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Sexuality & Culture (2012) 16:209229
DOI 10.1007/s12119-011-9120-3
ORIGINAL PAPER
Juline A. Koken
Published online: 6 November 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Despite the reframing of prostitution as sex work in research and advocacy literature, the stigma associated with this activity persists. This study examines how independent female sex workers advertising online as escorts perceive and manage the stigma associated with their work, and how these coping strategies impact their personal relationships. Thirty escorts participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews; Goffmans (1963) theory of stigma and information management strategies was used as a theoretical framework to guide the analysis of womens experiences. Women who engaged in selective disclosure regarding sex work reported greater access to social support, while women who concealed their work from most people often reported feeling lonely and socially isolated. Escorts stigma coping strategies may have signicant impact on their social relationships and access to social support.
Keywords Stigma Female escorts Sex workers Coping
Female prostitutes have historically symbolized sin in Judeo-Christian religious traditions (Roberts 1992). This trope persists in present day Western culture, which could be said to place prostitutes at the bottom of the sex hierarchy (Rubin 1992), reecting their liminal status in a culture that both celebrates and shames women for sexual expression outside of monogamous heterosexual relationships. Unfortunately, social scientic research on female sex workers has often reected and reproduced the stigma against prostitution through work which casts these women as victims or deviants (Koken 2010; Pheterson 1990; Vanwesenbeeck 1994, 2001)
J. A. Koken (&)
Center for Motivation and Change, 276 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Independent Female Escorts Strategies for Coping with Sex Work Related Stigma
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and these stereotypes have become further entrenched as they are embedded in social policy (Weitzer 2010).
Feminist research and theorizing in recent decades has been characterized by a contentious debate regarding the meaning of women in prostitution (Koken 2010). Many radical feminists cast prostitutes in the role of the essence of womens sexual objectication (Dworkin 1997; Farley et al. 1998); in contrast, sex positive feminists argued that prostitutes could be gender/sexual outlaws defying taboos of female chastity (Calia 1988; Leigh 1997; Sprinkle 1998). Other feminist scholars argued that prostitutes should be viewed...