Constructing the Subject of Prostitution: A Butlerian Reading of the Regulation of Sex Work

Carline, Anna

doi:10.1007/s11196-010-9192-7

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Floating signifiers are ‘open to continual contestation and articulation by radically different political projects’ (Worsham and Olson, 1999: 1–2) and provide ‘a “surface of inscription” for a number of disparate – and sometimes contradictory – political ideas’ (Payne, 2012: 188). Vulnerability is symbolically potent: It creates a sympathetic subject, a subject in need, a subject demanding intervention (Carline, 2011). Invoking vulnerability is a powerful call to regulatory arms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Gossamer Consensus: Discourses of Vulnerability in the Westminster Prostitution Policy Subsystem

Hewer

2018

Social & Legal Studies

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Within much feminist scholarship, the concept of vulnerability is understood to possess progressive potential. Troubling Liberalism’s individualism, vulnerability theorists conceive of the subject as situated and formed through her various relational dependencies. Concurrently, the term vulnerability appears in much contemporary social policy. An emergent literature suggests, however, that policy and academic representations of vulnerability diverge in ideologically significant ways. In this article, I make a significant contribution to this body of work. I explore how 21 prostitution policy actors and 4 prostitution policy documents represent vulnerability, as they understand it to pertain to the sale and purchase of sex. I trace the many narratives strands which contribute to policy conversations regarding vulnerability and conclude by suggesting ‘vulnerability’ has become a ‘floating signifier’ – a surface of inscription encompassing contradictory political projects. Despite this, I suggest that the feminist ‘lens’ of vulnerability may provide us with a new way to understand prostitution debates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Gossamer Consensus: Discourses of Vulnerability in the Westminster Prostitution Policy Subsystem

Hewer

2018

Social & Legal Studies

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“…There tends to be a greater interest in the development of prostitution policy as opposed to its implementation (Wagenaar and Altink 2012). In line with this, while there was much discussion among lawmakers (Mulvihill 2014(Mulvihill , 2015, academics (Brooks-Gordon 2010; Kingston 2010;Munro 2010;Carline 2011aCarline , b, 2012Munro and Scoular 2012;Keren-Paz and Levenkron 2009) and activists about section 53A before it was adopted, focusing on its appropriateness and whether it should be adopted (Matolcsi 2017), there has been much less discussion about section 53A since it came into force in 2010, and little empirical research on its implementation. A small handful of studies (Bindel et al 2013;Kingston and Thomas 2014;Niemi and Aaltonen 2014) and an inquiry report by a parliamentary grouping of MPs (APPG 2014) provide empirical information on the implementation of section 53A.…”

Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police Implementation of the Partial Sex Purchase Ban in England and Wales

Matolcsi

2020

Eur J Crim Policy Res

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A main point of contention in the policy areas of prostitution and sex trafficking is whether the purchase of sex should be criminalised, whether fully (in all circumstances) or partly (only under specific circumstances). Particularly, Europe has seen several countries either fully criminalise buying sex or insofar as the person in prostitution is subject to exploitation or coercion. An example of the latter, since 2010, it is an offence in England and Wales (UK) to buy sex with a person in prostitution who has been coerced or exploited by a third party. While the offence was heavily debated before it was adopted, there has been little empirical research on its implementation, particularly by police who are on the front line of implementation. While police statistics on the offence are of questionable reliability, indications are that there has been little application of the offence. This paper explores several potential reasons for this in the context of interviews with 10 police representatives in four areas of England. Factors such as police’s knowledge and awareness of the offence, difficulties with its application, and to what extent and in what way policing of prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation are taking place, may all be playing a role, but do not explain lack of use in all of the areas examined in this research. The notions that there are not enough victims for the law to be applied or that police may be resisting applying the offence because they find the strict liability element of the offence unfair were not supported by these interviews. This research is unique in finding that there may be an issue with police misunderstanding fundamental elements of the offence and what seems to be a lack of awareness of the offence. These findings have implications for the assessment of the enforceability of this and similar offences and policy discussions around such offences.

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“…Inspired by Carline's (2011, 2012) treatment of Butler’s (2009) Frames of War and the tracing of vulnerability and victimhood in official state discourses related to similar trends in UK prostitution laws, I consider the political potential of framing sex workers as ‘prostituted’ and ‘trafficked’ victims in the Canadian context. Carline asks us to consider how the subject position of the sex worker – or in the case of the abolitionist narrative, the ‘prostituted’ girl – moves from one political context or frame to the next.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attachments to Victimhood: Anti-Trafficking Narratives and the Criminalization of the Sex Trade

Sibley

2020

Social & Legal Studies

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Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford to strike down criminal law provisions related to the regulation of sex work, the government passed Bill C-36, ultimately reaffirming the project of criminalizing prostitution. Also known as the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA), Bill C-36 is part of a global trend that shifts the state’s attention away from regulating sex work as a societal nuisance, and instead, puts forth a carceral agenda which situates sex workers as victims of an inherently exploitative and coercive sex trade – pivoting the punitive elements of criminal law onto clients and mythologized profiteers of the sex trade. Focusing on the testimonies of neo-abolitionists leading up to the implementation of Bill C-36, this article critically explores the ways sex work is constituted as a problem of ‘trafficking’ and how attachments to victimhood allow for renewed criminalization within this new regulatory framework.

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Constructing the Subject of Prostitution: A Butlerian Reading of the Regulation of Sex Work

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

A Gossamer Consensus: Discourses of Vulnerability in the Westminster Prostitution Policy Subsystem

A Gossamer Consensus: Discourses of Vulnerability in the Westminster Prostitution Policy Subsystem

Police Implementation of the Partial Sex Purchase Ban in England and Wales

Attachments to Victimhood: Anti-Trafficking Narratives and the Criminalization of the Sex Trade

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