Beyond Sex/Work: Understanding Work and Identity of Female Sex Workers in South China

Abstract: While scholars and activists often advocate using the term ‘sex worker’ in preference to prostitute, in my research I found that female prostitutes in the Pearl River Delta area, south China, do not like to be addressed as such, and prefer the title xiaojie in Chinese. ‘Sex worker’ generalises the heterogeneity of meanings these women identify and attribute to what they do; it does not capture the complex cultural meanings involved in the term xiaojie. It is stigmatising in that what is exchanged within the transaction is less defined by sexual acts and more by a diversified range of activities. The women employ what is useful to them and infuse new meanings in it to construct gender images and identities to resist the sex worker stigma and to express their desires as rural-to-urban migrants. Using xiaojie becomes a destigmatising and gender tactic. I also found that the women discard the idea of finding alternative jobs partly because of the practical difficulty, and partly becaus

Standort
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
Umfang
Online-Ressource
Sprache
Englisch
Anmerkungen
Veröffentlichungsversion
begutachtet (peer reviewed)
In: Social Inclusion ; 8 (2020) 2 ; 95-103

Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wo)
Mannheim
(wer)
SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository
(wann)
2020
Urheber
Ding, Yu

DOI
10.17645/si.v8i2.2644
URN
urn:nbn:de:101:1-2021071306405945474544
Rechteinformation
Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
Letzte Aktualisierung
14.08.2025, 10:59 MESZ

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Beteiligte

  • Ding, Yu
  • SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository

Entstanden

  • 2020

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