Gender performances as spatial acts: (fe)male Thai migrant sex workers in Denmark

Spanger, Marlene

doi:10.1080/0966369x.2011.625079

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In some situations, it was a disadvantage as I was dependent on Niels to establish contact with the Thai migrants. On the other hand, the inferior position facilitated insight into the competition in performing femininity between female-born subjects and transgendered subjects among female Thai migrant sex workers in Denmark (Spanger, 2012). The different constellations of subject positions depended on specific locations and times, in this case, at bars at night or at massage parlours during the day.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You see how good-looking Lee Ann is!” Establishing field relations through gendered and racialised bodily practices

Spanger¹

2012

Self Cite

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By investigating the case of female Thai migrants selling sexual services in Denmark, I argue that ‘the victim’ versus ‘the empowered subject’ is an undesirable binary for analysing how female migrants perform gendered subject positions in their everyday life. The article suggests a poststructuralist feminist perspective, arguing that looks and bodily practices, based on different constellations of gender and sexuality and race and nationality, are important for the research situation. Bringing in two different examples, the article analyses the field relations, and the implied power relations, - between the researcher(s) and the studied subjects that are constituted through gender, sexuality, race and nationality. These relations form the premises for producing material.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You see how good-looking Lee Ann is!” Establishing field relations through gendered and racialised bodily practices

Spanger¹

2012

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“…Studies from the last part of the 20th century and up until the present time investigate the experiences of sex workers and demonstrate rather different and disparate life trajectories of the sex workers as well as of their clients (Chapkis 1996;Skilbrei 1998;Kempadoo and Doezema 1999;Nencel 2001;Bernstein 2007;Sanders 2008;Dewey 2011;Spanger 2013;Shah 2014). Such studies reflect the variegated ways in which the links between sex and money is interpreted and experienced.…”

Section: Speaking From Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Sex for Sale

Skillbrei

Spanger

2018

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This chapter introduces the concept and content of the book to the readers. It describes the aim of the book to be to elaborate the contingency of how we understand prostitution, and argues that it is often taken for granted in debates and scholarship on what prostitution, sex work or sex for sale are, but rarely investigated further. It further describes some of the literature that offers insightful perspectives on this and that in different ways serves as an inspiration for the book. The chapter then describes the three parts of the book, 'Historically speaking', 'Speaking from experience' and 'Speaking about control', and how the chapters offers different inroads into the exploration of the meanings and moralities of sexual commerce. CHAPTER TEXT The aim of the book Social anthropologist Marilyn Strathern argued that (1992: 2), "You can tell a culture by what it can and cannot bring together". In this book we are interested in how definitions of and unease with prostitution, sex work or sex for sale 1 bring together sex and money. To us Strathern's expression encapsulates the value of looking for the meanings and moralities that are applied to commercial sex. Debaters and others often take for granted what prostitution, sex work or sex for sale are, often taking as their point of departure the definition in criminal law on paper, the types of acts towards which policies are directed and definitions in encyclopedias. Furthermore, they often take for granted that prostitution is a problem and a particular type of problem, even though prostitution, sex work or sex for sale take on different forms, consist of different acts and are regulated differently in different settings and times, and are thus contingent on our historical, spatial, temporal and political positions. Money and

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“…Feminist geographers provide a range of critical theoretical frameworks to understand the gendered and embodied subject in space (Walkowitz 1992;McDowell 1999;Massey 1994Massey , 2005Spanger 2013) to ask 'what kinds of spatial difference do different bodies make?' (Tonkiss, 2005:94).…”

Section: Space Subjectivity and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Lived bodies’ and the neoliberal city – a case study of vulnerability in London

Buckingham

Degen

Marandet

2017

Gender, Place & Culture

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Buckingham, S.; Degen, M. & Marandet E. (2017) 'Lived bodies' and the neoliberal city-a case study of vulnerability in London, Gender, Place and Culture, 25 (3), 334-350. 'Lived bodies' and the neo-liberal city-a case study of vulnerability in London This article explores the 'more-than-work' aspects of the lives of vulnerable women who street-sex work, through Iris Marion Young's (2002, 1990a, 1990b) concept of the 'lived body' and Yi Fu Tuan's (1977) exploration of spaces and places as created through emotional entanglements. Particularly, we are interested in the differences between the women's experiences, within the broader context of power structures as manifested in neoliberal cities. Few studies have explored this aspect of street-sex workers' lives and theorisations of the co-creation of environments tend to elide the experiences of the most vulnerable people. Specifically, we explore the relationships that these women have with two environments: the quotidian (where they undertake routine everyday activities), and the gentrified (relating to changes in the spaces in which they live and work). We find that their experiences are extremely local, and heavily contingent on the services made available to them (or not) by the statutory and third sectors and the emotional contacts they make, particularly in third sector support services. This challenges some of the literature which suggests a separation of 'home' and 'work', and which finds close associations between women who street-sex work. While places designed by the third sector are more responsive to these women, they are also more vulnerable to closure through lack of funding. This contributes to a significant degree of ontological non-linearity (Braidotti, 2011) and ontological insecurity (McNaughton and Sanders, 2007) in these women's lives.

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Gender performances as spatial acts: (fe)male Thai migrant sex workers in Denmark

Cited by 12 publications

References 19 publications

“You see how good-looking Lee Ann is!” Establishing field relations through gendered and racialised bodily practices

“You see how good-looking Lee Ann is!” Establishing field relations through gendered and racialised bodily practices

Understanding Sex for Sale

‘Lived bodies’ and the neoliberal city – a case study of vulnerability in London

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