Sex work:Stories of

entryJoni Halland ▫ Floretta

Boonzaier

Presentation outline:Context: the literature and its constraintsThe studyFindingsConclusion, implications and

recommendations

Choice- Female agency- Empowerment- Independence (social and financial)

Constraint- Economic necessity- Drug/alcohol abuse- Childhood sexual abuse- Lack of education and/or job opportunities- Homelessness & truancy

Choice within constraint?

The literature

Both readings are guilty of over-simplification and both ignore the relationships between broader social, economic, and cultural formations and immediate, specific and local contexts in structuring the conditions in which women’s agency is enacted.

(Maher, 1997, p.1)

How do street-based sex workers construct their stories of entry into sex work?

The study

• Qualitative thematic narrative approach• Fourteen street-based sex workers interviewed• Semi-structured interviews • One formal question was posed: Would you like to tell me the story of how you came to be involved in sex work?

The participants

• 14 participants: 12 female; 2 transgendered• Average age: 36 years old• Average number of years in the industry: 11

years • 12 of 14 participants were introduced to sex

work by a friend(s)• Pseudonyms used throughout

Findings: Stories of entry - three main threads1) A desire for money with or without an additional

desire for (financial/social) independence2) Childhood abuse/neglect3) A stressful trigger and introduction to the

industry

1) A desire for money/independence

“I just wanted to be independent and I wanted to earn money” (Clarissa)

• The problem of unemployment• The absence of a male provider• The necessity to provide for dependants• An escape from dependence

I don’t have a choice I didn’t work, I’ve got two kids, my sister, she was pregnant, so I need money that time…the father of my kids killed himself…so how could I bury him, I don’t have nothing so I need money. (Marian)

1) A desire for money/independenceAnd like, when I would (be) sitting in the factory I had to work (a) whole week without money, and at the Friday I would get my pay but on the street I’d make more money than to wait (for) Friday’s pay. And that’s how I begin to do sex work. (Bhavani)

A decision was made to enter sex work as a means to improve adverse economic circumstances and gain independence.

2) Childhood neglect/abuse

“If I ask(ed) (for) the money for school fees to him (Ellie’s grandmother), (s)he told me (s)he don’t have the money. That is why I was joining to be a sex worker.” (Ellie)

• Negligent/abusive caregivers• Lack of technical/educational skills• Sexual abuse

Lack of agency?

It takes a lot of guts to…charge men for sex. You must be, like something in you is broken, I personally was raped as a virgin. (Clarissa)

3) A stressful trigger and introduction to the industry

“And I was like, the house went down, my everything because I was just smoking and smoking all my money. And I went to hospital, I lost my job, and that’s how I got into more drugs” (Bhavani)• A stressful trigger: leading to feelings of desperation

and “suffering” • Climax of the story: introduction to sex work

A desire for money, amplified by a stressful trigger and introduction to the industry paved the way for entry into sex work.

Conclusion• Discourses of both choice and constraint were

present in individual narratives; power and powerlessness; agency and passivity

• Possible reasons for presenting stories of entry in these ways?

• Choice-within-constraint best alternative

Choice versus constraint unrealistic and unrepresentative

Recommendations• Implications?- Alternative conceptualisation of entry into sex work - Research: a narrative approach?- A call to address the contextual issues motivating

individuals’ entry into sex work in planning intervention strategies.

• Practical changes:- Provision of community-based counselling services and

skills training: holistic approach to intervention

• For Further research:- Male sex workers’ stories of entry into sex work

Joni Hallandjonihalland@gmail.com

Floretta BoonzaierFloretta.Boonzaier@uct.ac.za

To read about the original study:Halland, J. (2010). Narratives of sex work: Exploring stories of entry, experience, and meaning. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Acknowledgements: The University of Cape Town

For more information contact:

References

Maher, L. (1997). Sexed work: Gender, race and resistance in a Brooklyn drug market. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Parker, I. (2005). Qualitative psychology. Introducing radical research. Buckingham: Open University Press.

List of images‘Plans to legalise prostitution in South Africa gain ground, critics’(YOAV LEMMER/AFP/Getty Images) http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/category/topic/aids‘South African Politician: Legalise Prostitution to Combat Rape & Human Trafficking at the World Cup’(Cape Town, South Africa)http://www.traffickingproject.org/2008/02/south-african-politician-legalise.html‘Britain sends South Africa 42m condoms in HIV fight before World Cup’ (Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/Rex Features)http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/condoms-south-africa-world-cup‘Botswana pushes to legalise prostitution’http://mrscottyl.blogspot.com/2011/11/botswana-pushes-to-legalize.html‘Currency’http://ihcapetown.com/about-cape-town/money-matters/

List of images‘Drug/Alcohol Abuse’http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-issues-facing-our-youth-today.php/drug-and-alcohol-abuse-2‘Feminism’http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism‘back, black and white, exmotivation, female, independence, inspiration’http://favim.com/image/31941/‘Domestic violence’http://www.robertmasters.org/domestic-violence/‘The National Development Plan will End Poverty in South Africa by 2030 - Really?’(Picture credit: http://www.myspace.com/johanna123)http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/785.1