Sex Workers Interview With Wendy Chapkis

Chapkis, W. (2011). Sex workers: Interview with Wendy Chapkis. In S. Seidman, N. Fischer, & C. Meeks (Eds.), Introducing the new sexuality studies (2nd ed., pp. 327–333). New York: Routledge. This interview by Chapkins (2011) discusses the disunion among American feminist towards sex work and sex work differences in America and Netherlands. Firstly, women should be allowed to demand their rights as workers and decide the conditions in which they will conduct sexual engagements. Sex work is decriminalized in Netherlands hence resident sex workers have access to social welfare benefits thus implying them unlikely to be driven into sex. However, sex work is criminalized in America which prompts them to negotiate terms hastily to avoid

(2009). On becoming a male sex worker in Mysore: Sexual subjectivity, “empowerment,” and community-based HIV prevention research. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 23(2), 142–160. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1387.2009.01052.x Lorway, Reza-Paul and Pasha (2009) discovered that male sex workers in Mysore came into their occupation through a combination of gender nonconformity, unfolding sexual desires and social inductions. Their desires influenced by their sexual-gender nonconformity and social factors propelled them into sex work which also serves as a dual method of generating income and exploring their same-sex sexually desires. Thus, sex work becomes intertwined with sexual subjectivity. Their reinterpretation of ‘sex work’ has provided them with a sense of selfhood to influence public health and HIV-related researches.

Samudzi, Z., & Mannell, J. (2016). Cisgender male and transgender female sex workers in South Africa: Gender variant identities and narratives of exclusion. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 18(1), 1–14. doi:

(2015). Sex worker activism, feminist discourse and HIV in Bangladesh. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 17(6), 777–788. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2014.990516. Sultana (2015) found that sex worker activism and HIV discussions in Bangladesh through agency, in line with the feminist pro-sex work view to transform sex workers into ordinary worker have recreated the image of sex workers as vectors of HIV and has overlooked that Bengali sex workers are part of ‘broader power and community structure’ (Para. 1). Thus, choice is limited by ‘structural and discursive factors’ (Para. 30) as the agency they have asserted is strongly influenced by Bengali society’s gender and cultural norms, social pressure and the concepts of purity and pollution of body.

Yea, S. (2012). ‘Shades of grey’: Spaces in and beyond trafficking for Thai women involved in commercial sexual labour in Sydney and Singapore. Gender, Place & Culture, 19(1), 42–60. doi: