ABSTRACT

Reconfiguring Stigma in Studies of Sex for Sale is about the production and effects of stigma in sex work or prostitution with contributions from four continents and different disciplines that taken together explore how such stigma is conditioned by differences in time, place, citizenship, gender, sexuality, class and race.

Stigma is about relationships between people and also sets an interpretative frame whereby people understand and react to situations and actions, and the book is developed and organized to investigate this from various angles. It presents empirical studies that build on and expand the scholarship on stigma and sex work. This means that it contributes to a more complex understanding of stigma in sex work studies. Further, by using the example of sew work to explore how we can best understand the production and consequences of stigma, the book makes a contribution that is relevant for all scholars who work on stigma and stigmatization.

The book is intended for academic audiences interested in sex work or prostitution, on the one hand, and stigmatization, on the other. It is also intended for students in a broad range of disciplines, as well as for practitioners and activists who encounter or work with stigmatization or stigmatized populations.

chapter Chapter 1|16 pages

Reconfiguring stigma in sex work studies and beyond

Putting relationality to work

part I|61 pages

Relationality from above

chapter Chapter 2|18 pages

From social deviant to equal citizen?

Stigma and the decriminalization of sex work in New Zealand

chapter Chapter 3|20 pages

Problematizing the ‘prostitution problem’ in Ethiopia

The stigmatization of sex workers through moral discourses and their representations

chapter Chapter 4|21 pages

Prostitution and the politics of respectability

Sex work, stigma and representations of the Other

part II|57 pages

Relationality from in between

chapter Chapter 5|18 pages

Sex work activism and intersectionality

The role of stigma in uniting sex workers

chapter Chapter 6|20 pages

Struggling with stigma

Public recognition as a double-edged sword among organized sex workers in Denmark

chapter Chapter 7|17 pages

Knowing who is a ‘hustler’

Stigmatization in service providers' first talks in Germany

part III|66 pages

Relationality from below

chapter Chapter 8|15 pages

Reconfiguring sexuality and stigma

Perspectives of North American women in street-based sex work

chapter Chapter 10|16 pages

The lady and the tramp

Management of stigma in the Nevada brothel