TAG: sex work

Sex Work, Violence and Megaevents

Sex workers are routinely subject to human rights violations by local authorities. State-sanctioned violations of human rights (such as the right to life, dignity, equality, equal protection and due process under the law) represent broader systemic failures. In recognition of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (December 17th), we offer an initial […]

All in for #Decrim!

Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) and the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) strongly support the All in for #Decrim campaign as part of the global activism surrounding the International Day Against Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17th.

New Sex Worker Zine Project Publication is out

“Featuring the zines produced by 24 men, women, and transgender persons who live and sell sex in the Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, this publication includes reflections by participants, civil society activists, and researchers from across the globe. The contributors to this publication challenge the stereotype of the migrant sex worker, calling […]

New Orleans prostitutes: 1912

Portrait photography is a work of collaboration. These women are posing as they want to be seen—wearing furs or prized clothes, smiling with a pet dog, lying like one of Henri Matisse’s odalisques, or playing cards. The images are considered and composed. Other than that, we know very little about E. J. Bellocq and the women he photographed.

The Sexual Politics in September and early October 2016

Last month a large number of events took place across the globe to mark September 28th as the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal abortion. Of particular relevance was the massive women’s strike in Poland to protest against a new bill aimed at completely banning abortion. Its immediate effect was the […]

Sex work at the Olympics Games: report

Once again, Rio de Janeiro has hosted a sporting mega-event, this thime the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. And once again, the research teams of Prostitution Policy Watch went into the field (as we did during the 2014 World Cup) to acompany the changes these events would bring to our city’s commercial sexual markets. (You […]

Report on sex work activism

The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) has launched its 2015 report that offers detailed description about its campaigns, resources, national and regional trainings. Sex workers rights organisations who would like more information about some of the activities implemented, the obstacles faced and lessons learned should contact ICRSE for discussion […]

Key Trends and Tensions in sexual politics: a commentary

It also seemed to me that the general mood of pessimism came from the fact that most of the meeting’s participants were not digital natives, not exactly the ”globalized children”. This meant – again, with notable exceptions – that we still saw activism and policy advocacy

No Turning Back

The six case studies presented in this publication—in Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, South Africa, and Zimbabwe—offer a look at real-life sex worker–led programming that has reduced police abuse, health risks, and other adverse impacts of bad laws and law enforcement on sex workers

Sexual politics in August 2016

In August, the Rio Olympic Games provided a privileged stage for the critical observing of gender and sexuality performances. Several SPW partners positively and generously responded to our invitation to share their views on this peculiar scene. Fernando Seffner, for example, wrote the article Rio 2016: the “Sexual Games”? that glances over sexuality at large. […]

Olympics 2016: a preliminary overview over sex work

The Prostitution Policy Watch is preparing a report on the effects of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on sex work in the city. The survey results, which follows a similar study carried out during the World Cup 2014, should only be released in early October, but SPW offers some early evidences and analysis obtained from […]

Uprooting Whorephobia: Why We Must Change the Stigma of Sex Work

Counting money on a bed is taboo in my family. Growing up, I never fully understood why but I suspected it was another one of our countless every day South American customs that ensured we were in right relationship with the spirit world.