Rhetoric, reality and risk outcomes in sex work

Abstract

This paper examines the way individuals' discourses about risk can function to 'credential' a speaker, counter any potential accusation of risk-taking and occlude attention to evidence of risk and risk-taking. This phenomenon was studied in the context of a 3-year, qualitative cohort study of 31 women who worked in the New Zealand sex industry. This paper considers the way participants' discourses explaining their uptake of sex work operated to mask risk behaviour and potentials for risk and danger that were reported in their talk but not attended to. These discourses operated differently among street workers and among women who worked the 'inside' sector. 'Inside' workers put the case for their uptake of sex work in terms of 'quick', 'good' money, and workplace freedoms. In the absence of such 'good' money and where workplace 'freedoms' allowed personalised and individualising control by management, women were pushed towards competition and risky practice. Street workers expounded arguments of personal agency and of being 'in control' of risks and dangers on the streets, which were known well and depicted graphically. Such argument refused acknowledgement of personal vulnerability. The importance of such 'discursive' readings of individuals' understandings of risk and risk-taking is discussed.

Issues Concerning the Informality and Outdoor Sex Work Performed by Travestis in São Paulo, Brazil

“…The attribution of this competition, by some, to the fact that they were travestis negated the fact that it was their working relationships that created this problem among them. Other studies of outdoor sex workers also say that the rivalry in this segment is a consequence of the work modality (Plumridge, 2001;Sharpe, 1998).…”

“…19 The risks involved in being indebted to a madam are also described by Benedetti (2000). 20 The debasing of earnings because of sex work's stigmatization was also seen among travestis in Fortaleza, Brazil (Vale, 2000), all kinds of French sex workers (Welzer-Lang, 1994) and female sex workers in New Zealand (Plumridge, 2001) and New York (Murphy & Venkatesh, 2006). 21 Moraes (1996) said that, unlike other stigmatized categories with immediately evident and distinctive traits that cannot be hidden, like Afro-descendants and the handicapped, the sex worker's stigma is not immediately perceived.…”

Diverse risks, diverse perpetrators: perceptions of risk and experiences of violence amongst street-based sex workers in New Zealand

“…Douglas (1985) argued that risk perception is underpinned by a need to downplay the extent of risk which will then allow individuals to feel safe in the world. In the context of street-based sex work, one New Zealand-based study argued that interviewed sex workers acknowledged and yet simultaneously downplayed their own vulnerability (Plumridge 2001). However, other findings have contradicted this suggestion, such as Sanders (2005) UK-based research with indoor and outdoor sex workers.…”

“…A large amount of research has been conducted internationally in countries including New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Australia and Canada, with a focus on the incidence of violence in street-based sex work (Abel 2010;Barnard, Hart and Church 2002;Benson 1998;Church et al 2001;Dalla, Xia and Kennedy 2003;Kinnell 2008;Lowman 2000;Phoenix 1999;Raphael and Shapiro 2004;Silbert and Pines 1982;Whittaker and Hart 1996;Willamson and Folaron 2001). Far fewer studies have explored perceptions of the risks of violence amongst street workers (Plumridge 2001;Pyett and Warr 1999).…”

The risk/no-risk rhetoric of environmental impact assessments (EIA): the case of offshore wind farms in Sweden

“…Inversely, rhetorical studies in risk and studies in risk rhetoric are illustrative of the socially situated character of risk communication. Rhetorical studies in risk provide insights into risk attitudes among sex workers (Plumridge 2001) or the way consumers handle food safety…”