Commercial Sex Work and HIV and AIDS: An Onomastic Perspective (original) (raw)
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Understanding the dynamic nature of sex work is important for explaining the course of HIV epidemics. While health and development interventions targeting sex workers may alter the dynamics of the sex trade in particular localities, little has been done to explore how largescale social and structural changes, such as economic recessions-outside of the bounds of organizational intervention-may reconfigure social norms and attitudes with regards to sex work. Zimbabwe's economic collapse in 2009, following a period (2000-2009) of economic decline, within a declining HIV epidemic, provides a unique opportunity to study community perceptions of the impact of socio-economic upheaval on the sex trade. We conducted focus group discussions with 122 community members in rural eastern Zimbabwe in January-February 2009. Groups were homogeneous by gender and occupation and included female sex workers, married women, and men who frequented bars. The focus groups elicited discussion around changes (comparing contemporaneous circumstances in 2009 to their memories of circumstances in 2000) in the demand for, and supply of, paid sex, and how sex workers and clients adapted to these changes, and with what implications for their health and well-being. Transcripts were thematically analyzed. The analysis revealed how changing economic conditions, combined with an increased awareness and fear of HIVchanging norms and local attitudes toward sex work-had altered the demand for commercial sex. In response, sex work dispersed from the bars into the wider community, requiring female sex workers to employ different tactics to attract clients. Hyperinflation meant that sex workers had to accept new forms of payment, including sex-on-credit and commodities. Further impacting the demand for commercial sex work was a poverty-driven increase in transactional sex. The economic upheaval in Zimbabwe effectively reorganized the market PLOS ONE | Citation: Elmes J, Skovdal M, Nhongo K, Ward H, Campbell C, Hallett TB, et al. (2017) A reconfiguration of the sex trade: How social and structural changes in eastern Zimbabwe left women involved in sex work and transactional sex more vulnerable. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0171916.
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The economic and political collapse of Zimbabwe resulted in the movement of women and men beyond their borders in search of better economic opportunities. The movement of Zimbabwean women has been accompanied by an outcry in neighbouring countries about their involvement in sex work. Contrary to the sensationalised views in the media and the public health discourse, this work highlights the experiences of Zimbabwean sex workers in South Africa, to understand how they engage with discourses in sex work and sexuality given the norms and mores that govern sexuality in the African context. The aim of this study is to bring to the fore trajectories, experiences and perceptions of migrant sex workers in Johannesburg. Using postmodern feminism as a theoretical resource, the study is qualitative and employed ethnographic methods for data collection. The research was conducted in Diplomat Hotel, a hotel turned brothel on the periphery of Hillbrow, a residential area in Johannesburg. Using ob...
Building on the narratives of women selling sex in Mombasa, this article shows how the livelihoods and strategies of women who self-identify as sex workers are influenced by the discourses and activities of the NGO sector, the sex workers movement, and international tourism on the one hand, and by their struggle for survival and personal advancement on the other hand. More specifically, while the term ‘sex industries’ or ‘sex workers’ – as used by a number of local and international actors - is partly internalised by women selling sex, these terms obscure the more complicated realities of women who seek to secure income for their households.
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In Zimbabwe, as in most traditionally conservative, patriarchal and Christian dominated countries, female sex work is abhorred on moral grounds as an unbecoming means of livelihood which takes away the practising woman’s social respectability. In such societies, then, the moral threat and stigma associated with female sex work affect women’s decisions on whether or not to take up sex work as a permanent means of livelihood. One can, however, ask how sustainable and stable these patriarchally constructed notions of morality and female identity are, especially in the face of crises? This article uses Virginia Phiri’s novel Highway queen, which is set in one of Zimbabwe’s economically tumultuous eras, to demonstrate how cultural texts grapple with the discourse of female sex work in contemporary Zimbabwe. The gist of my argument is that dominant prostitute identity constructs shaped by Zimbabwe’s patriarchal social and economic system are unstable. I find that the novel Highway queen m...
Sex work and the construction of intimacies: meanings and work pragmatics in rural Malawi
This article focuses on Malawian sex workers' understandings of exchange and intimacy, showing how multiple historically emergent categories and specific work pragmatics produce specific patterns of relational meanings. As we show, sex workers make sense of their relationships with clients through two categories. The first is sex work; the second is the chibwenzi, an intimate premarital relational category that emerged from pre-colonial transformations in courtship practices. These categories, in turn, are also shaped differently in different work settings. We use narratives from in-depth interviews with 45 sex workers and bar managers in southern Malawi to describe how the everyday pragmatics of two forms of sex work-performed by "bargirls" and "freelancers"-foster distinct understandings of relationships between them and men they have sex with. Bargirls, who work and live in bars, blurred the boundaries between "regulars" and chibwenzi; freelancers, who are not tethered to a specific work environment, often subverted the meanings of the chibwenzi, presenting these relationships as both intimate and emotionally distant. Through this comparison, we thus refine an approach to the study of the intimacy-exchange nexus, and use it to capture the complexities of gender relations in post-colonial Malawi.
Sex industry and Experiences of Female Sex Workers in Ngundu, Zimbabwe
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I, Ngadhi Collen Mafira student number 16023516, hereby declare that this dissertation for the Master of Arts degree (Youth in Development) at the University of Venda, hereby submitted by me, has not been submitted previously for any degree at this or any other University, and it is my own work and execution, all reference material contained therein has been duly acknowledged. ………………………… ……………………………. Ngadhi C.M Date iii | P a g e DEDICATION This research is dedicated to my mother who fought to give us good education. I love you.
Male sex workers (MSWs) in Zimbabwe are a vulnerable sub-group at risk of violence, abuse, and HIV infection. This qualitative study examines the practices of male sex workers and vulnerabilities to HIV infection based on in-depth interviews among 15 MSWs in Bulawayo. All the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed with the guidance of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 2017). The transcripts were translated by the interviewer into English using NVivo 11.0 software for coding and analysis. The MSWs interviewed reported diverse backgrounds in sexual orientation and life situations, plus a variety of work settings, income levels and access to clients. Due to the illegal nature of sex work and the stigma of homosexuality, practices in the sex trade are often hidden and subtle to avoid exposure to the police. Some develop romantic relationships with regular clients, but more typically they suffer abuse, violence, and the threat of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Most Zimbabwean MSWs are ill-informed and underestimate their vulnerability of HIV. The stigmatization and criminalization of homosexuality in Zimbabwe creates an environment where it is difficult for MSWs to protect themselves through consistent condom use and access to basic HIV prevention and care services. Keywords: HIV infection, male sex workers, HIV risks, stigmatization, Zimbabwe
Sex Work and HIV/AIDS: The Violence of Stigmatization
Working with women in prostitution and sex-work for the past eight years in the HIV/AIDS prevention programme has helped address our own double standards and bias while dealing with issues related to sexuality and prostitution. As our involvement with the women we worked with deepened, our beliefs, ideas and notions about prostitution and women in prostitution underwent a sea-change. Our perception of prostitution as 'exploitation, victimisation, oppression, loose, immoral, illegal', was shaken to the core. Indeed, it was not merely our ideas and beliefs that had to be questioned and reformulated but even the very use of language to describe the women had to be transformed. 'Whore', 'harlot', 'veshya'-have been used as abuses for the 'fallen woman'-the subject of much public discourse. We have tried to help reclaim some of the terminology, and assert identities with positive meaning. We revised our vocabulary to weed out words that reinforce the stigmatisation and marginalisation of women in prostitution. Besides, we realised that the terminology used for generations by mainstream society to refer to `the fallen woman' was more often than not derogatory, within the moral space of sacredness. The need to reclaim womanhood also became necessary since this sanctified moral space refused to acknowledge the fact that the very identity (of being a woman) was obliterated by the ` whore, harlot, veshya' image. Hence, the importance of the use of terminology like 'women in prostitution' instead of the commonly used term 'prostitute'. Women who practise prostitution use the term 'women in business' while referring to themselves. Now after much discussion among ourselves we have adopted the term People in Prostitution and Sex-work [PPS] to include all persons who `make money out of sex'. This paper attempts to explore the Violence of Stigmatisation that refuses to accept the reality of women-in-prostitution and sex work. This paper is discussed within community-based prostitution and sex work as experienced in the Indian context. In recent years this community has been fighting for a voice in all the debates about prostitution and sex work. The "Fallen Woman" through History The 'loose woman' has been the subject of much public discourse and debate, academic writing and policy making. Several perspectives have been articulated. On one end of the spectrum is the view that prostitutes are victims of female sexual slavery. Kathleen Barry, for instance has elaborated on the manner in which prostitution is inherently violent, whether women are kidnapped, purchased,
Sex work-based livelihoods in post 2000 in Zimbabwe
Africa Review, 2019
The paper examines the role sex work played as a livelihood opportunity for women to meet short and long term needs. Post 2000 Zimbabwe underwent a major socioeconomic crisis which culminated in world record inflation rates, widespread poverty, high unemployment, food and cash shortages. This culminated in 2008 where the country suspended its currency and adopted a multi-currency system with the American dollar gaining prominence as the mode of exchange. Sex work has a long history in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe but post 2000 period requires a nuanced analysis of how this livelihood activity has evolved in response to the ever-changing macroeconomic context. Participant observation and unstructured interviews with female sex workers point towards their ability to actively respond to macroeconomic changes. Agency demonstrated by sex workers characterizes how they adjusted through the context of crisis and hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. The findings point to an increased inflow of income for sex workers which have translated to an improved livelihood despite poor working conditions which are reinforced by criminalization and penalization of sex work in Zimbabwe. The paper thus argues that sex work is an occupational sector with participants who make rational choices in joining sex work.