scholarly journals “I Will Not Be Dona Maria”: Rethinking Exploitation and Objectification in the Context of Work and Sex Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Blanchette ◽  
Ana Paula Da Silva ◽  
Gustavo Camargo
Keyword(s):  
New Orleans ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Sexual Objectification ◽  
Service Economy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Kantian Philosophy

In many feminist and sociological accounts of sex work, the concept of exploitation resides on the subjacent notion of objectification, codified in the omnipresent belief that the sex worker sells their body. Sexual objectification supposedly indicates the peculiar and particular effect that sex work is supposed to have on the bodies of human beings involved in this form of toil, being one of the keystones for the belief that sex work is inherently exploitative. In the present article, we intend to investigate the canonical concept of objectification and its (ab)uses in the light of a comparative ethnographic study of sex work and other jobs in the service economy in the cities of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and New Orleans (USA). Our argument is that the concept of sexual objectification has its roots in pre-capitalist morality, encoded in Kantian philosophy, that is hardly applicable to real life in the 21st century. A more general and intersectional understanding of objectification and agency in the broader field of engendered labor relations is necessary for us to understand why people choose to engage in sex work, why laws which see sex work as synonymous with exploitation and slavery must be rethought, and how they might be rethought.

Psychology: Volume 1

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cognitive Capability ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cognition And Affect

This survey of research on psychology in five volumes is a part of a series undertaken by the ICSSR since 1969, which covers various disciplines under social science. Volume One of this survey, Cognitive and Affective Processes, discusses the developments in the study of cognitive and affective processes within the Indian context. It offers an up-to-date assessment of theoretical developments and empirical studies in the rapidly evolving fields of cognitive science, applied cognition, and positive psychology. It also analyses how pedagogy responds to a shift in the practices of knowing and learning. Additionally, drawing upon insights from related fields it proposes epithymetics–desire studies – as an upcoming field of research and the volume investigates the impact of evolving cognitive and affective processes in Indian research and real life contexts. The development of cognitive capability distinguishes human beings from other species and allows creation and use of complex verbal symbols, facilitates imagination and empowers to function at an abstract level. However, much of the vitality characterizing human life is owed to the diverse emotions and desires. This has made the study of cognition and affect as frontier areas of psychology. With this in view, this volume focuses on delineating cognitive scientific contributions, cognition in educational context, context, diverse applications of cognition, psychology of desire, and positive psychology. The five chapters comprising this volume have approached the scholarly developments in the fields of cognition and affect in innovative ways, and have addressed basic as well applied issues.

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 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.

Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century Post-Kantian Philosophy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Franks
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Kantian Philosophy

This article examines three moments of the post-Kantian philosophical tradition in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Kantianism, Post-Kantian Idealism, and Neo-Kantianism. It elucidates the distinctive methods of a tradition that has never entirely disappeared and is now acknowledged once again as the source of contemporary insights. It outlines two problematics—naturalist scepticism and historicist nihilism—threatening the possibility of metaphysics. The first concerns sceptical worries about reason, emerging from attempts to extend the methods of natural science to the study of human beings. Kant’s project of a critical and transcendental analysis of reason, with its distinctive methods, should be considered a response. The second arises from the development of new methods of historical inquiry, seeming to undermine the very possibility of individual agency. Also considered are Kant’s successors’ revisions of the critical and transcendental analysis of reason, undertaken to overcome challenges confronting the original versions of Kant’s methods.

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.

scholarly journals (2012) 30 Windsor Y B Access Just 103 A VIEW FROM WITHIN: RECONCEPTUALIZING MEDIATOR INTERACTIONS

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie De Girolamo
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Mediation Process ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Third Party Intervention ◽  
Life Patterns ◽  
Participant Observer

This paper explores mediator interactions from within the mediation process. It is difficult to obtain access to mediations due to issues of confidentiality and litigation privilege, thus restricting direct empirical research. During a yearlong ethnographic study during which the author was a participant-observer of a number of commercial mediations, the nature of mediations was explored from an independent observational perspective – separate from the process yet within the process. In this study, real life patterns of interactions are examined through case study analysis. It offers a reconceptualization of the nature of mediator interventions, one that moves beyond the accepted understanding of third party intervention. It suggests that the mediator has a fugitive identity in mediation, reflecting a traditional neutral third party intervener role, a party role and an adviser role.Dans le présent document, l‟auteure explore les interactions des médiateurs dans le cadre du processus de médiation. Il est difficile d‟obtenir l‟accès aux séances de médiation en raison du secret professionnel et du privilège relatif au litige, et cette difficulté limite la recherche empirique directe. Au cours d‟une étude ethnographique qui s‟est déroulée sur une année et à laquelle l‟auteure a participé comme observatrice d‟un certain nombre de médiations commerciales, la nature des médiations a été explorée d‟un point de vue observationnel indépendant – distinct du processus bien qu‟au sein du processus. Dans la présente étude, des situations réelles d‟interaction sont examinées au moyen de l‟analyse d‟études de cas. L‟auteure offre une reconceptualisation de la nature des interventions du médiateur, qui va au-delà de ce qui est reconnu comme l‟intervention d‟une tierce partie. Le médiateur aurait une identité fugace dans le processus de médiation, cette identité s‟expliquant par un rôle traditionnel de tiers intervenant neutre, un rôle de partie et un rôle de conseiller.

scholarly journals Dear to the Gods, yet all too human: Demetrios Capetanakis and the Mythology of the Hellenic

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Emmanuela Kantzia
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Johann Joachim Winckelmann ◽  
Kantian Philosophy

Philosopher and poet Demetrios Capetanakis (1912-1944) struggled withthe ideas of Hellenism and Greekness throughout his short life while moving across languages, cultures, and philosophical traditions. In one of his early essays, Mythology of the Beautiful (1937; in Greek), Hellenism is approached through the lens of eros, pain and the human body. Capetanakis distances himself both from the discourse put forth by the Generation of the Thirties and from the neo-Kantian philosophy of his mentors, and in particular Constantine Tsatsos, while attempting a bold synthesis of Platonic philosophy with the philosophy of despair (Kierkegaard, Shestov). By upholding the classical over and against the romantic tradition, as exemplified in the life and work of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, he seeks to present Hellenism not as a universal ideal, but as an individual life stance grounded on the concrete. His concern for the particular becomes more pronounced in a later essay, “The Greeks are Human Beings” (1941; in English), where, however, one senses a shift away from aesthetics, towards ethics and history.

scholarly journals Erotic Labor within and without Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-640
Author(s):  
femi babylon ◽  
Heather Berg
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Survival Strategy ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Survival Sex ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Womanist Theory

In this interview, femi babylon elaborates a proheaux womanist theory of erotic labor as at once work and antiwork. “Sex work is work” speaks to the realities of erotic labor as a survival strategy and illuminates the connections among erotic labor and other forms of gig work. At the same time, it can operate as a bid for respectability, and one that occludes erotic labor as a strategy for refusing the work ethic. Thinking through the politics of the survival sex/sex work binary, the (dis)connections among wives and whores, and the intersections of whorephobia and misogynoir in conversations about sex worker motherhood, babylon engages key points of debate in sex worker theory today.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document