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Gender and Sexuality

Contemporary gender and sexuality studies have much to offer the study of sex work which involves men, women and transgenders as buyer and sellers of sexual services. 

Recent work on the production of sexual subjectivities under neoliberalism highlights the potential of a political economy approach to sex work - one that goes beyond debates about coercion and choice to understand better the structures of constraint and scenarios of agency within which sex is bought, sold and traded. The Paulo Longo Research Initiative will conduct new ethnographic studies that permit a more nuanced understanding of sex workers' negotiation of norms on gender and sexuality within their relationships. We will contribute to - as well as draw on -broader debates within the fields of gender and sexuality, whether on questions of masculinity and male sexualities, or on resistance and resilience, to offer new insights into the material conditions of sex work. Our work in this area will aim to move beyond understanding of the sex worker as a distinct type of sexual or economic subject toward exploration of commercial sex and transactional dimensions of sex as enmeshed in power relationships and economies of desire that are inherent within all sexualities.

Resources

  • Can rights stop the wrongs? Exploring the connections between framings of sex workers’ rights and sexual and reproductive health - 2011

    Background

    There is growing interest in the ways in which legal and human rights issues related to sex work affect sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV and abuses including human trafficking and sexual exploitation. International agencies, such as UNAIDS, have called for decriminalisation of sex work because the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services is affected by criminalisation and social exclusion as experienced by sex workers.

  • Commercial Sex Worker Use Among Male Chinese Rural-Urban Migrants - 2011

    To explore HIV/AIDS sexual risk behaviors and specifically the use of commercial sex workers among Chinese male rural-urban migrants. Methods:

  • Continued Sexual Risk Behaviour in African American and Latino Male-to-Female Transgender Adolescents Living with HIV/AIDS: A Case Study - 2011

    Article in AIDS Clinic Res S1:002.

    Purpose: This study examined the social and contextual factors associated with continued high risk sexual behaviors among male-to-female transgender (MTFTG) adolescents living with HIV/AIDS. The study is part of a larger qualitative study of 59 racial/ethnic minority adolescents living with HIV/AIDS.

    Methods: In-depth focused interviews were conducted with five MTFTG adolescents (16-24 years) living with HIV. Content analysis was conducted to identify themes related to continued sexual risk behaviors.

  • CREA research on violence against women in India, Bangladesh and Nepal - 2011

    A research study on violence against lesbian women, female sex workers, and disabled women in three countries in South Asia—Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. The study investigated the hypothesis that women who are outside the mainstream of the South Asian society suffer high rates of violence and are often unable to seek and receive protection from State agencies.

  • Demystifying Sex Work and Sex Workers - 2011

    Wagadu, an open access online feminist journal, has released a special issue 'Demystifying sex work and sex workers.' With articles from activist scholars the special issue, focuses on the everyday lives of sex workers.

    Susan Dewey of the University of Wyoming who edited the issue explains, "While recent years have witnessed a dramatic outpouring of feminist scholarship that situates sex work within its broader socioeconomic and political contexts cross-culturally, there remains a tendency for academic scholarship to unconsciously reinforce the social stigmatization of sex workers by depicting them solely through their income-earning activities. This burgeoning research has convincingly demonstrated that sex work is embedded in a complex social matrix that often centers upon sex workers’ perceptions of their individual choices and responsibilities...Public policy on sex work is often shown to be seriously lacking when contextualized within the broader realities of many sex workers’ everyday life experiences throughout the world. As such, contributors to this special issue offer sound ethnographic evidence that clearly demonstrates the global need for policy and legal reform with respect to sex work."

  • Different stage, different performance: the protective strategy of role play on emotional health in sex work - 2011

    An article in Social Science & Medicine Volume 72, Issue 7, April 2011, Pages 1177-1184.

  • Diversity of commercial sex among men and male-born trans people in three Peruvian cities - 2011

    An article in Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care, Volume 13, Issue 10.

    In Peru, commercial sex involving men and male-born travestis, transgenders and transsexuals (CSMT) is usually represented as a dangerous practice carried out on the streets by people experiencing economic hardship and social exclusion. However, in reality little is known about the complexities of this practice in Peru.

  • Draft of new Global Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers - 2011

     The following is a draft declaration on sex workers rights and introductory article. Thank you very much to those who made inputs. 

    The process  used to develop this was to copy the ICRSE declaration format and cut and paste material from all documents together into the sections then edit them down to about 20% of the length. This means that the document attached comprises sentences and bits of sentences from various documents by sex workers and allies. 

  • Feminism, power and sex work in the context of HIV/AIDS: Consequences for women's health - 2011

    Article in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Vol 34, p225 - 258.

  • Gay community, sex workers, health care providers, the police and legal representatives join in to mark IDAHO - 2011

    Kenyans, drawn from the gay and lesbian community, male and female sex workers, representatives of the police force, health care providers and also legal professionals came together to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO)in Kisumu, Kenya.

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