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A Feminist Discourse Analysis of Sex `Work'

  • Ann Weatherall
    ,
  • Anna Priestley
  • Victoria University of Wellington
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Abstract

The present research investigates how explanations for sex `work', and constructions of it as a market exchange just like any other, function to reinforce and perpetuate the current shape of the sex industry in New Zealand. It also examines how key themes in feminist theories of sex work are used by participants to account for their experiences in the job. The data were from semi-structured interviews with 19 people who were working, or who had worked, in the sex industry. The sample was diverse in terms of gender and sexuality identifications. There was also diversity in the areas of sex work that had been experienced. The analysis takes a feminist discursive psychology approach that investigates the contradictions and dilemmas raised by different constructions of social objects. Insights that emerged from the analysis include that the construction of sex work as a service industry relies, in part, on the notion of an uncontrollable male sex drive; that the idea of sex work as an ordinary market exchange both highlights and hides important features of the sex industry; and that participants could account for both the violent and liberatory aspects of sex work that feature in feminist explanations.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 323-340

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Feminism and Psychology (Volume 11, Issue 3)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/08/2001

Publication status

Published - 01/08/2001

ISSN

0959-3535

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/626101
  • Scopus: 0035597493

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