16 Days Campaign: The stigmatisation of sex
workers
Pambazuka News 279 Feature
By Nicole Fick
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During the 16 days of activism campaign to end violence against
women and children, some thought needs to be given to adult sex
workers, who experience violence on a number of levels: from
police, agency bosses, clients and on a domestic level like
other women. Sex workers are isolated and stigmatised and this
prevents them from being able to access the protection services
of the police. It also means that law enforcement agencies often
discriminate against sex workers, denying them assistance when
they experience violence and crime.
Stigma can be defined as a brand, a mark of shame or a stain on
one's character. Social stigmatisation of an act entails severe
disapproval from society for behaviour that is considered to be
outside the bounds of social
norms.
The normative message that society has traditionally given to
women is that sex is only acceptable within marriage or at least
within a significant relationship. [1] This message can be
understood as part of society's attempt to keep women's
sexuality controlled within the bounds of marriage. Sexual
relationships that do not occur within marriage, or at least
within a committed relationship, are seen as deviating from this
social norm. The further a relationship is from the norm-setting
nuclear family the more likely it is to be categorised as
"abnormal".
Thus, for example, unmarried heterosexual couples are still
close enough to this norm to be considered nominally acceptable,
while homosexual relationships fall further outside of the norm
and are thus often seen as "suspect". Sex with a
stranger, as part of an economic transaction, is as far away
from the norm as you can get.[2]
Selling sex is thus seen as "abnormal" and therefore
morally wrong and sex workers as a group are stigmatised.[3] It
is significant, however, that the resultant "whore"
stigma does not only apply to sex workers and is often attached
to any woman that is sexually assertive or seen as impure or
unchaste.[4] Gail Pheterson speaks of the "whore"
stigma as a stigma that aims to silence and degrade those that
it targets, emphasising their "shameful differentness".
This stigma also prevents women from "freely exploring,
experiencing and naming their own sexuality for fear of being
called a whore".[5] The sex workers in this study spoke of
their "shameful differentness" and of their own
experience of feeling stigmatised.
"I don't think anyone is born a prostitute, so I think at
any given time, doesn't matter whether she has been brought up
ill treated or abused or whatever, she never actually has that
image in her mind of her doing that you know... because society
condemns it... you still look in the mirror and you still know
that you are inevitably you are still selling your body for
money... so you have got inner conflict already you know trying
to lift your spirit and not breaking yourself down."
"I know that people believe - that there's that perception
out there - that prostitutes are filthy."
For one participant one of the main things that she finds
difficult about her work is coming to understand what she does
and justifying it to herself. Another participant spoke of her
feelings of guilt after having been with a client and how it
makes one question one's worth as a person:
"You have all got a conscience and conscience means that
you will, that after you have been with a client you obviously
will feel dirty. You feel like am I worth this or whatever?
Especially, especially when how the clients, some of the clients
do treat you ..... You will finish a booking, sometimes when you
have finished a booking you just have to get out."
At the same time, one of the participants speaks articulately
about how being involved in sex work allowed her to think more
critically about this kind of stigma and how she has started to
explore her own sexuality:
"I've come to terms with my own sexuality, I think. I've
definitely sort of realised that it is just, well in my opinion,
a physical act of pleasure. It's OK for a woman to actually
enjoy sex. There I've grown in leaps and bounds, but just coming
from ... a conservative upbringing, you know as a woman you are
brought up not to sleep around. And then you're a slut and a
whore and so on..."
Consequences of stigma
The way in which the participants quoted above speak about
themselves illustrates how stigma can sometimes become
internalised. Often the perceptions that others have of us can
become the perceptions that we have of ourselves. Resisting the
internalisation of these derogatory perceptions is difficult and
it can be easier just to accept these insulting labels than to
challenge them.[6]
Persons engaged in sex work are often blamed for social problems
or perceived as victims.[7] Some of the myths and stereotypes
that exist about sex workers are that they are dirty and spread
disease, that they all come from dysfunctional families, that
they all abuse drugs and alcohol, that sex work is always
associated with or the cause of other crimes, or that sex
workers are women that need a sexual outlet.
Participants in the study use some of these stereotypes to
describe themselves when they talk about themselves as
"dirty", or when they make the assumption that sex
workers come from families where they are ill treated and
sexually abused. They also expressed their awareness of the
condemnation of society, as well as their own feelings of guilt
and self blame for doing the work they do:
"I think it's sort of coming to understand or justifying
what you do. And then sort of coming to terms with it. And
forgiving yourself or you can sugarcoat it any which way you
like, and justify it as much as you can, but it still is what it
is, you know."
"... many a times we feel down and... we feel broken
because of the type of business we're in..." "They
just, we all just feel that we are not, we are not good enough,
you know, and that makes you just let yourself go. I know I've
let myself go... I just felt I wasn't worthy of anybody..."
Participants in the study also spoke about experiencing feelings
of guilt and self-judgment, particularly when they had just
started doing sex work. A number of researchers describe this
internalised stigma as one of the worst dangers that people
engaged in sex work face and they assert that it is mainly
stigma that causes psychological distress for sex workers.[8]
One participant describes this experience as follows:
"What I really find difficult is the stigma, the stigma
that gets attached to you, by society. They don't understand
why, and people... That's the thing that I find the worst is the
stigma of the work."
Some of the psychological consequences of internalised stigma
are difficulties with self-esteem, feelings of shame, despair
and powerlessness.[9] A participant in the study spoke of people
she works with who become depressed as a result of the stigma
attached to the work and who then use drugs as a means of
escape:
"Yes there is, self esteem, just because you're in the
industry, you don't, yes this is probably the last thing that a
lot of people will consider doing, okay... As we feel dirty when
we have been with a client, some of my colleagues, or ex
colleagues that actually went into a depression. Like in the
sense of, this is not really for me and, and their way is also
to cut it off, doing like abuse in order for you to escape from
what you are doing..."
Research has shown that one of the main strategies employed by
sex workers to cope with stigma is distancing. One of the
distancing techniques used by some sex workers is to avoid
referring to what they do directly, referring to it as
"working" and never directly mentioning the sexual
aspect of their work.[10]
This has also been our experience, with some sex workers
preferring to speak of themselves as "working girls"
rather than "sex workers", thereby distancing
themselves from the sexual nature of the work they do in the way
that they speak about the work.
Most of the women we work with also use a pseudonym as their
working name. Taking on a different name when working is another
distancing strategy that allows sex workers to separate their
identity when working from their private selves. A sex worker
interviewed in Campbell's study explains it in this way:
"My street name is not the name I take home with me. At
home I am just an ordinary person like my name is..." [11]
Participants in this research also spoke of keeping their work
identity and their home identity separate from each other.
"Ek is nie 'n hoer nie. Hierbinne doen ek my werk. As ek
buitekant toe gaan, is ek 'n hele 'different' tipe mens. Ek vat
nie eers 'n man se nommer buite nie..."
[I am not a 'whore'. I do my work here inside this place. When I
go outside, I am a totally different person. I don't even take a
man's number outside this place...]
When people are stigmatised for doing something, it is natural
for them to attempt to hide the activity or the attribute for
which they are being stigmatised and to attempt to pass as
"normal".[12] But hiding is not always effective as a
strategy to cope with stigma. Passing for "normal"
requires constant alertness to ensure that you don't expose
yourself and so can create additional anxiety and isolation.
Although our experience at SWEAT shows that some sex workers are
open about the work they do, many hide the nature of their work.
Eleven of the seventeen participants in this research spoke
about the difficulty of keeping the work they do a secret from
family and friends as well as more generally in their everyday
interactions. A participant in the study indicated that hiding
the work she does is important to protect her children, who are
still at school, from stigma.
"No one knows I do this work. First of all, it's like, when
I leave this house, it's like I've got my own life
outside."
"Nobody knows in the community that I am doing this kind of
a job..."
"Difficulties in my personal life, is basically the fact
that we have to lie about this. And people do start asking
questions. It gets a bit tough..."
"No. We don't actually describe this work to people. You
lie."
"And some people say, what type of work do you do and then
you feel a little afraid to say, no, I'm a sex worker and then
you just say, I work under (name of an organisation)... Do you
understand? And because you don't want to have people looking
down on you..."
Participants also spoke of their constant worry and anxiety that
someone they know will find out about the work that they do:
"... hoping that your parents doesn't find out, friends
doesn't find out, that kind of thing, you know."
"Other things worrying me, is basically people coming in
here that may know me or my family. Probably one of the main
things..."
"So you're always lying and making up excuses... 'Where you
going?' 'I'm going to work.' ...especially with your friends as
well, when they wanna drop you off at work. Now you have to let
them drop you at the hotel. And then you have to walk, always
check, not actually running yet. Hoping no one's gonna see
you."
This was confirmed by participants in the study who spoke of
their fear that a member of their family would drive past while
they were standing in the road, working. Those working at
agencies said that they worried about their boyfriend walking in
at the agency where they work. This constant need for subterfuge
can have an isolating effect on sex workers.
One participant indicated that she purposefully doesn't initiate
contact with people in order to avoid having to constantly lie
or to deceive them about what she does.
"You don't allow someone in your life. I cut most of my
friends, most of my family. And of course it's not something ...
You can't explain where you're going, you can't make friends
when you're in this business. There's always lying, deceiving.
And I don't like that, that you can't. So while you're in this
business you're actually very cut off from the world and people.
You don't really actually make friends or allow people, as you
would if you weren't in the business. I love making friends, but
you just don't. You actually reflect being a bad friend or, but
you're not really, you just don't know how to tell them, or you
don't want to tell them, or you think they won't be able to
handle it, so you don't go there. You just avoid friendships at
all costs."
Participants spoke of the kinds of stresses that the hidden
nature of their work also places on their personal
relationships. Two participants spoke about difficulties with
trust in their personal relationships:
"Yes. I guess because we've both been in the industry, and
we know the emotional stress that it leaves behind, in the
personal relationships, it kind of messes you around.
Trusting-wise. That kind of thing." "You struggle
trusting men... As you should. Also standing behind the door as
well you know... if you understand what I mean. You're doing
something that you don't actually want other people to know.
Therefore they can't trust you 100% and therefore you won't
trust them 100% because you are deceiving them in the first
place."
Difficulties were also experienced by participants in hiding
what they do from their intimate partner although, as one
participant says, it is a difficult situation to cope with,
whether your partner knows about the work you do or not:
"I think that every girl that works in this industry that
has either families that know about it or has a partner, and if
the partner knows about it, it makes it even worse. I think it
makes it difficult if the partner doesn't know about it. Because
then you sort of, you've got to watch what you do, your times,
you know the whole story. And I've got such empathy for them. I
can imagine it's like not easy at all. And if you have a partner
that knows about it, there's always, always little fights and
tiffs and things like that."
Sometimes hiding the work they do makes it very complicated for
sex workers to manage their personal and social lives. For one
participant this means planning her social life in order to keep
the people in her life who know of the work she does completely
separate from those who do not know:
"I don't have any friends of the past that have stayed in
my life that I've kept this from... Friends that don't know are
the friends that I've met while I'm in the industry. And that
gets a bit tricky because then you have to start lying about
what you do, your working hours, where you're working, what do
you do, that kind of stuff. So that's a bit tricky. ... Try not
to intermingle the friends because then everybody's got to be on
their toes and nobody really, everybody likes to relax. Say if I
go out and have a braai or something I'll only invite the
friends that know, what each other do cause it's ... more
relaxed."
Managing a life where you hide the work you do is not only
stressful, but it also makes it more difficult to use normal
sources of social support like family or friends if you have a
problem or something that you need to talk about.[13] A
participant in this study spoke of not being able to share even
day-to-day difficulties with family or friends:
"In sex work even the girls downstairs in the street, some
of them don't have some people to speak to... Because obviously
their family doesn't know what they're doing, and you can't
actually go and speak to your mother regarding what happened at
work, as if you've got sort of a normal job... So you can't go
to your mother, oh this happened on the streets today. I'm sure
she will chuck you out of your, out of the house."
-- This is an extract from a report by Nicole Fick of the
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce entitled
"Coping with stigma, discrimination and violence: Sex
Workers talk about their experiences". The full report is
available on
www.sweat.org.za : http://www.sweat.org.za/docs/coping.pdf
-- Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
or comment online at
www.pambazuka.org
References
[1] Goffman, 1968; Pheterson, 1998)
[2] Augustin, 2001
[3] Alexander, 1998
[4] Pheterson, 1998
[5] Alexander, 1998: 184
[6] Erikson, Butters, McGillcuddy & Halgren, 2000
[7] Erikson et al, 2000; Pheterson, 1998
[8] Erikson et al, 2000; Vanwesenbeeck, 2001; Benoit &
Millar, 2001
[9] Goffman, 1968; Moane, 2003[10] Campbell, 2000
[11] Campbell, 2000[12] Goffman, 1968
[13] El Bassel cited in Vanwesenbeeck, 2001
Original link: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/38524
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