Abstract
Research has historically constructed youths who are involved in sex work as victims of trafficking, exploitation, poverty, and substance abuse. These perceptions often cast the sex worker as deviant and in need of ‘care’ and ‘protection.’ Rarely seen are accounts that provide different perspectives and positioning of youth engaged in sex work. This article explores the lived experiences of Jack, a young gay cis-male who identifies as Indigenous Australian. Despite being a highly successful sex worker, his involvement in such a stigmatised occupation means that he must navigate the social and cultural perceptions of ‘deviant’ and ‘dirty’ work. This qualitative study explores the ways in which Jack negotiates his work, his communities, and the capitalisation of his sexuality. Drawing on Indigenous Standpoint Theory and wellbeing theory, Jack’s choice of sex work is explored through the intersections of sexuality and culture, with the consequences of Jack’s social and emotional wellbeing emerging as his narrative unfolds.
Highlights
Sex work can take many forms but, generally speaking, it is an exchange of sexual-based services in exchange for money, or other in-kind goods or services of value, such as accommodation, drugs and/or alcohol, transportation, and gifts (Hubbard, 2019)
Sex work literature focusses on cis-female sex workers and almost exclusively on Western subject positioning, only rarely are people of colour, including Indigenous Australians, the focus of, or even included in, sex work studies (Sullivan, 2018a)
Gaps in this research area may exist because they have been previously addressed from rigid methodological approaches, this article is as an example of the kind of data that can be extrapolated from stories, and serves to highlight that qualitative approaches can assist in uncovering different questions relating to sex work experiences that could be addressed in largescale quantitative studies
Summary
Sex work can take many forms but, generally speaking, it is an exchange of sexual-based services in exchange for money, or other in-kind goods or services of value, such as accommodation, drugs and/or alcohol, transportation, and gifts (Hubbard, 2019). Sex work literature focusses on cis-female sex workers and almost exclusively on Western subject positioning, only rarely are people of colour, including Indigenous Australians, the focus of, or even included in, sex work studies (Sullivan, 2018a) Another significant absence in Social Inclusion, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 2, Pages 52–60 the research is age-based: Youths involved in sex work are rarely mentioned, though when it occurs they are usually framed as victims of trafficking (Ditmore, 2011; Mehlman-Orozco, 2015), exploitation (Ditmore, 2011), homelessness (Frederick, 2014), are routinely intermixed with poverty and substance abuse (Frederick, 2014; Lantz, 2005; Mendes, Snow, & Baidawi, 2014) and in need of ‘care’ and ‘protection’ (Ditmore, 2011). Gaps in this research area may exist because they have been previously addressed from rigid methodological approaches, this article is as an example of the kind of data that can be extrapolated from stories, and serves to highlight that qualitative approaches can assist in uncovering different questions relating to sex work experiences that could be addressed in largescale quantitative studies
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