The Subject of Prostitution: Sex/Work, Law and Social Theory

Description

The Subject of Prostitutionoffers a distinctive analysis of the links between prostitution and social theory in order to advance a critical analysis of the relationship of law to sex work. Using the lens of social theory to disrupt fixed meanings the book provides an advanced analytical framework through which to understand the complexity and contingencies of sex work in late-modernity. The book analyses contemporary citizenship discourse and the law's ability to meet the competing demands of empowerment by sex workers and protection by radical feminists who view prostitution as the epitome of patriarchal sexual and economic relations. Its central focus is the role of law in both structuring and responding to the 'problem of prostitution'. By developing a distinctive constitutive approach to law, the author offers a more advanced analytical framework from which to understand how law matters in contemporary debates and also suggests how law could matter in more imaginative justice reforms. This is particularly pertinent in a period of unprecedented legal reform, both internationally and nationally, as legal norms simultaneously attempt to protect, empower and criminalise parties involved in the purchase of sexual services. The Subject of Prostitutionaims to overcome the current aporia in these debates and suggest new ways to engage with the subject and law. As such, The Subject of Prostitutionprovides an advanced theoretical resource for policy makers, researchers and activists involved in contemporary struggles over the meanings and place of sex work in late modernity. Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements 1 The subject of prostitution: an introduction Overview Introduction Regulatory responses Prohibitionism, abolitionism and neo-abolitionism Regulationism Decriminalisation Political and analytical stalemate An enduring legal formalism Does law matter? Methodology – a new analytic of legal power A constitutive approach Structure of the book: a selective genealogy of prostitution 2 The prostitute subject as a metaphor of modernity: from sin to social problem Introduction: frameworks of understanding: from theories of social control to a governmental approach Moral panic Limitations of the model Prostitution as a ‘sinful problem’ Prostitution as a social problem: the modern subject of prostitution The science of prostitution Acton Regulation Regulationism The Contagious Diseases Acts The legacy of repeal Maternal feminism Colonial dynamics The legal legacy: how law matters Enduring legal power The politics of protection The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 (An Act to make Further Provision for the Protection of Women and Girls, the Suppression of Brothels and other Purposes) Conclusion – the modernist legacy Endnote 3 The object of prostitution and the pathological ‘punter’: problematising the purchase of sex in the twenty-first century Introduction The Swedish context: national integrity, the spectre of trafficking and fear of the foreign A weak liberal tradition The patriarchal subject of prostitution: radical feminist discourse and the women’s movement in Sweden An official Swedish sexuality A radical feminist imaginary The client as deviant: the original of the species Origin of the species: the constitution of the client Four hundred thousand Swedish perverts Assessing abolitionism Exporting abolitionism: understanding policy transfers ‘Creeping abolitionism in the UK’ Protecting women Analysing abolitionism: beyond binaries/good vs. bad Punishing bad men in the name of gender equality? Equality and punishing bad men? Making women safer? Being outside Victims Exiting Governance feminism: the politics of protectionism Conclusion 4 The prostitute as a rights-bearing subject Introduction The emergence of sex worker discourse: or a brief and selective history of sex workers’ rights The origins of ‘liberal’ sex workers’ rights Unionisation The promises of sex workers’ rights Rights’ challenge stigma Feminists in exile: rights offer a counterpoint to homogenising victimisation discourse Rights challenge criminalisation and highlight the structural role of law The problem with rights Rights can cut both ways Rights as instrument effects Rights as regulatory regimes The problem of sex workers’ rights: claiming rights as a repressed, marginalised sexual minority Too much sex? The problem of sex workers’ rights: sex work: work like any other? Failure of a movement or the perennial problem with rights? The limits of market mainstreaming More than just work? Too much work? Limitations of the ‘work’ model The regulatory dimension of sex workers’ rights Decriminalisation and self-governance: the Netherlands Decriminalisation: New Zealand Conclusion 5 Reconstructing the subject of prostitution Introduction Critical engagements with the subject: consent Engaging with law strategically – being remade in law Thinking beyond consent: moving beyond the Hamlet question Critical engagements with the subject: reconfiguring rights A critical, ambivalent affirmation of rights Liminal subjects: sex workers’ rights to have rights Sex workers’ rights as anti-humanist rights Getting rights to work Constituting subjects: Canada (Attorney General) vs. Bedford Analysis: not binary but multivocality Freedom of expression Security of person Rights and multivocality Rights, redistribution and recognition: DMSC and precarious workers’ rights Conclusion A final point on empiricism 6 Conclusion: moving beyond the subject of prostitution Moving beyond the modern subject of prostitution Beyond binaries – reviving the feminist subject Moving beyond the subject Epilogue A vacant chair for an inessential subject Bibliography Index