What It Feels Like for a Whore: The Body Politics of Women Performing Erotic Labour in Hong Kong

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate the complexity of the working experiences of female prostitutes in Hong Kong, using an oral history approach. Based on 13 in-depth interviews, I depict my respondents as performing the skilled emotional labour of sex in exchange for their clients' money. Looking at the ways in which the women manage the job, the self and the business, I argue that their major problem is not with the commercial transaction (that is, the content of the work itself), nor with the 'conflict' between their personal and work selves, but with the social stigma, surveillance and dangers at their workplaces. Inspired by a post-structuralist conception of power and identity formation, I propose a women-centred lived-experience feminist approach in the hope of filling the gap between the bipolar imageries of 'sexual slavery' or 'sex radical' that have been thrown up in the feminist debate over the meaning of prostitution. This approach emphasizes the inter-relationships among women's lived experiences, the micro-sites of social surveillance and the macro-condition of wider society. Although Hong Kong female prostitutes are not 'political' in fighting for their rights and benefits, they have tended to take the path of micro-resistance in combating societal domination. They negotiate an identity of the 'prostitute' that is sensitive and flexible to different institutional areas that seems to jeopardize the neat binaries of madonna/ whore, good girl/bad girl, victim/warrior, conformist/radical. This allows them to create their own space to work and survive.

Estudos Organizacionais Baseados Em Michel De Certeau: A Produção Internacional Entre 2006 E 2015

“…Ela é vista como as maneiras criativas com que os sujeitos jogam no cotidiano. O livro no qual se encontra uma discussão mais aprofundada acerca desse tema na obra de Michel de Certeau é justamente o primeiro volume de "A invenção do cotidiano" (KONG, 2006). É nessa obra que o autor apresenta suas relações com as teorias das práticas desenvolvidas por Michel Foucault e Pierre Bourdieu, inclusive dedicando um capítulo inteiro a essa questão.…”

Contrabando de afectos, fugas de capitales y otros desplazamientos. Relaciones de sexo comercial más allá de las fronteras de la prostitución

“…En este marco cultural estigmatizante, varios estudios antropológicos y sociológicos han descripto cómo las mujeres que hacen sexo comercial buscan construir una frontera de múltiples dimensiones (simbólica, corporal, espacio-temporal y relacional) como intento de segregar el sexo comercial de la vida personal (Allen et al, 2003;Araújo, 2006;Brewis;Linstead, 2000;Fonseca, 1996;Freitas, 1985;Gaspar, 1985;Kong, 2006;Morcillo, 2011;Pasini, 2000;Sanders, 2002Sanders, , 2005.…”

The Body/Sex/Work Nexus: A Critical Perspective on Body Work and Sex Work

“…This builds on existing research which charts sex workers coping mechanisms including the use of humour (Sanders 2004;Downe 1999), client screening (Kong 2006, Sanders 2005 and 'doubling' (Hubbard 1999). While resilience may differ from resistance (Katz 2004), this contributes to the growing of body of literature which seeks to outline the way in which sex workers resist repression or control through forms of micro-resistance.…”