Entrepreneurial reproductive labor as alternative economic practice: The ambivalent discourse of seasonal consignment sales

Bryson, Alexis; Dempsey, Sarah E.

doi:10.1177/1350508417713214

“…This work critiques binaries between productive/reproductive labor, formal/informal market and challenges assumptions organizational communication implicitly or explicitly makes about what constitutes organizing/organization (Bhattacharya, 2017; Federici, 2012). For me, this rich tradition challenges notions of what counts as work as well as the status of “alternative” economies (Bryson & Dempsey, 2017). What would a greater engagement with theories of social reproduction and reproductive labor look like within feminist organizational communication?…”

Section: Imagining Feminist Futuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Envisioning More Equitable and Just Futures: Feminist Organizational Communication in Theory and Praxis

Linabary

¹

,

Cruz

²

,

Allen

³

et al. 2020

Management Communication Quarterly

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“…44 In celebratory discourses of momepreneurship, "women are simultaneously hailed as resourceful providers, reliable micro-entrepreneurs, [and] cosmopolitan citizens" efficiently navigating the 44 The term was popularized in 2006 with the launch of Mompreneursonline.com, a networking forum that quickly saw traffic of up to seven million visitors a month (Maritz & Thongprovati, 2010). Since then, the term has appeared with increasing frequency in magazines, websites, books, and in academic articles (Bryson & Dempsey, 2017;Carrigan & Duberley, 2013;Jean & Forbes, 2012). business world according to capitalist market logics while devoting copious amounts of time to mothering (Hawkesworth, 2006, as cited in Cornwall, et al 2008.…”

Section: Contexts: History Popular Culture Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Marked Woman : The New Sex Worker in American Popular Culture, 2006-2016

Kirshner¹

2022

Preprint

0

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This dissertation argues that between 2006 and 2016, in a context of rising tolerance for sex workers, economic shifts under neoliberal capitalism, and the normalization of transactional intimate labour, popular culture began to offer new and humanizing images of the sex worker as an entrepreneur and care worker. This new popular culture legitimatizes sex workers in a growing services industry and carries important de-stigmatizing messages about sex workers, who continue to be among the most stigmatized of women workers in the U.S. These new representations challenge stereotypical portrayals of sex workers – as immoral criminals or exploited victims – that support conservative and patriarchal ideologies. Drawing upon feminist theories of sex work, labour theory, and feminist media studies methodology for exploring the nexus of gender, sexuality, and popular culture, this dissertation examines feature films, TV series, and TV and online documentaries that depict five sex work occupations – erotic dancers, massage parlour workers, webcam models, call girls, and sex surrogates – to illustrate the new figure of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker under neoliberal capitalism. By emphasizing sex workers’ agency to choose their work, dignifying their skills, underscoring sex work as a means of economic mobility, and highlighting the positive contributions sex workers make to their clients’ lives, these popular culture representations challenge the anti-sex work position espoused by conservative patriarchal ideology and prohibitionist feminists. Some of these new representations, however, intertwine with a neoliberal post-feminist sensibility that frames empowerment as realizable through individualism and the market alone, rather than in collective ways, and pose few concrete solutions to the challenges faced by sex workers today, namely criminalization. Even so, this dissertation argues that these emerging twenty-first century representations of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker are progressive and mark a growing social tolerance for the idea that, for some women, sex work is legitimate work.

show abstract

“…44 In celebratory discourses of momepreneurship, "women are simultaneously hailed as resourceful providers, reliable micro-entrepreneurs, [and] cosmopolitan citizens" efficiently navigating the 44 The term was popularized in 2006 with the launch of Mompreneursonline.com, a networking forum that quickly saw traffic of up to seven million visitors a month (Maritz & Thongprovati, 2010). Since then, the term has appeared with increasing frequency in magazines, websites, books, and in academic articles (Bryson & Dempsey, 2017;Carrigan & Duberley, 2013;Jean & Forbes, 2012). business world according to capitalist market logics while devoting copious amounts of time to mothering (Hawkesworth, 2006, as cited in Cornwall, et al 2008.…”

Section: Contexts: History Popular Culture Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Marked Woman : The New Sex Worker in American Popular Culture, 2006-2016

Kirshner¹

2022

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This dissertation argues that between 2006 and 2016, in a context of rising tolerance for sex workers, economic shifts under neoliberal capitalism, and the normalization of transactional intimate labour, popular culture began to offer new and humanizing images of the sex worker as an entrepreneur and care worker. This new popular culture legitimatizes sex workers in a growing services industry and carries important de-stigmatizing messages about sex workers, who continue to be among the most stigmatized of women workers in the U.S. These new representations challenge stereotypical portrayals of sex workers – as immoral criminals or exploited victims – that support conservative and patriarchal ideologies. Drawing upon feminist theories of sex work, labour theory, and feminist media studies methodology for exploring the nexus of gender, sexuality, and popular culture, this dissertation examines feature films, TV series, and TV and online documentaries that depict five sex work occupations – erotic dancers, massage parlour workers, webcam models, call girls, and sex surrogates – to illustrate the new figure of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker under neoliberal capitalism. By emphasizing sex workers’ agency to choose their work, dignifying their skills, underscoring sex work as a means of economic mobility, and highlighting the positive contributions sex workers make to their clients’ lives, these popular culture representations challenge the anti-sex work position espoused by conservative patriarchal ideology and prohibitionist feminists. Some of these new representations, however, intertwine with a neoliberal post-feminist sensibility that frames empowerment as realizable through individualism and the market alone, rather than in collective ways, and pose few concrete solutions to the challenges faced by sex workers today, namely criminalization. Even so, this dissertation argues that these emerging twenty-first century representations of the sex worker as entrepreneur and care worker are progressive and mark a growing social tolerance for the idea that, for some women, sex work is legitimate work.

show abstract

Entrepreneurial reproductive labor as alternative economic practice: The ambivalent discourse of seasonal consignment sales

Cited by 4 publications

References 40 publications

Envisioning More Equitable and Just Futures: Feminist Organizational Communication in Theory and Praxis

Envisioning More Equitable and Just Futures: Feminist Organizational Communication in Theory and Praxis

Beyond the Marked Woman : The New Sex Worker in American Popular Culture, 2006-2016

Beyond the Marked Woman : The New Sex Worker in American Popular Culture, 2006-2016

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