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‘Knows how to please a man’: studying customers to understand service work

We can then see what demands a customer places on workers, understand where ‘his’ expectations come from and how ‘his’ judgements of good and bad service are produced in order to make sense of contemporary service work. The paper then discusses Punternet authors’ readings of erotic, aesthetic and emotional labour in order to show how good (and bad) service is understood in a market structured by gender and sexuality, and hence to see the role played by the customer in judging and constituting the service encounter. Because service work in consumer culture exists to facilitate the processes and practices of consumption, we must listen to the customer who engages in these consumption practices. The author argues that customers’ accounts of purchasing sexual services draw on ideas of masculinity and customer sovereignty to make sense of commercial sex encounters. The author uses customer (‘punter’) accounts of purchasing sexual services, as reported on the website ‘Punternet’ (http://www.punternet.com), to argue that customers expect a worker who engages in consumption practices and is and is familiar with norms of heterosexual femininity and so delivers an authentic experience. Theme: Gender and Sexuality Theme: Human Rights and Law

“Custody and Education”: Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China

The Chinese government is arbitrarily detaining sex workers through a flawed government policy purportedly aimed at education and rehabilitation, Asia Catalyst said in a new report released today. The report documents excessive use of force by police in the detention of female sex workers, as well as the women’s subsequent incarceration in the little-known “Custody and Education (C&E)” system. Asia Catalyst research found that under the C&E system, sex workers and clients are deprived of their freedom for long periods of time with no genuine right to challenge the decision or external safeguards. Public security organs have full control over the decision, execution and supervision of C&E, which authorizes officials to detain sex workers and their clients for a period of six months to two years, without trial or judicial oversight. “Sex workers face widespread discrimination and stigma which has enabled this arbitrary detention with little public outcry or a genuine means for redress,” said Charmain Mohamed, Executive Director of Asia Catalyst. “C&E is a punitive measure that does little to improve the education or health of these women.” Asia Catalyst and two partner organizations interviewed 30 female sex workers and one law enforcement officer in Northern China from December

“Over here, it's just drugs, women and all the madness”: The HIV risk environment of clients of female sex workers in Tijuana, Mexico

HIV vulnerability depends upon social context. Based in broader debates in social epidemiology, political economy, and sociology of health, Rhodes’ (2002) “risk environment” framework provides one heuristic for understanding how contextual features influence HIV risk, through different types of environmental factors (social, economic, policy, and physical) which interact at different levels of influence (micro, macro). Few data are available on the “risk environment” of male clients of female sex workers (FSWs); such men represent a potential “bridge” for transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections from high- to low-prevalence populations. Using in-depth interviews (n=30), we describe the HIV risk environment of male clients in Tijuana, Mexico, where disproportionately high HIV prevalence has been reported among FSWs and their clients. A number of environmental themes influence risky sex with FSWs and the interplay between individual agency and structural forces: social isolation and the search for intimacy; meanings and identities ascribed to Tijuana’s Zona Roja (red light district) as a risky place; social relationships in the Zona Roja; and economic roles. Our findings suggest that clients’ behaviors are deeply embedded in the local context. Using the HIV “risk environment” as our analytic lens, we illustrate how clients’ HIV risks are shaped

“I expect to be abused and I have fear”: Sex workers’ experiences of human rights violations and barriers to accessing healthcare in four African countries

This report documents human rights violations experienced by female, male and transgender sex workers in four African countries (Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe), and describes barriers they face to accessing health services. Through cross-country comparison and documenting sub-regional trends, the study moves beyond previous often-localised descriptions of violations against sex workers in Africa. The study also fills information gaps about violations in male and transgender sex workers in this setting. A desk review of literature and policies pertaining to sex work in the study settings preceded individual in-depth interviews (n=55) and 12 focus group discussions (n=81) with sex workers above 18 years. Interviews covered the human rights violations sex workers experienced, strategies to avoid these, barriers to health services and practical suggestions for advocacy to improve these circumstances. Broader health (HIV) impacts were also examined. Salient demographic and sexual behaviour data were collected. Sex worker peer educators were trained to obtain narrative information through interviews with sex workers. Convenience sampling was used, aiming to enroll participants across diverse sex-work settings in each site. Interviews took place from December 2010 to February 2011 in Mombasa, Kenya; Hillbrow, Johannesburg, and the towns of Musina and Thohoyandou in Limpopo province, South Africa;

“Maybe it will be better once this World Cup has passed” Research findings regarding the impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on Sex Work in South Africa

International sporting events are increasing in frequency and magnitude. It is estimated that the FIFA World Cup brought close to 400 000 visitors to South Africa in 2010. Little research has been conducted into the demand and supply of paid sex during big sporting events and where the topic has been explored, the focus tends to fall on speculation around human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, rather than on adult, consensual sex work. This research project aimed to: • Assess if there is a change in the demand for or supply of paid sex during an international sporting event; • Track the number of clients and potential changes in sex work activity during the World Cup; • Assess sex worker fears, expectations and experiences of the 2010 FIFA World Cup; and • Gather information on sex worker mobility, frequency of health care visits, access to services, vulnerability to HIV, interactions with healthcare providers and interaction with police. The research project comprised of two components: a website component and a mixed-methods component. In the website component, we conducted a three-wave telephonic survey of female sex workers in the last weeks of May (pre-World Cup), June (during the World Cup)

'70% sex workers opt for prostitution'

This news story was written by Aarefa Johari for the Hindustan Times on the 1 May 2011. The story is a write up of the launch of the ‘First pan-India survey of sex workers’, conducted by Pune University academicians Rohini Sahni and V Kalyan Shankar. Nearly 70% of female sex workers in the country have joined the profession voluntarily, and were not forced or sold. Also, prostitution is just one among several labour options available to women from poor backgrounds — a majority of them join the trade at a much older age compared to other informal markets such as domestic work or hawking. These were some of the findings of the ‘First pan-India survey of sex workers’, conducted by Pune University academicians Rohini Sahni and V Kalyan Shankar. The preliminary report of the study was released at the documentation centre of women’s group Akshara on Saturday. The survey was commissioned by the Forum Against Oppression of Women under the aegis of the Sangli-based Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation, and was conducted on a sample of 3,000 female sex workers and more than 2,000 male and transgender ones from 14 states and one union territory. “Most existing surveys

'Better pay 'drives' women to prostitution'

A news story in the Times of India by Anahita Mukherji which highlights our research on sex work’s position in the labour market in India. This story was published on Labour Day, or May Day, 2011. MUMBAI: Very rarely does a survey of prostitution take into account the economics of sex work, or view it in the context of the labour market. While a detailed study of the economics of commercial sex work in the US found its way into the 2009 bestseller Superfreakonomics, two economists from Pune University have studied the same angle in perhaps the first pan-India study of prostitution. The preliminary findings of the study, conducted by Rohini Sahni and V Kalyan Shankar of the department of economics, Pune University, under the aegis of the Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalization, Sangli, were released in Mumbai on Saturday. The researchers surveyed 3,000 female sex workers and 1,355 male and transgender workers from 14 states and one Union Territory in India. The findings were released at the Gender Resource Centre run by Akshara, an organization working in the field of women’s studies. “While most surveys on prostitution treat sex workers as objects, or focus on issues such

'Saving' Children : Documentary Born into Brothels ignores local organizing efforts

This piece originally appeared in Samar 19: Spring, 2005 Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids, released theatrically in December 2004, won the 2005 Oscar for Best Documentary. The filmmakers describe their film as “A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, Born into Brothels is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes.” The film industry’s recognition of Born into Brothels should give us all pause. Rather than tell us something new about prostitutes in India, the filmmakers reiterate a very old story of heroic white westerners saving poor brown children who don’t know any better than to persist in their dead-end lives. The popularity of the film in the U.S. indicates its excellent uses of melodrama, its high production values, and its tight narrative. Unfortunately, this popularity also points to the fact that a very old and palatable tale is being told about prostitution, a tale in which prostitution and violence are synonymous, sex workers are

2007 Survey of Sexual and Reproductive Health of Sex Workers in Thailand

The Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University together with the Service Workers in Group (SWING) conducted a survey on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Sex Workers in four major cities in Thailand in 2007. The survey was structured to provide up-to-date information about sex workers regarding their socio-economic background, their access to health care, health care seeking behaviour, and their sexual and reproductive health well-being. The study found few sex workers under the age of 18. The average age of respondents in the sample was 28.3 years. 9.4 percent of respondents were under 18 when they first sold sex for money. Almost half of respondents lived alone, 65 percent had at least one child, but only twelve percent currently lived with a child. One-third of respondents had one or more secondary partners – a category in between client and partner – who generally provide financial support to the sex workers. Median monthly earnings were around four times higher than the median for women of their age and education (who did not work in the sex industry). Approximately 40 percent of women had debts of their own, and 38 percent took responsibility for debts of family members. Eighty

2011 Report of UNAIDS Advisory Group on Sex Work – GREAT NEWS

Editorial The Report of the UNAIDS Advisory Group on Sex Work has been revised. PLRI reported that, ‘The report contains some very good material as well as evidence of the compromises sex workers rights advocates must accept if they to reach consensus with UN and government agencies.’ Among other things, the report endorsed human rights abuses in several countries including forced medical procedures (which is forbidden under the Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) and confinement under curfew in brothels (Nevada). After my letter to the sex workers on the NSWP list these unacceptable aspects of the report were removed and replaced with sections compatable with the UN committment to human rights for which great credit must go to Jenny Butler the chairperson of the group and presumably other UN staffers. The question of how such a recommendation found its way in to the report, which cost several hundreds of thousand of dollars, remains unanswered. Certainly many sex workers were present at meetings of this group in Paris and Geneva. At the very least this suggests that our presence is not enough. It also suggests that the process and remit of the UNAIDS Advisory group is not fit for its expressed purpose of incorporating

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