· Douglas’s abolitionist paradigm
· Is sex work a sad situation or an empowering situation?
· Dichotomy: lady/whore
· Is poverty the force behind sex work? And if so, should all situations of sex work be considered a result of capitalism and oppression? Job vs. Dehumanizing End Result
· How should women that are “business partners” in the trafficking and prostitution arena be viewed? (In Erzulie’s Skirt a woman tricked them into leaving DR for PR, and a woman enslaved them in PR)
· Does the feminist view of the situation diminish the mental capacity of women in “3rd World" countries? Dichotomy: 3rd World Women/Western Women
· The work of Anti-trafficking advocates is often reflected in opposition to the work of Rights for Sex Workers Advocates. The language of one hurts the other. “Forced prostitution, child prostitution, and sex tourism are linked together and made indistinguishable,” which creates a situation where rights for sex workers are overshadowed by mass hysteria. How is this conflict to be solved?
· Why are there a disproportionate number of Black women involved in prostitution in modern day Europe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOKS22CotA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKzsWyjL5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Tne0Brdic&feature=related
Presented By: Amelia D. and Mariah D.
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8 comments:
I found Kempadoo's collection to be equal parts informative, paradoxical, and frustrating. There is a spectrum of how women's rights activists approach sex work, and a range of them are expressed (and a few of them dismissed) in her work. Talking about the women who "choose" sex work helps dismantle the Western delusions of helpless global south victims, but that kind of discussion can also get us perilously close to excusing the hard realities of women's limited choices. There must be a balance. The question you ask, Amelia and Mariah, about the conflicting language of the anti-trafficking movement and the sex-worker rights movement is THE question right now. I don't have an answer to that question, other than to strive for open dialogue and mutual points of agreement. A constructive answer to that question on the part of both movements may be the first step in moving forward as a united front to dismantle global systems of exploitive labor practices and the consumption of women's bodies.
I thought that Global Sex Workers was an unusual perspective to understanding women employed in sex work. Not only did the author discuss the reasons why most some women chose this line of work, she also argued against sex work as "empowering". Personally, I do not agree that sex work can be empowering. For example, as seen in the case of Satako Watenbe's essay, even though the Thai women did the work because it was better paying and it freed them from the confines of marriage, I do not believe that the women obtained honest satisfaction from their line of work. How could you be satisfied in your line of work, conscious of the fact that you may be subject to abuse, disease, coercion, and indignity? I think that these women live and work in a constant state of fear and are not empowered because they have lost control over their bodies.
I think the frustrations with the text that Meagan and Chisara wrote about are very valid. It is difficult to see how sex workers can acquire and maintain a healthy self identity but according to whose stadards and what perspective? I think the disparities in how women view themselves in limited situations as opposed to those who are provided with more choices causes limitations in how we can make distinctions between empowerment and victimization.
Euro - centric society’s obsession with placing people in categories of a clear left or right, good verses evil, wrong verses right, is at the core of the politics surrounding prostitution and sex workers rights. The politics and views surrounded in prostitution is embedded in complicated power structures that is Western - male dominated and allows assumptions to be made on the lives of prostitutes. In order for hierarchy and domination to exist these structures are a necessity. Western men have to deem prostitution as a “woman’s” crime, because it obscures the vision that womanhood in particular white womanhood is suppose to be something of purity and refinement. Any instance when a woman takes control over her body is a threat to the hierarchal system, that’s a man’s job. Non western women in this instance cannot be clever enough to have that much control over their body.
Kempadoo and Doezema work is extremely important because it gives a balanced insight to the global perspectives on sex work. The book clearly outlines and points out the flaws in the basic assumptions surrounding sex work. It is preposterous to think that the sex work industry is a simple dichotomy between sexually free western women and naïve women from “third world” countries,” It is wrong to generalize all women into those two categories. There are no monolithic groups of western women or women that come from “third world,” countries the structure is much more complicated.
On one hand I can see why the authors would argue that sex work can be liberating to some women but then I believe that is only for a small percent of the population. Possibly when you do a psychological exam on some of the women who are in this small percent their reasons for doing this line of work might be distorted. Many want to object to the norms of society which fall in line with western society but what about their belief system/religion how does that play into the work that they are doing. When the women who are doing this are in control of who they can perform these acts with and how many times without the need of a "pimp" controlling them and taking their money then maybe it could be possible. Im sure there are many women who own brothels and women changing the perception of this.
once again everyone has beaten me to the punch, while reading I began going over the themes that were prevalent in the film, Nice Colored Girls. Is it exploitation of the women or the reclaiming of their "self" through the avenues available to them? Incidentally, i don't see this as limited to international sex trafficking...I agree that this sex trafficking occurs domestically also. Not in explicit prostitution but in the "use what i got to get what i want " mentality that i feel is prevalent in america. Nice colored girls and this reading made me think of Hip hop and the "hood" in that sex workers and trafficking doesn't occur just over "there.' It's here and there and it is a perplexing sitaution. I willnot ramble in this post so i will leave it there.
The whole idea of seeing sex work as a type of work that is "similar to other forms of labor that humankind performs to sustain itself--such as mental and manual labor, all of which involve specific parts of the body and particular types of energy and skills" according to Than-Dan Troung is a challenge to me. I find it really hard for me to see it that way.
Hypothetically, a single mother chooses to do a job that she does not like, such as cleaning lavatories, to support her children's education. People will probably not judge her for doing something she does not like. In fact, people will instead respect her and see it as a sacrifice. But if we change "cleaning lavatories" with "having sex with customers as a prostitute", people will judge and blame her for her choice and behavior, even though her purpose is still to support her children's education. What is the difference? There must be something fundamental behind people's different views of those two cases.
I think the fundamental thing is the bottom line of this issue. As human beings, there are something we should never do. Such a belief is inherent in our genes regardless of cultural or political differences. We never question it since it is a belief. And when we question it, it will become a dilemma.
Everyone agrees that killing other people for fun is a crime that we in no way tolerate. But why? Putting all the ethical discussions in the history of philosophy aside, it is partly because that we do not want such things happen to ourselves--the principle of exchange. Following that logic, when we imagine our own husbands to be customers in brothels or ourselves to be forced into prostitution, we will have no hesitation in fighting against it. I do not believe that those who "voluntarily" choose prostitution as a way to make a living do want their daughters or mothers make the same decision. It might be my own opinion and I could be wrong, but to me prostitution is definitely against human nature. It degenerates human dignity into pure lust, either for sex or for money.
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