closet”

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Premala Matthen ◽  
Tara Lyons ◽  
Matthew Taylor ◽  
James Jennex ◽  
Solanna Anderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
And Gender

Background/Objectives: This article seeks to examine how gender and sexual identities shape sex work experiences among men, two spirit, and/or trans people in Vancouver. Methods: In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with men and trans people in Metro Vancouver from Community Health Assessment of Men Who Purchase and Sell Sex. An intersectional critical feminist perspective guided the thematic analysis of interview transcripts, and ATLAS.ti 7 was used to manage data analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the data: (1) the diversity of sexual and gender identities among sex workers and clients, (2) the expression and exploration of sexual and gender identities through sex work, and (3) the migration of sexual and gender minorities to urban centers to escape discrimination in their places of origin. Discussion: These findings complicate existing narratives of sex work, demonstrating the need for policies and services that reflect the diversity of sex work experiences.

scholarly journals A different kind of risky business: Men who manage men in the sex industry

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110263
Author(s):  
Tuulia Law
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Male Sex Workers ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
Male Sex Work ◽  
Managerial Strategies ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Work Management

Drawing from qualitative interview data, this article examines men who manage men in the sex industry. A gendered lens reveals that male sex work management engages with sexual and gender scripts in ways that are quite distinct from female sex work. These third parties assume that male sex workers can defend their own security but notably also worry about male workers victimizing them, even as they opportunistically deploy hegemonic masculinity in their business and security practices. The article highlights and reflects on how these framings shape managerial strategies, perceptions of risk and the law, and experiences of stigma.

scholarly journals Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Inequities Among Sex Workers Across the Life Course

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
Ania Shapiro ◽  
Putu Duff
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractAll individuals, including sex workers, are entitled to the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights. Yet sex workers continue to bear significant SRH inequities and unmet needs for appropriate SRH services at every step along their sexual and reproductive lives. To illustrate the complex and nuanced barriers that currently impede sex workers’ access to SRH services, this chapter describes the current gaps in access to SRH services experienced by sex workers globally, drawing on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 171 sex workers and sex worker organisations from across ten countries. Interviews highlight the lack of tailored, comprehensive, and integrated SRH services. These gaps are driven by intersecting structural forces such as: the criminalisation of sex work, same-sex relationships, and gender non-conformance; harmful and coercive SRH policies; sex work and gender-based stigma; and logistical and practical barriers. To support the SRH needs and rights of sex workers, participants recommended improved access to comprehensive, integrated services addressing sex workers’ broader SRH needs, including family planning, abortion and pregnancy needs, SRH screening, hormone therapy, and other gender-affirming services. Crucial steps towards ensuring equitable SRH access for sex workers include addressing stigma and discrimination within healthcare settings, removal of coercive SRH policies and practices, and dedicating appropriate resources towards sex worker-led SRH models within the context of decriminalisation of sex work.

scholarly journals Queer Theory, Sex Work, and Foucault’s Unreason

2017 ◽  
pp. 141-166
Author(s):  
Brooke M. Beloso
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Field Of Inquiry

During the late nineties, leading voices of the sex worker rights movement began to publicly question queer theory’s virtual silence on the subject of prostitution and sex work. However, this attempt by sex workers to “come out of the closet” into the larger queer theoretical community has thus far failed to bring much attention to sex work as an explicitly queer issue. Refusing the obvious conclusion—that queer theory’s silence on sex work somehow proves its insignificance to this field of inquiry—I trace in Foucault’s oeuvre signs of an alternate (albeit differently) queer genealogy of prostitution and sex work. Both challenging and responding to long-standing debates about prostitution within feminist theory, I offer a new queer genealogy of sex work that aims to move beyond the rigid oppositions that continue to divide theorists of sexuality and gender. Focusing specifically on History of Madness (1961), Discipline and Punish (1975), and History of Sexuality Volume I (1976), I make the case for an alternate genealogy of sex work that takes seriously both the historical construction of prostitution and the lived experience of contemporary sex workers.

Venues for Ludoliteracy: Arcades, Game Cafés, and Street Pirates

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Schleiner
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Online Gaming ◽  
Global South ◽  
Mobile Platform ◽  
Digital Ethnography ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
And Gender

This chapter presents a review of popular platforms and spaces for gameplay in the global South. My research method in this chapter is closest to digital ethnography, informed by site visits and other online visual and textual documentation. I also discuss experimental gaming venues in India, Senegal, and Kenya that attempt to overcome obstacles to accessibility. I reflect on a lack of gender diversity observable in many global public play spaces. The mobile platform is approached as one of the more recently viable and gender diverse platforms for gaming in the global South. The chapter closes with a presentation of Southern players’ and game pirates’ defense of their ethics on online gaming forums.

scholarly journals Exploring the Protective Role of Sex Work Social Cohesion in Contexts of Violence and Criminalisation: A Case Study with Gender-Diverse Sex Workers in Jamaica

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Carmen H. Logie ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Patrick Lalor ◽  
Kandasi Levermore ◽  
Davina Williams
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Direct And Indirect Effects ◽  
Gender Diverse

AbstractBackground: Sex work social cohesion (SWSC) is associated with reduced HIV vulnerabilities, yet little is known of its associations with mental health or violence. This is particularly salient to understand among gender-diverse sex workers who may experience criminalisation of sex work and same-gender sexual practices. This chapter explores SWSC and its associations with mental health and violence among sex workers in Jamaica.Methods: In collaboration with the Sex Work Association of Jamaica (SWAJ) and Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, we implemented a cross-sectional survey with a peer-driven sample of sex workers in Kingston, Montego Bay, and Ocho Rios. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted to examine direct and indirect effects of SWSC on depressive symptoms and violence (from clients, intimate partners, and police), testing the mediating roles of sex work stigma and binge drinking. SWAJ developed an in-depth narrative of the lived experiences of a sex worker germane to understanding SWSC.Results: Participants (N = 340; mean age: 25.77, SD = 5.71) included 36.5% cisgender men, 29.7% transgender women, and 33.8% cisgender women. SEM results revealed that SWSC had significant direct and indirect effects on depressive symptoms. Sex work stigma partially mediated the relationship between SWSC and depressive symptoms. The direct path from SWSC to reduced violence was significant; sex work stigma partially mediated this relationship.Implications: Strengths-focused strategies can consider the multidimensional role that social cohesion plays in promoting health and safety among sex workers to further support the ways in which sex workers build community and advocate for rights.

scholarly journals The Sexual Politics of Anti-Trafficking Discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prabha Kotiswaran
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Global South ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Palermo Protocol ◽  
Sexual Services

Abstract20 years since the negotiation of the Palermo Protocol on Trafficking in 2000, the anti-trafficking field has gone from an early, almost exclusive preoccupation with sex work to addressing extreme exploitation in a range of labour sectors. While this might suggest a reduced focus on the nature of the work performed and a greater focus on the conditions under which it is performed, in reality, anti-trafficking discourse remains in the grip of polarised positions on sex work even as the carceral effects of anti-trafficking law become evident and the Swedish model of criminalising the purchase of sexual services spreads. In this article, I demonstrate how despite the recent discursive shifts to ‘modern slavery’ and ‘forced labour’, the anti-trafficking transnational legal order itself reinforces, rather than diffuses cultures of sex work exceptionalism. The growing international sex workers’ movement has offered resistance, yet a closer look at the movement and the widespread support that it has garnered for decriminalisation from international organisations, while valuable, helps reveal the greatest cost yet of anti-trafficking discourse, namely, the inability of the sex workers’ movement to produce a sophisticated theory of regulation to reduce levels of exploitation within sex work, one which is commensurate with the informality and heterogeneity of sex markets the world over. Finally, to the extent that neoabolitionist projects derive legitimacy from interventions abroad, especially in the global South, I chronicle the edifice on which it rests in one such context, namely India, to demonstrate how countries in the global South are not merely conduits for the global North’s preoccupation with moral gentrification through neo-abolitionism, but rather, that the circuits of global governmentality while influential, are highly contingent, thus producing opportunities for creative forms of mobilisation by sex workers.

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