The Construction of Prostitutes: Identity, Citizenship and Equality in Brazil

Abstract

The construction of Prostitutes: Identity, Citizenship and Equality in Brazil. This article tries to analyse the real-life issues of prostitutes through the lens of citizenship. That is, we try to understand how prostitutes are seen in a citizenship sense and how they are (mis)treated because of their profession. In a more concrete sense, this work has as its focus the prostitutes that work on the streets of W3 Norte, in Brasilia. The research was developed using ethnography methods, being that the author accompanied most of the situations narrated. Other ethnographies were also used to complement and cause reflection on the view of the researcher as well as bibliography that resonated gender and citizenship questions, almost always concerning women and their sexuality in modern society. Being that the research has as one of its specificity the region and the history of Brasil, the concept of equality and the notion of citizenship must and is relative to these particulars. That being said, this dissertation tries to embody the concepts of citizenship comparing them to other uses of the word in other cultures. In that way, it makes it clearer what is to be expected in prostitution cases and their (mis)treatment in the public sphere. The history of citizenship in Brasil has obvious bearing on the way prostitutes have been treated throughout the course of the region’s past. One also analyzes the manner in which prostitutes and women in relate in general, with a more specific look towards the influence of the symbol ‘prostitute’ on women’s morals. The idea of the rule of law and the rights and guarantees that go along with it are important to better understand citizenship and, in that sense, the necessity to include people in a democracy threshold. Those that do not feel and are not represented by the very same institutions that have the duty of including all those that are affected by their laws and underrepresented and normally treated as second-class citizens. Nowadays, the most common debate that regards prostitute’s right involves the regulation of their profession and, in that sense, this dissertation tries to work out what kind of treatment can be expected from an eventual regulation. One has found that regulation is a step towards a recognition of rights, but is far from resolving all the citizen aspects of these women that are treated as if they lose all rights they have once they begin exercising their profession.