“You whore; you are so dirty, bitch”: the justification of and resistance to violence in the intimate relationships of female sex workers

Bartlett, Elretha

Title: “You whore; you are so dirty, bitch”: the justification of and resistance to violence in the intimate relationships of female sex workers
Creator: Bartlett, Elretha
Subject: Women -- Violence against -- South Africa
Subject: Sex workers -- Violence against -- South Africa
Subject: Women, Black -- Abuse of -- South Africa
Subject: Women -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Case studies
Subject: Sex workers -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Case studies
Subject: Women, Black -- Abuse of -- South Africa -- Case studies
Date Issued: 2017
Date: 2017
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5082
Identifier: vital:20764
Description: The objective of the study is to examine discourses of gender and dimensions of social difference implicated in female sex workers’ (FSWs) justifications of, and resistances to, intimate partner violence (IPV). Individual narrative interviews were conducted with FSWs (n=11) who were affiliated with the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). The participants were mostly women of colour (n=10), with a low socio-economic status, and between 31 and 51 years of age. Intersectionality and features of Foucauldian discourse analysis, as described by Parker (1992), informed the analysis of the interview data. In personal interviews, participants interrogated aspects of their own and their partners’ lives that they viewed as playing a significant role in the aetiology and experience of IPV. They drew on a discourse of violent black masculinity, developmental discourses, and patriarchal ideology to justify and resist their partners’ violent behaviour. They also positioned themselves and their ‘spoiled’ identities as playing a role in the experience of violence. Participants pointed to the construction of sex work as ‘dirty work’ and the role that this played in legitimising the violence that was directed at them by intimate partners. In relation to this positioning and its consequences in terms of justifications for violence, my analysis highlights occasions in which gender ideology is re-appropriated for the purpose of challenging the legitimacy of these interpretative frames. While gender politics is central to my analytic observations, my analysis demonstrates how intersections with race and class shape the specificities of FSWs experiences of IPV. In doing so, this study aims to broaden current insights into the phenomenon of IPV, as it does not only focus on gender discrimination, but on the complex interaction between various systems of oppression.
Format: 92 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Psychology
Language: English
Rights: Bartlett, Elretha

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