Abstract
BackgroundSports mega-events have expanded in size, popularity and cost. Fuelled by media speculation and moral panics, myths proliferate about the increase in trafficking into forced prostitution as well as sex work in the run-up to such events. This qualitative enquiry explores the perceptions of male, female and transgender sex workers of the 2010 Soccer World Cup held in South Africa, and the impact it had on their work and private lives.MethodsA multi-method study design was employed. Data consisted of 14 Focus Group Discussions, 53 sex worker diaries, and responses to two questions in surveys with 1059 male, female and transgender sex workers in three cities.ResultsOverall, a minority of participants noted changes to the sex sector due to the World Cup and nothing emerged on the feared increases in trafficking into forced prostitution. Participants who observed changes in their work mainly described differences, both positive and negative, in working conditions, income and client relations, as well as police harassment. The accounts of changes were heterogeneous - often conflicting in the same research site and across sites.ConclusionsNo major shifts occurred in sex work during the World Cup, and only a few inconsequential changes were noted. Sports mega-events provide strategic opportunities to expand health and human rights programmes to sex workers. The 2010 World Cup missed that opportunity.
Highlights
Sports mega-events have expanded in size, popularity and cost
More recently the connection between sports megaevents and sex work has found expression in a “moral panic” about an increase in sex trafficking of women and children into forced prostitution during such times [4,5]. These fears re-surfaced at the 2010 Soccer World Cup (‘2010 WC’), at least partly because sex work and trafficking into forced prostitution were conflated in popular consciousness [6,7,8]
Following South Africa’s successful bid in 2004, intense media speculation predicted a mass migration of sex workers to South Africa for the 2010 WC, a substantial increase in both sex work and trafficking into forced prostitution, and even a shortage of condoms during the event [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]
Summary
A quarter (17/64) of participants were involved in all three FGDs, close to 40% (25/64) in two FGDs, and a third (22/ 64) in only 1 FGD (total 64 individuals). Myths and expectations before the WC In a consultation held in Cape Town in 2009 with civil society and government to forge strategies to deal with the 2010 WC and sex work, sex worker participants expressed fears about an anticipated increase in arrests, sex worker abuse, general crime on the streets and trafficking into forced prostitution during the 2010 WC Their hopes included increases in the client base, income and foreign currency and that the police would protect sex workers. In FGD sessions, participants were asked about possible fluctuations in trafficking into forced prostitution during the 2010 WC Participants doubted that such increases had occurred: Negative changes in working conditions, income and client relations Several sex workers in the FGDs and surveys felt that the WC had been detrimental to their business and income:. (FGD with female participants, post-WC, Hillbrow) “There are a lot of new people in town They are here for soccer not for business” (24-year old female, during WC survey, Cape Town). He gave me $800, so it was better for me during the World Cup. (35-year old female, post-WC survey, Sandton)
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