Subjectivity, Hygiene, and STI Prevention: A Normalization Paradox in the Cleanliness Practices of Female Sex Workers in Post‐Socialist China

Abstract

This article illuminates the principal mechanisms that increase the risk of STIs for female sex workers in China. It draws primarily on my 26 months of ethnographic fieldwork (2006-2009) in red-light district neighborhoods in Haikou that have become centers of internal migration in post-reform southern China. Chinese sex workers here challenge dominant representations of them as illegal, immoral, and unclean subordinates and understand themselves also as sacrificing, capable, and modern women. I show how the women's conflicted subjectivity, continuously shaped through social networks, affects their personal health decisions and, significantly, leads them to adopt clinically risky practices. I conclude by arguing that public health interventions in southern China in and around certain red-light districts should take these conflicted subjectivities into account in working to improve sex workers' health.

Accounting for variation in and overuse of antibiotics among humans

“…[ 94–96 ] In China, commercial sex workers routinely take antibiotic injections for harm reduction. [ 97 ] In India, young men fearing they may be developing an STI after unprotected sex self‐treat with an antibiotic purchased at a pharmacy when they feel vague bodily sensations. [ 98 ]…”

Demographic and behavioral correlates of HIV/STI among Vietnamese female sex workers in southwest China

“…Many researchers have identified FSWs as one of the most at-risk groups for HIV/STIs in China (e.g., Chen et al, 2012a; Yu, 2013). However, researchers noticed a relatively stable and low reported seroprevalence among FSWs, contrasting the rapid rise in the overall rate of heterosexual transmission (UNAIDS, MoH, 2012).…”

Balance, Capacity, and the Contingencies of Everyday Life: Narrative Etiologies of Health Among Women in Street-Based Sex Work

“…Of the studies that do explore how women in sex work understand health as a concept and daily practice, most are set in the global south, particularly South East Asia. Researchers identify the sociocentric dimensions of health as a key finding (Basnyat, 2017; Yu Yeon, 2013). Participants often describe health in relational terms vis-à-vis sociofamilial obligations they are required to fulfill before attending to their own needs (Basnyat, 2015; Dasgupta, 2013; Kaufman, Harman, Menger, & Shrestha, 2016; Rivers-Moore, 2010).…”

“…Participants often describe health in relational terms vis-à-vis sociofamilial obligations they are required to fulfill before attending to their own needs (Basnyat, 2015; Dasgupta, 2013; Kaufman, Harman, Menger, & Shrestha, 2016; Rivers-Moore, 2010). This extends to women’s health practices, which often occur within informal networks and among their peers because of financial constraints as well as their poor treatment in formal health care settings (Basnyat, 2014; Scorgie et al, 2013; Yu Yeon, 2013). These studies also demonstrate that, while many women discuss health in ways that reflect dominant public health ideas, the narrow focus on sexual health and checkups within the biomedical system does not wholly align with their lived realities (Basu, 2010; Choudhury, 2010).…”