Cruel Optimism: Zika, Lex Sportiva, and Bodies of (Alleged) Contagion

Lisio, Amanda De; Fusco, Caroline

doi:10.7916/cjgl.v38i1.4602

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The heightened attention and financial investment directed at anti-trafficking strategies—particularly those that targeted women in sex work—remained unsubstantiated and instead fed public perceptions that women engaged in sexual commerce are diseased and trafficked without critique of broader socioeconomic dynamics that contribute to illness, disease, and violence. We continue to see health weaponized against women in sex work as demonstrated with Rio de Janeiro as international concern related to the Zika virus erupted prior to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games (see also 39 ).…”

Section: Trafficking (In) Securities: Fifa and Fantasies Of Rescuementioning

confidence: 99%

Rights, not rescue: trafficking (in)securities at the sport mega-event

Oliver,

De Lisio

2023

Front. Sports Act. Living

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We examine the impact of fantasies used in the redevelopment of sport mega-event cities on host communities; particularly as related to the male-dominated FIFA World Cup and forced prostitution. We start with a discussion of event fantasies, particularly those that circulate in relation to humanitarian aid and the alleged involvement of women and children in forced labour and sexual exploitation. We trace these fantasies across several FIFA host cities since the 2006 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Germany, to leverage continual and perpetuate attention (and profit) through the non-profit industrial complex. These fantasies have facilitated and coordinated collaborative consensus amongst state authorities and allies to act in a meaningful manner even as the evidence of forced prostitution is still scant—while the realities of people that continue to be subjected to violent and exploitative labour in the construction of stadia, athlete recruitment, or equipment and apparel industries are seldom addressed. We do this to question the lived impact of policies and personalities of rescue on people engaged, consensually, in erotic labour within host cities, that are often made target of rescue intervention. The figure of the proverbial sex slave, as a highly racialized and hypersexualized trope, is mobilized through the sport mega-event to further police the bodies of all women in labour and migration. We end with a cautious message to future host cities, particularly cities implicated in the 2026 FIFA World Cup within Mexico, Canada, and the United States, of the highly-profitable and politically-advantageous rhetoric of damsel in distress.

show abstract

Section: Trafficking (In) Securities: Fifa and Fantasies Of Rescuementioning

confidence: 99%