In the past five years definitions and understandings of sex work have drastically changed from both changing cultural attitudes and current transnational policy concerning sex work and sex trafficking. Historically and modernly sex work and sex trafficking have been conflated with one another. The Global Network of Sex Work Projects states that “the concept of consent and understandings of exploitation in relation to sex work lie at the heart of this conflation” (Sex Work is Not Trafficking 2). The rhetoric of conflating sex work and sex trafficking stems from the fear of sex trafficking, policies to prevent trafficking, devaluing of sex work, and a fundamentally conservative conceptualization of labor. While sex trafficking affects all people, trafficking and sex work are traditionally feminized. Sex worker rights advocate this conflation is incorrect, and that sex work must be recognized for what it is: work. Through saying sex work is sex trafficking transitional policies: one, take away any sense of agency and autonomy from sex workers, and two, criminalizes sex work, which actually makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence and trafficking. I argue that the delegitimization and criminalization of sex work both limits work and economic gain available to women (especially lower-class women given sex work has a low barrier for entry) but also makes sex work inherently more unsafe for sex workers by stripping them of labor rights and protections. This definition affects how cultures consider labor and thoughts on who makes a valid citizen in a transnational world.
This is an extremely brief discussion on this topic, but sex work and sex trafficking matter within transnational feminisms because the migration of sex workers make up large transnational industries. For example, Belleau details the mail order bride industry and whether or not it can be considered ‘feminist’, and Lan deconstructs how sex, gender, labor, policy, and globalization are incredibly intertwined within law and citizenship. Both texts reflect the importance of recognizing sex work in a transnational context.
URL/Link:
Belleau, M. (2003). Mail-order brides and Canadian immigration policy. Canadian Woman Studies, 22(3), 94-103. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/docview/217465398?accountid=14846
Lan, P. (2008). Migrant Women’s Bodies as Boundary Markers: Reproductive Crisis and Sexual Control in the Ethnic Frontiers of Taiwan. Signs, 33(4), 833-861, http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/stable/10.1086/5288
Sex Work is Not Trafficking[PDF]. (2011). Edinburgh: Global Network of Sex Work Projects.
Keywords: sex work, sex trafficking, labor rights, transnational policy
Author: KB
Thank you for writing this! I found it a very educational piece that was written in an accessible way. Conflating sex work and sex trafficking is not only dangerous for sex workers, as it often results in laws like FOSTA/SESTA that limit the ways in which sex workers can safely vet clients and protect themselves; and it also is incredibly infantilizing for sex workers, especially migrant sex workers, who are often assumed to be trafficked. This is an excellent starter piece for anyone interested in diving into the frustrating and whorephobic world of international and local policies on sex work.