Regulating sex work: subjectivity and stigma in Senegal

Abstract

Senegal provides a unique example of a sub-Saharan African country with a legal framework for the regulation of commercial sex work. While registering as a legal sex worker affords women access to valuable social and medical resources, sex work is condemned by Senegalese society. Women who engage in sex work occupy a socially marginal status and confront a variety of stigmatising discourses and practices that legitimate their marginality. This paper examines two institutions that provide social and medical services to registered sex workers in Dakar: a medical clinic and a non-governmental organisation. It highlights the discourses about sex work that women encounter within these institutions and in their everyday lives. Women's accounts reveal a variety of strategies for managing stigma, from discretion and deception to asserting self-worth. As registered sex workers negotiate their precarious social position, their strategies both reproduce and challenge stigmatising representations of sex work. Their experiences demonstrate the contradictory outcomes of the Senegalese approach to regulating sex work.

Canadian Sex Workers Weigh the Costs and Benefits of Disclosing Their Occupational Status to Health Providers

“…Sex work is a highly discreditable status in most countries (Benoit, Ngugi, Roth, Jansson, Hallgrimsdottir, & Sharpe, 2013; Benoit et al, 2017; Biradavolu, Blankenship, Jena, & Dhungana, 2012; Foley, 2017; Ngugi, Benoit, Hallgrimsdottir, Jansson, & Roth, 2012; Sanders, 2017; Vanwesenbeeck, 2001) that is associated with three types of “taint”: physical taint from contact with bodily fluids and bodies, social taint from engaging in servile work and being potentially associated with other stigmatized groups (such as sex work clients, substance users), and moral taint from having their work be perceived as “somewhat sinful or of dubious virtue” (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999, p. 415). Sex work operates in many countries in criminalized environments (exceptions include the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and some states in Australia) and workers tend to be shunned or pitied but seldom granted agency (Vanwesenbeeck, 2001).…”

“…Sex work operates in many countries in criminalized environments (exceptions include the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and some states in Australia) and workers tend to be shunned or pitied but seldom granted agency (Vanwesenbeeck, 2001). Sex workers across many geopolitical contexts whose occupation is known often recount inappropriate care from health care providers, including through disrespectful and abusive language, public humiliation, physical separation from other patients, inferior service, inflated charges for private health care services, outright denial of care, and blame when reporting sexual assault (Aral, St. Lawrence, Tikhonova, Safarova, Parker, Shakarishvili, & Ryan, 2003; Foley, 2017; Ghimire, Smith, & van Teijlingen, 2011; Gorry, Roen, & Reilly, 2010; Ngo, Ratliff, McCurdy, Ross, Markham, & Pham, 2007; Phrasisombath, Thomsen, Sychareun, & Faxelid, 2012; Porras, Sabido, Fernandez-Davila, Fernandez, Batres, & Casabona, 2008; Scorgie et al, 2013; Sprankle, Bloomquist, Butcher, Gleason, & Schaefer, 2017; Stadler & Delaney, 2006). It is within these types of potentially stigmatizing health care settings where only about 10% of the participants in Canada and the UK—both countries with public health care systems—had disclosed their involvement in sex work to health professionals (Bungay, Kolar, Thindal, Remple, Johnston, & Ogilvie, 2013; Jeal & Salisbury, 2007).…”

Social representations of female sex workers about their sexuality

“…(27) However, as noted in the positive elements such as self-esteem, good, affection, vibe, and feeling, even though orgasm itself is rare in the case of clients, studies suggest that it may occur when there is a greater bond between prostitutes and steady partners or clients with whom they develop a more affective relationship. (1,28) This view is in line with the thinking of feminists who have embraced the concept of empowerment and undo discourses of oppression of victims and women's lack of resilience. Thus, these discussions assume an essential role for the contextualized understanding of prostitution as a social construct, both for the analysis of the constitution of micro-powers in the production of discourses on sexuality and subjugation of women, who have their sexuality and their body exposed as a bargaining chip (7) as in social representations (12) which are built by the experience as a group and by common sense, which interfere with behaviors.…”

“O dinheiro como sinônimo do prazer?”: análise processual dos significados representacionais de trabalhadoras sexuais sobre satisfação sexual

“…As trabalhadoras sexuais fazem parte de um grupo social ainda marginalizado pela sociedade, e por se tratar de um ser biopsicossocial a qualidade de vida delas é questionável; pois a saúde vai além de ausência de doenças, perpassando por questões sociais de estigmas sofridos (Foley, 2017). Muitas delas enfrentam/vivenciam a desestruturação familiar, problemas socioeconômicos, e por isso buscam no trabalho sexual a resolução destes problemas (Prado, 2018).…”