“Not on the Street Where We Live”: walking while trans under a model of sex work decriminalisation

Easterbrook-Smith, Gwyn

doi:10.1080/14680777.2019.1642226

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…A survey in July 2019 found at the four most prominent agencies, the proportion was 85 percent, with one agency only employing White women. 5 None of the analysed texts directly mention the race of the workers being discussed, a striking difference compared to texts about other forms of sex work in New Zealand, which often mention the race of (non-White) sex workers (Easterbrook-Smith, 2018, 2020). Questions of racism in the industry are made invisible, as are questions of normative beauty standards: Gill (2007) highlights that other women are often recruited to assist in the monitoring of unruly bodies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance

Easterbrook-Smith

2020

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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Media depictions of sex work and workers are a key site where perceptions of the sex industry are established and contested, particularly for audiences who may have little to no direct interaction with it otherwise. The presence of an advertorial framing or function of news media coverage of the sex industry has been identified in previous work. This article analyses news media coverage in New Zealand post-decriminalisation to consider how advertorial frames are used to construct indoor low-volume sex work as acceptable, and identify the conditions which are attached to this acceptability. The advertorial frames often emphasise the respectability and/or desirability of the clientele, potentially indicating to male readers that they may be a client-type man. Simultaneously, this construction of clients as desirable is used to underpin a discourse of authentic pleasure on the part of the workers. These narratives obscure the sexual and emotional labour involved in low-volume sex work, stripping it of its status as work, and positioning work-sex as akin to non-transactional sexual contact. Such renderings often draw meaning and legitimacy by shifting existing stereotypes about the sex industry as dangerous or damaging to other workers: typically those who charge less for their services or who are perceived to see more clients. This article concludes that the establishment of one kind of sex work as more acceptable at the expense of other sectors of the industry may serve to further entrench existing inequalities among people who work in the sex industry.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance

Easterbrook-Smith

2020

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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“…Street-based TFSW of color are particularly vulnerable to arrest. They are often profiled by police as sex workers simply because they are “walking while trans.” 27 Arrest results in increased economic pressure caused by costs associated with money bail and court fees as well as loss of income while incarcerated. These economic pressures may in turn lead TFSW to increase the number of sex work clients in order to mitigate these economic losses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing HIV and STIs among Transgender Female Sex Workers: A Longitudinal Analysis

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et al. 2020

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Objectives: Though highly vulnerable to HIV and STIs, transgender female sex workers (TFSW) are understudied in the U.S. HIV and STI response. This study examined the correlates of laboratory-confirmed STIs among a cohort of 62 TFSW followed over the course of one year and explored associations between specimen site and self-reported engagement in insertive and receptive anal intercourse. Methods: Participants completed an interviewer-administered computer assisted personal interview at baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month visits where self-administered anal swabs and urine samples for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas were also collected. HIV testing was conducted at baseline, 6-, and 12-month visits. Results: Baseline HIV prevalence was 40.3% with no HIV seroconversions over follow-up. Baseline prevalence of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas was 9.7%, 17.7%, and 14.5%, respectively. In the multivariable regression modeling, recent arrest was significantly associated with testing positive for any STI (aRR 1.77; 95% CI: 1.10-2.84). Insertive anal sex with clients was associated with increased risk of testing positive for an STI via urine specimen (RR 3.48; 95% CI: 1.14-10.62), while receptive anal sex was not significantly associated with specimen site. Conclusion: Our findings confirm a high prevalence of STIs among TFSW and highlight the importance of addressing structural drivers such as criminal justice involvement as well as the need to ensure screening for STIs at all anatomical sites regardless of self-reported sites of potential exposure. More research is needed to better understand HIV and STI vulnerabilities and appropriate interventions for TFSW in the U.S.

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“…Other sex workers, often street-based or high-volume workers, are produced as unacceptable and comparatively subject to greater stigma. They are Othered, that is, discussed in an ‘us and them’ figuration, and are less able to resist stigmatizing frames (Easterbrook-Smith 2020; Fitzgerald and Abel, 2010; Link and Phelan, 2001).…”

Section: Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Acceptability is sometimes extended to a small number of sex workers, often through positioning them in comparison to other sex workers (Easterbrook-Smith, 2021a). Street-based sex workers have been subject to stigmatization and harassment, with this particularly evident in news media in the period between 2005–2015 when attempts were made to pass two private member’s bills which would have restricted where they could work (Armstrong, 2016; Easterbrook-Smith, 2020). Migrant sex workers are not protected under New Zealand’s decriminalization model, a feature of the legislation which has been criticized for the way it ‘others’ migrant workers, with this ‘othering’ evident in news media coverage of migrant sex work (Armstrong, 2017; Easterbrook-Smith, 2018, 2021b; NZ Herald, 2013a; Neyland, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some news media texts that discuss modes of sex work which are routinely constructed as less respectable or less acceptable include calls for sex workers to change how and where they work. Suggestions that sex workers would become more acceptable if they worked indoors, in the case of street-based sex work, or in lower-volume agencies, 1 in the case of indoor workers, frequently ignore the material realities of the different kinds of sex workplaces (Abel and Fitzgerald, 2012; Easterbrook-Smith, 2020, 2021a). The ‘solutions’ being proposed for sex workers are typically made by outsiders to the industry, who generally do not acknowledge the benefits, drawbacks and barriers which sex workers perceive to be attached to different ways of working (Abel and Fitzgerald, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stigma, invisibility and unattainable ‘choices’ in sex work

Easterbrook-Smith

2022

Sexualities

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Sex work in New Zealand was decriminalized by the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. News media is one of the key sites where stigma against sex workers is reproduced, negotiated and can be resisted. Depictions of sex workers in New Zealand vary significantly according to where and how they work. News media texts which discuss modes of sex work constructed as less acceptable sometimes call for sex workers to change how and where they work, typically to modes of work which would make them less visible, in the sense of removing them from public space or of making them invisible as sex workers. The ‘solutions’ for these sex workers are typically proposed by outsiders to the industry, who generally do not acknowledge the benefits, drawbacks and barriers which sex workers perceive to be attached to different ways of working. The demands placed upon sex workers to make the correct ‘choice’ about how and where to work recall neoliberal discourses of entrepreneurialism and further marginalize women who fail to engage in sex work in the ‘correct’ manner. This article examines these media discourses with reference to theories of neoliberal postfeminism, to establish how these discourses function to establish a mode of sex work most accessible to white, middle class, cisgender women as more ‘acceptable’. The concomitant effect of these discourses is to blame sex workers who disproportionately suffer the effects of stigma and harassment for their own ill-treatment, invoking ideas of ‘personal responsibility’.

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“Not on the Street Where We Live”: walking while trans under a model of sex work decriminalisation

Cited by 16 publications

References 26 publications

Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance

Sex work, advertorial news media and conditional acceptance

Characterizing HIV and STIs among Transgender Female Sex Workers: A Longitudinal Analysis

Stigma, invisibility and unattainable ‘choices’ in sex work

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