Dear Anna
I would suggest a calm and academic approach, informing the Rektor that the letter and its
accusations is a common and well documented abolitionist strategy to hinder or disturb
empirical based scholarship into sex work and prostitution, and keeping it short.
In my thesis I write about the choice of terminology (see below, as well page 46 and
onwards), as well as these tactics and what it is like to do research in a hostile
environment (page 117). Do use whatever you find fit.
Perhaps our scheduled seminar in the week after next, where Isabelle and I planned to
discuss the challenges of researching sex work, is very timely. We will send out
information next week.
Cheers
Petra
Petra Östergren PhD
Writer and Social Anthropologist
Website:
www.petraostergren.com <https://www.petraostergren.com/>
Östergren, P (2024) Sweden’s Ban on Sex-Purchase. Morality politics and the governance of
prostitution
<https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/200142992/Avhandling_Petra_stergren_LUCRIS.pdf>
Sex work or prostitution?
Scholars are rightly expected to explain why we use ‘sex work’ instead of ‘prostitution’,
but I am also wary of the risk that if researchers endlessly reproduce lengthy
justifications, we will reproduce the anxiety surrounding the issue itself. Moreover,
debates over terminology are often proxies for more fundamental matters that the discourse
does not come to grips with. In my terminology, I take a slightly more relaxed approach,
while still being precise.
Although sex work has been part of the English language since the early 1930s and sex
worker has been in use since the early 1970s (OED 2024a, b), it was sex worker Carol Leigh
(1997) who popularised the term in the early 1980s, as activists in the US sex workers’
movement asserted that their occupation should be recognised and accorded rights similar
to those of other working people. Other activists and scholars were quick to discuss and
apply this phrase (see Chapkis 1997; Kempadoo and Doezema 1998; Nagle 1997; Perkins et al.
1994; Rubin 1992). Since then, the choice between sex work or prostitution and sex worker
or
46
prostitute has been contentious and part of the struggle to define meanings in the
feminist ‘sex wars’ (Snitow et al. 1983; Vance 1992a). In Sweden, when the term sex work
was first used, social commentators likened it to ‘The invasion of the body snatchers’,
the 1970s movie where the earth was insidiously invaded by aliens (Ohlsson 2002). Today,
in upholding, defending and expanding Sweden’s policy, the government sees it as one of
its tasks to counteract the use of the term ‘sex work’ (Socialdepartementet 2017; Regnér
et al. 2016).
In social science research, the choice of terminology has largely reflected divisions
between differing understandings of commercial sex. Sex work and sex workers are used
mainly by those with a multifaceted approach, and prostitution and prostitutes by those
with an oppression paradigm (for these different approaches, see Chapter 2). Today, there
are signs of a more relaxed use of ‘prostitution’, but ‘prostitute’ is rarely used because
this term signals passivity, reflecting a person’s social and psychological state rather
than their actions and choices (see Kempadoo and Doezema 1998).
As anthropologists Susan Dewey, Treena Orchard and Tiantian Zheng (2015) say, using emic
terminology presents challenges when even the use of the phrase ‘sex work’ ignites
debates. Moreover, as researchers studying sex work reflect on our conversations with
others, we realise that people have vastly different experiences of and attitudes toward
selling sexual services. Some embrace the terms sex work and sex worker, while others
distance themselves from this terminology because of its political or Western
connotations. Still others regard the distinction between sex worker and prostitute as
irrelevant; they see the activity as a practical way of securing drugs, housing, or money
to meet their basic needs (Dewey et al. 2015; Lakkimsetti 2020; Östergren 2006, Skilbrei
2019).
I alternate between these terms to respect the diversity of experiences within and
perspectives on the sex trade. As Susan Dewey, sociologist Isabel Crowhurst, and
anthropologist and social work scholar Chimaraoke Izugbara (Crowhurst et al. 2021) say, I
seek to account for the differing positions along the field’s political spectrum, not to
dilute those differences but to encompass them. Another reason to alternate terms is that
they reflect how different legislatures define the sex trade and the legal status of
individuals selling sex in their jurisdictions. While it is possible to talk about sex
work and sex workers in law and policy terms in the New Zealand context, this is not the
case in Sweden.
27 feb. 2025 kl. 15:17 skrev Anna Ratecka via Fosme
<fosme(a)lists.sunet.se>:
Dears,
the rektor of Södertorn University has received a letter form Childx organization
complaining about the title of the conference I am organizing in May. They attack the use
of sex work as contributing to harms of women selling sex.
This is a citation form the letter:
Begreppet sex worker (sexarbetare) har etablerats av sexindustrin och senare fått fäste
inom vissa akademiska och aktivistiska kretsar, och är en term som rymmer normativa
implikationer. Termen kan ge intrycket av att prostitution är ett arbete jämställt med
andra yrken, trots att svensk lag och policy – genom sexköpslagen och den abolitionistiska
hållningen – tydligt markerar att prostitution inte ska betraktas som legitimt arbete utan
som en form av exploatering och våld.
My supervisor supports me but I have to prepare a very well formulated response. You have
definitely more knowledge about how the Swedish context work, do you have any ideas how to
best address it?
Best
Anna
_______________________________________________
Fosme mailing list -- fosme(a)lists.sunet.se <mailto:fosme@lists.sunet.se>
To unsubscribe send an email to fosme-leave(a)lists.sunet.se
<mailto:fosme-leave@lists.sunet.se>