Women's experiences buying sex in Australia – Egalitarian powermoves

Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346071989697
Author(s):  
Hilary Caldwell ◽  
John de Wit
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Sexual Services ◽  
And Control

Evidence in this article addresses two popular political and scholarly concepts, female sexuality and sex-worker rights, which limit gender equality. Through description of interviews with 21 diverse women buying sexual services in Australia, and examination using interpretative phenomenological analysis, we introduce new ideas about women's therapeutic and pleasure-based motivations to buy sex and their concerns about their safety, money, laws, and stigma. Interviewees of the study described feeling transformative powers in pleasure as they gained skills and confidence to initiate, negotiate and control sexual activity. The experiences of the women who bought sex in this study directly challenge concepts of female sexual passivity and objectification generally and specifically in commercial sex settings. This article also promotes aspects of the sex industry as beneficial to society and demonstrates that destigmatisation and decriminalisation of the sex industry has potential to reduce harms experienced by sex workers and their clients.

scholarly journals Transformational sexualities: Motivations of women who pay for sexual services

Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072090464
Author(s):  
Sarah Kingston ◽  
Natalie Hammond ◽  
Scarlett Redman
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Sexual Agency ◽  
Women Clients ◽  
Female Sex Worker ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Male Client ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Sexual Services

Previous research on client motivations to purchase sexual services in the UK has predominantly focused on the experiences of men. Women who buy sex have largely been overlooked as it is commonly assumed that women provide, rather than purchase, sexual services. In addressing this empirical absence, this article examines data gained from 49 interviews with women clients and sex workers. It examines the reasons why women decide to purchase sexual services in the UK. We argue that the increasing importance of contemporary capitalism and consumerism has shaped women's engagement in the sex industry as clients. We show how women's sexual agency and assertiveness as clients, inverts the female sex worker/male client binary assumed to characterize commercial sex and illustrates the overlap and convergence of male and female sexuality. Our research thus contributes to an understanding of female sexuality more broadly, as exemplifying the hallmarks of ‘transformational sexualities’ in cosmopolitanism (Plummer, 2015).

scholarly journals Managing Risks of Violence in Decriminalised Street-Based Sex Work: a Feminist (Sex Worker Rights) Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lynzi Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Risk Management Strategies ◽  
The Law

<p>It is widely understood that street-based sex workers are vulnerable to experiencing violence in their work. The Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) was passed in New Zealand in 2003, decriminalising sex work with the intention of supporting the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers. This thesis explores strategies to manage risks of violence amongst women working on the streets in New Zealand, considering how the law change has impacted on the management of these risks, and whether further change is required to better support the safety of street-based sex workers. Drawing from the perspectives of women working on the streets, this thesis challenges portrayals of street-based sex workers as passive recipients of violence. The experiences and perceptions of these women highlight the diverse violence related risks they managed from a range of potential perpetrators, including passersby, individuals approaching as clients, other sex workers, and minders. The shift to decriminalisation has not eliminated violence. However, the findings suggest that the law change has provided a framework that better supports existing risk management strategies. For instance, in removing the possibility of arrest for soliciting, the PRA has provided an environment in which these women have sufficient time to screen potential clients on the street. Moreover, the perceptions of these women suggest that the law change has to some extent improved the relationship between police and street-based sex workers. Nevertheless, whilst decriminalisation has created anenvironment more conducive to sex worker safety, it is clear that challenges remain in addressing violence against sex workers. Since the sex industry does not operate in social and political isolation, moral discourses continue to stigmatise and threaten the wellbeing of street-based sex workers. The overall conclusion of this thesis is that whilst decriminalisation was an important first step, moving forward to proactively challenge violence against street-based sex workers requires a paradigm shift away from discourses that support violence, to a more positive acceptance of street-based sex work in New Zealand society.</p>

scholarly journals Managing Risks of Violence in Decriminalised Street-Based Sex Work: a Feminist (Sex Worker Rights) Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lynzi Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Risk Management Strategies ◽  
The Law

<p>It is widely understood that street-based sex workers are vulnerable to experiencing  violence in their work. The Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) was passed in New  Zealand in 2003, decriminalising sex work with the intention of supporting the health,  safety, and human rights of sex workers. This thesis explores strategies to manage  risks of violence amongst women working on the streets in New Zealand, considering  how the law change has impacted on the management of these risks, and whether  further change is required to better support the safety of street-based sex workers.  Drawing from the perspectives of women working on the streets, this thesis  challenges portrayals of street-based sex workers as passive recipients of violence.  The experiences and perceptions of these women highlight the diverse violencerelated  risks they managed from a range of potential perpetrators, including passersby,  individuals approaching as clients, other sex workers, and minders. The shift to  decriminalisation has not eliminated violence. However, the findings suggest that the  law change has provided a framework that better supports existing risk management  strategies. For instance, in removing the possibility of arrest for soliciting, the PRA  has provided an environment in which these women have sufficient time to screen  potential clients on the street. Moreover, the perceptions of these women suggest that  the law change has to some extent improved the relationship between police and  street-based sex workers. Nevertheless, whilst decriminalisation has created an  environment more conducive to sex worker safety, it is clear that challenges remain in  addressing violence against sex workers. Since the sex industry does not operate in  social and political isolation, moral discourses continue to stigmatise and threaten the  wellbeing of street-based sex workers.  The overall conclusion of this thesis is that whilst decriminalisation was an important  first step, moving forward to proactively challenge violence against street-based sex  workers requires a paradigm shift away from discourses that support violence, to a  more positive acceptance of street-based sex work in New Zealand society.</p>

scholarly journals Managing Risks of Violence in Decriminalised Street-Based Sex Work: a Feminist (Sex Worker Rights) Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lynzi Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Risk Management Strategies ◽  
The Law

<p>It is widely understood that street-based sex workers are vulnerable to experiencing  violence in their work. The Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) was passed in New  Zealand in 2003, decriminalising sex work with the intention of supporting the health,  safety, and human rights of sex workers. This thesis explores strategies to manage  risks of violence amongst women working on the streets in New Zealand, considering  how the law change has impacted on the management of these risks, and whether  further change is required to better support the safety of street-based sex workers.  Drawing from the perspectives of women working on the streets, this thesis  challenges portrayals of street-based sex workers as passive recipients of violence.  The experiences and perceptions of these women highlight the diverse violencerelated  risks they managed from a range of potential perpetrators, including passersby,  individuals approaching as clients, other sex workers, and minders. The shift to  decriminalisation has not eliminated violence. However, the findings suggest that the  law change has provided a framework that better supports existing risk management  strategies. For instance, in removing the possibility of arrest for soliciting, the PRA  has provided an environment in which these women have sufficient time to screen  potential clients on the street. Moreover, the perceptions of these women suggest that  the law change has to some extent improved the relationship between police and  street-based sex workers. Nevertheless, whilst decriminalisation has created an  environment more conducive to sex worker safety, it is clear that challenges remain in  addressing violence against sex workers. Since the sex industry does not operate in  social and political isolation, moral discourses continue to stigmatise and threaten the  wellbeing of street-based sex workers.  The overall conclusion of this thesis is that whilst decriminalisation was an important  first step, moving forward to proactively challenge violence against street-based sex  workers requires a paradigm shift away from discourses that support violence, to a  more positive acceptance of street-based sex work in New Zealand society.</p>

scholarly journals Hustling the Platform

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-551
Author(s):  
Kate Hardy ◽  
Camille Barbagallo
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
Security Checks ◽  
Sexual Services ◽  
And Control

An increasing amount of sex work in the United Kingdom is now digitally mediated, as workers and clients identify each other, agree prices and services, undertake security checks, and often make payment through various platforms and websites. Existing accounts of “digital sex work” have been both overly technological deterministic and optimistic, largely invisibilizing capital and the new forms of power and control it enables. The authors argue that the dominant platform for digital sex work in the United Kingdom, AdultWork, is reshaping the market in direct sexual services, driving down standards and prices, and normalizing risky behaviors. The article posits that these changes in the sex industry are symptomatic and reflective of wider shifts in labor-capital relations and technology and therefore argues that bringing research on platform work and sex work into closer dialogue is mutually productive. Studies of digital sex work would benefit from critical insights into power and control in platform work, while scholars of platform work—and of work and employment more generally—have much to learn from paying attention to the gendered labor of sex workers. In particular, resistance and collective organizing among sex workers, some of the most marginalized workers in contemporary capitalism, can suggest wider strategies of labor resistance and transformation in platform work and beyond.

scholarly journals Managing Risks of Violence in Decriminalised Street-Based Sex Work: a Feminist (Sex Worker Rights) Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lynzi Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Risk Management Strategies ◽  
The Law

<p>It is widely understood that street-based sex workers are vulnerable to experiencing violence in their work. The Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) was passed in New Zealand in 2003, decriminalising sex work with the intention of supporting the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers. This thesis explores strategies to manage risks of violence amongst women working on the streets in New Zealand, considering how the law change has impacted on the management of these risks, and whether further change is required to better support the safety of street-based sex workers. Drawing from the perspectives of women working on the streets, this thesis challenges portrayals of street-based sex workers as passive recipients of violence. The experiences and perceptions of these women highlight the diverse violence related risks they managed from a range of potential perpetrators, including passersby, individuals approaching as clients, other sex workers, and minders. The shift to decriminalisation has not eliminated violence. However, the findings suggest that the law change has provided a framework that better supports existing risk management strategies. For instance, in removing the possibility of arrest for soliciting, the PRA has provided an environment in which these women have sufficient time to screen potential clients on the street. Moreover, the perceptions of these women suggest that the law change has to some extent improved the relationship between police and street-based sex workers. Nevertheless, whilst decriminalisation has created anenvironment more conducive to sex worker safety, it is clear that challenges remain in addressing violence against sex workers. Since the sex industry does not operate in social and political isolation, moral discourses continue to stigmatise and threaten the wellbeing of street-based sex workers. The overall conclusion of this thesis is that whilst decriminalisation was an important first step, moving forward to proactively challenge violence against street-based sex workers requires a paradigm shift away from discourses that support violence, to a more positive acceptance of street-based sex work in New Zealand society.</p>

scholarly journals The ‘Prioritizing Safety for Sex Workers Policy’: A sex worker rights and anti-trafficking initiative

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Alexandra Lutnick
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Selling Sex

This article presents a case study of how sex worker and anti-trafficking organisations and activists in San Francisco, California, worked together to develop and pass the ‘Prioritizing Safety for Sex Workers Policy’. This policy, as enacted by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and the San Francisco Police Department, creates a legal environment where people can come forward and report to law enforcement when they are a victim of or witness to an array of violent crimes while engaged in sex work, and not be arrested or prosecuted for their involvement in that criminalised behaviour or for any misdemeanour drug offences. The article details how the groups came together and the challenges they faced while developing the policy. The work was fuelled by the recognition that no one wants people in the sex industry to experience violence. That is true whether selling sex is their choice, influenced by their life circumstances, or something they are being forced or coerced to do. The Prioritizing Safety for Sex Workers Policy is a unique example of the way in which sex workers, people who have experienced trafficking, service providers, activists, women’s rights policymakers, the police department, and the District Attorney’s office came together around a common goal.

scholarly journals Should society accept sex robots?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 428-442
Author(s):  
Eleanor Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Radical Feminist ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Moral Objection ◽  
Current State ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Informed Opinion

AbstractIn early 2015, Kathleen Richardson announced the arrival of the world’s largest, organised resistance group against the production of sex robots in society: The Campaign Against Sex Robots (CASR). Since the birth of the CASR, Richardson and other feminists have manipulated a combination of radical feminist rhetoric and sex industry abolitionist narratives, in order to promote the criminalisation of sex robots. Moreover, the CASR and Richardson have also made some rather unique claims regarding the “similarities” between sex workers and sex robots, which have not previously surfaced within the narratives of radical feminists in recent years. This article seeks to analyse if their analogous reference to sex workers and sex robots has credibility and viability in the context of the digitalised sex industry and in the wider teledildonic and sex robot market. Furthermore, this article will also formulate solutions for the ethical and social contentions surrounding the merge of sex dolls and robots within the contemporary sex industry. In order to disentangle the radical feminist arguments surrounding sex robots and the sex industry, the following contentions will be addressed:Is moral objection to female sex robots using client-sex worker analogies from feminists justified?Is opposition to sex robots based on informed opinion about the digitalised sex industry?To what extent are the positive considerations around sex robots/dolls and sex-technology ignored in the narratives of radical feminists and the CASR?What practical applications recommendations can be made to the sex robot industry from the stipulations of the CASR and the current state of sex dolls/robots in the sex industry?

“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.

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