Victims Without a Choice? A Critical View on the Debate About Sex Work in Northern Ireland

Who Takes Part in the Political Game? The Sex Work Governance Debate in Israel

“…However, it should be remembered that simply adopting a model from another country because it appears to work does not, as Kingston and Thomas (2018) showed, consider wider social issues and, therefore, may not work in another country. Furthermore, as was demonstrated by Fuckförbundet (2019) in Sweden and by others (Armstrong, 2019;Bettio et al, 2017;Huschke, 2017) elsewhere, the legislation to criminalize clients has led to sex workers being increasingly stigmatized, hunted by the police, and disempowered. In other words, the state is becoming a primary source of violence and exploitation of sex workers (Hammond & Attwood, 2015).…”

“…Sarah described a combination of actors who have power in and over the sex industry. The actors who play this political game are all beneficiaries of the legislation, albeit on different sides: politicians and feminist activists can reinforce the elite voices legislating on behalf of sex workers (Aroney & Crofts, 2019;Yarbrough, 2020), while third-parties can benefit from the growing underground market of sex work that may emerge after legislation (Agustín, 2008;Huschke, 2017;Kilvington, Day, & Ward, 2001;O'Connell Davidson, 2003;Vuolajärvi, 2019).…”

“…We noticed in our interviews that sex workers allied around a joint mission of preventing the deepening of already challenging stigma. This stigma is twofold: first, the well-known universal "whore stigma" of sex work (Armstrong, 2019;Gira Grant, 2014;Hardy & Cruz, 2019;Sanders, 2005;Weitzer, 2018), which the Nordic Model aimed to pass from the sellers to consumers who now perceived as the perpetrators; and second, the stigma created by legislation advocates who refer to sex workers as "victims" (Armstrong, 2019;Bettio, Della Giusta, & Di Tommaso, 2017;Filar, 2020;Huschke, 2017;Pitcher, 2019;Weitzer, 2019). For most sex workers, it is not the actual work that causes the most harm; rather, it is the stigma attached to earning an income through sex work in a context where it is criminalized and being justified for their degradation (Gira Grant, 2014;Huschke, 2017).…”

“…While it has been argued by many scholars (Anasti, 2017;Baratosy & Wendt, 2017;Fassi, 2015;Jeffreys, 2010;Oselin & Weitzer, 2013;Pitcher, 2019;Sanders & Campbell, 2014;Weitzer, 2012) that sex workers ought to be involved in the legislative process that directly affects them, Israeli sex workers were not initially included or invited to participate in the law reform process. By adopting the prostitution-asharm narrative and "speaking on behalf" of sex workers (Lahav-Raz, 2019), the Israeli proceedings are similar to the 1 Prohibition on Consumption of Prostitution, 2019 process witnessed worldwide (Harrington, 2018;Huschke, 2017;O'Connell Davidson, 2003;Pitcher, 2019;Weitzer, 2007Weitzer, , 2019; namely, a coalition between the religious right and abolitionist feminists that have engaged in a heated debate over the realities of sex workers and appropriate sex work policy. These two parties have thus become strange bedfellows in an attempt to protect sex workers within the framing of a paradigm of oppression.…”

Empowering sex workers? Critical reflections on peer-led risk-reduction workshops in Soweto, South Africa

“…Furthermore, some sex workers felt that there was a quietly enforced emphasis on reframing sex work as a worthwhile way of making a livingin a way this constitutes the ideological counterpoint to widespread interventions that cast sex workers as helpless victims in need of rescue [33]. While the reframing of sex work in CSWs on one hand contributes to the destigmatization of sex work and is often experienced as empowering and healing, it can also serve as a way of silencing those who would like to leave the sex industry and have a need for information on how to facilitate this process.…”