A Gossamer Consensus: Discourses of Vulnerability in the Westminster Prostitution Policy Subsystem

Abstract

Within much feminist scholarship, the concept of vulnerability is understood to possess progressive potential. Troubling Liberalism’s individualism, vulnerability theorists conceive of the subject as situated and formed through her various relational dependencies. Concurrently, the term vulnerability appears in much contemporary social policy. An emergent literature suggests, however, that policy and academic representations of vulnerability diverge in ideologically significant ways. In this article, I make a significant contribution to this body of work. I explore how 21 prostitution policy actors and 4 prostitution policy documents represent vulnerability, as they understand it to pertain to the sale and purchase of sex. I trace the many narratives strands which contribute to policy conversations regarding vulnerability and conclude by suggesting ‘vulnerability’ has become a ‘floating signifier’ – a surface of inscription encompassing contradictory political projects. Despite this, I suggest that the feminist ‘lens’ of vulnerability may provide us with a new way to understand prostitution debates.