‘You just have to be smart’: spatial practices and subjectivity among women in sex work in London, Ontario

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

“…Our conclusion considers the broader implications of our findings for theorising street-sex working women's lives through an emphasis on 'the lived body' and for vulnerable groups in contemporary neoliberal cities. It situates our research within the emerging literature on street-sex workers, space and identity (Hubbard & Sanders, 2003;McNeill et al, 2008;Sanders and Neville, 2012;Orchard et al, 2016).…”

“…They point out how some bodies, such as those of female street-sex workers, are marked as overtly sexual through heteronormative discourses and thereby 'depicted as a motif of degeneracy, contagion and sexual lasciviousness, and hence a threat to male bourgeois values' (Hubbard & Sanders 2003:75). However, as Orchard et al (2016) point out in this journal, few studies have explored sex working women's spatial practices and subjectivities beyond their work, and how particular qualities of the urban might offer different and multiple identifications as they move across different places. Considering gender and sexuality in the city means to pay attention to the ways in which the physical environment reproduces structures of gender and sexual difference as well as ways in which individuals also 'find spaces in the city in which to perform or express difference' (Tonkiss 2005: 94).…”

“…We analyse the relationship between embodiment, identity and place with women engaged in street-sex work in two gentrifying areas in London -Tower Hamlets and Kings Cross. By examining their situated experiences and relationships to their surroundings through a body of feminist progressive visions of cities and politics, this article addresses Orchard et al's (2016) recent call for more research on how physical surroundings and social context engage bodies in multiple ways and evoke different subjectivities. In relation to their study on sex working women's spatial practices and subjectivities, Orchard et al propose that 'although sex work consumes a great deal of their time and socio-sexual and spatialised experiences, it is neither their sole identity nor their only embodied directive for moving though urban landscapes.…”

Sex Work and Prostitution

“…Others document territorial stigma, which refers to the stigmatization of certain spaces because they are occupied by sex workers and other marginalized groups, which often impedes these groups' ability to access social and health services (Collins et al, 2016). Additional studies highlight how space is taken up in tandem with the issues of subjectivity, agency, and political resistance among sex workers who live and work in contested urban spaces (Orchard et al, 2016(Orchard et al, , 2018.…”

Balance, Capacity, and the Contingencies of Everyday Life: Narrative Etiologies of Health Among Women in Street-Based Sex Work

“…A case in point is women in street-based sex work, whose health experiences are approached through research and policy initiatives that often focus on health risks and other dangers to their safety and survival (Goldenberg, Silverman, Engstrom, Bojroquez-Chapela, & Strathdee, 2013; Krusi et al, 2014; Sanders, O’Neill, & Pitcher, 2017). These women have significantly greater unmet health needs compared with the general public stemming from precarious working conditions, poorer sociopolitical determinants of health, and complex personal histories (Benoit, Ouellet, & Jansson, 2016; Benoit, Ouellet, Jansson, Magnus, & Smith, 2017; Knight, 2015; Orchard, Vale, Macphail, Wender, & Oiamo, 2016; Shannon et al, 2015). Research also explores sex workers’ reluctance to seek formal health services, causally linking this hesitancy to discrimination and other forms of structural violence they have experienced by providers and the health system (Bungay, 2013; Dewey & St. Germain, 2017; Dewey, Zhang, & Orchard, 2016; Mellor & Lovell, 2012).…”