resource

Sex Workers Retirement Home in Mexico

A retirement home for elderly former and current prostitutes has been established in the Teptio neighborhood of Mexico. Casa Xochiquetzal, The House of the Beautiful Flowers, is located in one of the most dangerous parts of the city. It was named after the Goddess of Beauty and Sexual Love. According to Rosalba Rio, director of the house, women must be at least 60-years-old to reside in Casa Xochiquetzal. It can accommodate up to 45 women. They currently care for 23 elderly former and current sex workers. Living in Casa Xochiquetzal does not prohibit these women from working. Most of the elderly

What is a representative sex worker?

The claim that the sex workers’ rights movement is a purely white, western phenomenon is one of abolitionism’s biggest falsehoods. In fact, Global South sex workers could teach their Northern counterparts a thing or two when it comes to organising for sex workers’ rights. Here is a videoclip of sex workers in Sonagachi, Calcutta, marching against criminalisation of their industry. Here is a photo of members of the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers holding a banner with their slogan, “Don’t talk to me about sewing machines. Talk to me about workers’ rights” (a reference to their annoyance at “rescuers” whose

Long term virological, immunological and mortality outcomes in a cohort of HIV-infected female sex workers treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy in Africa

Article in BMC Public Health 2011, 11:700. Background Concerns have been raised that marginalised populations may not achieve adequate compliance to antiretroviral therapy. Our objective was to describe the long-term virological, immunological and mortality outcomes of providing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with strong adherence support to HIV-infected female sex workers (FSWs) in Burkina Faso and contrast outcomes with those obtained in a cohort of regular HIV-infected women. Methods Prospective study of FSWs and non-FSWs initiated on HAART between August 2004 and October 2007. Patients were followed monthly for drug adherence (interview and pill count), and at 6-monthly intervals for

The “Can Do” Sex Worker Collective

Heavy-handed comments have been thrown around labeling Thailand as the “brothel of the world,” or “Disneyland for men.” Of course, there are no official figures as to the total number of sex workers in Thailand, but a moderate figure from Thai analysts puts the number at 15,000-22,000 women (with a very small portion consisting of men.) As such, Thailand has a very strong reputation for being a nation with a massive amount of prostitution and sex trafficking. In the northernmost city of Chiang Mai, there are many restaurants, venues, and bars that cater to the pleasures of both tourists and

‘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

Combating trafficking in sex work sites‐Durbar’s successes and challenges

Durbar, (a sex worker group in Kolkata,) has been carrying out Anti ‐trafficking programme through “Self Regulatory Board”(SRB)‐ a community led structure. The concept of SRB was mooted during 1997 at the All India Conference of sex worker held at Kolkata. Over the years, there has been a steady increase in DMSC’s anti located in different sex work sites of Kolkata and the remaining 25 are spread over the West Bengal Read more about how empowered sex workers can address trafficking. Theme: Human Rights and Law Bulletin9[1].pdf

Prevalence of HIV and STIs and Associated Risk Factors Among Female Sex Workers in Guangdong Province, China

An article in the J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Volume 53, Supplement 1, February 1, 2010. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and associated factors among female sex workers (FSWs) in Guangdong, China. Methods: Respondent-driven sampling was used to recruit 320 FSWs. The recruited participants were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire and tested for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, and Chlamydia. Results: The prevalence of syphilis, gonorrhea, and Chlamydia were 8.0% (4.6%–12.2%), 9.5% (5.6%–14.3%), and 3.9% (1.7%–6.2%), respectively, and of any STIs was 19.7% (13.9%–26.2%). None of the participants were HIV positive. The median number of clients

Violence against sex workers is prevalent in Cambodia with customers and the police often the perpetrators

Passed to protect women, the 2008 law on human trafficking and sexual exploitation has been used by authorities to justify the harassment and abuse of sex workers. But, Cambodian sex workers say it’s now time to demand their rights.Hundreds are gathered in the capital of Phnom Penh.They are clapping loudly as the host welcomes the first day of 16 days of activism against gender violence.They are wearing white shirts with the slogan: “United we can end violence against women and bring the peace.” Theme: Human Rights and Law WNU Anti Violence Protest 2011.doc

Action research with sex workers: Dismantling barriers and building bridges

Conventional sex work research has tended to pathologize women in the sex industry by studying them as victims who lack the ability to make informed decisions about their lives and their work. Radical feminist research in particular has been successful in affecting public discourses, policy debates, and research agendas in this regard. While sex workers themselves contradict and critique conventional social science and radical feminist research, rarely are their voices heard and rarely have they been included in research processes. Given this context, it is not uncommon for sex workers to refuse to engage in research studies unless they are

Challenging the stigmatization of female sex workers through a community-led structural intervention: learning from a case study of a female sex worker intervention in Andhra Pradesh, India

Article in AIDS Care, 22: S2, 1629 — 1636. Structural interventions represent a potentially powerful approach to HIV prevention among female sex workers (FSW) that focus on changing the social context of risk rather than individual behavior. Community-led structural interventions (CLSI) represent a particular form of structural interventions whereby the collective energy of FSW is directed toward action to address the contextual factors that promote their risk. Among these different contextual factors that may be the target of CLSI, are social norms that stigmatize FSW and their work. Drawing from ethnographic data collected as part of an ongoing analysis of

Keyword search