ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impacts of prostitution on women's relationship with the body, drawing on key themes from life story interviews with a small sample of women from the United Kingdom (UK), and images created with women on the theme of body and self. Emotions associated with prostitution in the life story interviews and 'My Body Myself' arts workshops were, for the most part, identical to those used by women to describe the legacies of sexual abuse and violence: shame, guilt, hating the body, blame and alienation from the self. The chapter describes the theme of depersonalization cuts across women's experiences and explores through the lived experience of the body. It focuses on how women who participated in the research experienced and expressed disruption to their embodied sense of self. This chapter also explores the methodological approaches involving participatory arts, pioneered by Maggie O'Neill and used in the research to explore and present women's experiences.
