Sex Workers

Sex workers are individuals associated with the multibillion-dollar sex industry that encompasses live sex shows, sex shops, strip clubs, escort services, phone sex, sex tourism, massage parlors, exotic dancing, prostitution, and pornography.

The sex industry is a malleable and changing sector that is influenced by political, economic, cultural, and geographic contexts. Sex work occurs in a wide range of venues that represent different activities and relationships, with differing degrees of danger, coercion, and consent. Therefore, a simplistic definition of sex work as an activity of selling sex in exchange for money, drugs, or other agreed-upon commodities fails to represent its complexity.

The language used in reference to sex work varies and reflects larger societal discourses. Sex work has been described as a health issue, a sin, female oppression, exploitation, domestic violence, a choice, a crime, a lethal form of violence against women, a human rights violation, and a form of employment. Sex workers operate globally; however, because activities related to sex work are outlawed in many countries, accurate figures on numbers of individuals involved, income, types of activities, and migration patterns are imprecise. Despite the visibility of one segment of sex workers (prostitutes, who are street [Page 1313]workers), the majority is largely an invisible, nonhomogenous, marginalized population. The literature on sex work allots disproportional attention to some actors such a prostitutes and less to customers, managers, or transgendered workers.

Sex Work Discourses

Transcript

• Prostitution is rife across South Africa. In Hillbrow, a suburb of Johannesburg, there are over 30 brothels, many hidden behind closed doors. With next year's World Cup there are fears encounters between large numbers of football fans and sex workers could lead to an alarming spread of HIV. Like most countries across the world, selling sex here is illegal, and some health advocates say that’s part of the problem.
• Criminalization is not working as a system. In terms of public health, in terms of the spread of disease, in terms of HIV and STIs it’s not working, so there has to be another model.
• Despite the warnings, many men refuse to wear condoms. 60% of the 5,000 sex works in Hillbrow are HIV positive. Activists believe if prostitution is decriminalized, workers would have better rights and could demand that all their clients use protection.
• They can’t get access into clinics, even into the police station because people rob them, people rape them – even police as well. They do rape sex workers. And human rights are for everyone. We hope that if the government will decriminalize this, it would change sex workers’ lives in a better way.
• But critics say legalizing the sale of sex will not stop the spread of HIV. Instead, it will just become easier to buy sex and increase drug dealing, human trafficking and the exploitation of children.
• We need to strengthen our families. If you want to build a strong building, you are not going to use broken bricks; if you want to build a winning nation, you need strong families. As South Africans, we did not beat apartheid to become a nation of prostitutes; we did not beat apartheid to sell our bodies for a living.
• The world’s oldest profession continues to thrive, but activists claim next year’s big sporting event is an occasion to improve the plight of sex workers by decreasing the health risks and increasing the public’s awareness.

The subject of sex work and sex workers is contested and diverse because the issues related to sex work and sex workers are represented by ideological and conceptual differences that shape the competing discourses. The oppression/abolitionist discourse represents sex work as a form of violence against women and the abusive exercise of men's power over women that is characteristic of patriarchal societies. Proponents contend that genuine consent is never given for engaging in sex work because sex workers are coerced by “third parties” who exploit them for personal financial gain.

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