Prostitution, Power, and FreedomProstitution, Power and Freedom brings new insights to the ongoing debate among scholars, activists, and others on the controversial subject of prostitution. Sociologist Julia O'Connell Davidson's concise, accessibly-written study is based on wide research from various corners of the world. The study employs a range of theoretical analyses and argues against simplistic explanations of the prostitution phenomenon, showing it to be a complex relationship where economics, power relations, gender, age, class, and "choice" intersect. The author has conducted an impressive amount of research in nine countries, including conversations with male and female sex tourists, adult and child prostitutes, procurers, and clients. Through her research, O'Connell Davidson demonstrates the complexity of prostitution, arguing that it is not simply an effect of male oppression and violence or insatiable sexual needs, nor is it an unproblematic economic encounter. The book provides a sophisticated explanation of the economic and political inequalities underlying prostitution, but also shows that while prostitution necessarily implies certain freedoms for the clients, the amount of freedom experienced by individual prostititutes varies greatly. This highly accessible book will be of great interest to those in gender and women's studies, sexuality and cultural studies, the sociology of work and organizations, and social policy. General readers will also appreciate having new ways of thinking about this age-old social phenomenon. Julia O'Connell Davidson is Lecturer in Sociology, University of Leicester. |
Contents
Introduction | |
Methodology | |
Definitions and book structure | |
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY | 3 |
Power Consent and Freedom | 5 |
The faces of power | 6 |
Brothels as business enterprises | 8 |
Power oppression the subject and the law | 25 |
Narratives of Power and Exclusion | 106 |
Imaginary communities | 115 |
Otherness objectification and desire | 124 |
Eroticizing Prostitute Use | 128 |
Fucking dirty whores | 130 |
Eroticizing the prostitute as phallic woman | 138 |
Tarts with hearts and sexual healers | 141 |
Secrets and lies | 144 |
Patterns of Pimping | 32 |
Towards a definition of pimping | 35 |
some general remarks | 48 |
Independent Street Prostitution | 51 |
Children and independent street prostitution | 57 |
Independent Prostitution and Tourism | 64 |
Informal touristrelated prostitution | 66 |
Parasites paradise | 72 |
Power and Freedom at the Apex of the Prostitution Hierarchy | 78 |
Power and control within transactions | 81 |
The sources of control | 90 |
Choice and power | 93 |
PROSTITUTION AND THE EROTICIZATION OF SOCIAL DEATH | 97 |
Introduction | 99 |
The contradictions of clienting | 148 |
Through Western Eyes Honour Gender and Prostitute Use | 153 |
Ritual reinscriptions | 155 |
The pursuit of honour | 159 |
The case of female sex tourism | 170 |
Contradictions and constraints | 173 |
Diversity Dialectics and Politics | 179 |
Collective political action | 180 |
Policy debate and political strategies | 186 |
Moral blame | 196 |
Notes | 201 |
References | 205 |
Index | 215 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abuse adult and/or argue bar fine body brothel keepers brothel owners brothel prostitution child prostitutes countries Cuba custom debt bondage demand Desiree Desiree's dirty whores discourses domination clients Dominican Republic economic ECPAT emotional erotic eroticize example exchange exercise experience fact female sex tourists feminists freedom fuck gender girls heterosexual honour hostess clubs human human sexual idea identity individual interviewed involved in prostitution kind labour London male masculinity massage parlours means migrant nomic non-prostitute women O'Connell Davidson organized Pateman person physical pimping police political powers of command prosti prostitute users prostitute women prostitute-client prostitute's prostitution contract racism rape receptionist red-light districts relations relationship risk Routledge Sánchez Taylor sense sexual command sexual exploitation sexually objectified slave social street prostitution surplus Thailand third party tion titutes transactions tutes violence vulnerable wage wage labour Western woman workers