Safeguarding sex work
- Beth Amato
The official recognition of sex work would be a significant human rights gain.
Viewing it in a sex-positive framework – rather than through a biomedical or moral lens – could break the stigma of sex work and advance healthcare and justice for those in the profession.
Sex workers – those who are paid in money or kind to perform consensual sexual acts – have forever been given derogatory labels including whore, isifebe, magosha, prostitute and slut. The law reflects and amplifies this visceral contempt, and in South Africa, it is illegal to either buy or sell sex. This criminalisation is a remnant of apartheid legislation, particularly the Immorality Act that outlawed same-sex relationships and sex across the colour bar. Continuous and dogged activism is required to legitimise sex work as a valid form of labour and to create cultural and policy environments in which sex work is both safe and permissible.
??Brutal barriers???
Sex workers and their allies have challenged stereotypes and made inroads into legitimising sex work. But still, instead of being able to operate in a society that views sex workers as human beings worthy of earning a living, they face brutal barriers – most often in place due to poverty and high unemployment.??
According to Naomi Hill, Programme Head and Chief of Party for the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Research Institute Key Populations Programme, some 922 out of 3 974 (23%, or a quarter) of sex workers receiving antiretroviral therapy reported experiencing violence in 2023.??
??“There is police malpractice across Wits RHI-assigned implementation districts. We hear of police officers taking away sex workers’ antiretroviral medications and arresting women in possession of condoms on the assumption that they’re sex workers. Our staff provide post-violence care for sex workers who have been sexually assaulted,” says Hill.???
Labour framework
Within this context, an enabling, destigmatising, human rights-based legislative framework is necessary. Decriminalising sex work and bringing it into the ambit of labour and occupational health and safety legislation – could provide this framework, as in New Zealand and other countries that have adopted this model.??
Frameworks aside, the public imagination remains beset with misinformation that cements moralistic views and perpetuates stereotypes. To move beyond this, it’s necessary to recognise nuance and the material realities of sex workers – who should not be seen as one-dimensional victims. ??
Agency at work???
Dr Marlise Richter, ?Research Associate? at the African Centre for Migration and Society, notes that opponents of sex work – often those who believe in incarceration, rehabilitation, and punishment – try to remove the agency and choice of sex workers.
“Some portray sex workers as so confused or traumatised that they are unable to recognise what is beneficial for themselves,” says Richter. “Some ‘prostitution rehabilitation programmes’ claim to help sex workers address what ?they describe as ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. However, these ?coercive programmes? overlook an important fact: choosing to engage in sex work to provide for oneself, and often for one’s extended family, can be a resourceful strategy and a rational livelihood choice. While this decision may be constrained by various circumstances, it can still be a valid and considered option.”
Advocating income?
When Dr Corey Spengler-Gathercole, a PhD in Political Studies at Wits, interviewed a variety of organisations working with sex workers, she found that those choosing sex work did so because other kinds of work were not as well paid.
“?It was often a voluntary and well-thought-out decision to do this labour. Sex workers can determine their working hours, set the price, and, ironically, it empowers women with control over their bodies. Yes, there are threats of violence and stigma, but I found that women could choose with whom to conduct business with,” says Spengler-Gathercole. ???
???Job satisfaction???
?Dr Jenny Coetzee, CEO of the African Potential Group, holds a joint appointment at Wits, and believes that the biomedical, legal, and moral viewpoints of sex work minimise the ?satisfaction that some sex workers may derive from their jobs.???
??She has met a sex worker in the bondage, discipline, submission, and masochism (BDSM) sector who sets her own parameters about the services she will (or will not) provide, who enjoys her work, and who finds it meaningful and satisfying to earn the kind of money that she does.???
??“?Sex work, like other work, is a service. Even if it’s survival sex, there can be pride in providing for your children and seeing them through school,” says Coetzee. “Other forms of available ‘women’s work’, and what ‘sex work diversion’ programmes offer, won’t equal the income possible through exchanging sex for reward.”???
??Moreover, Coetzee believes that criminalising sex work hasn’t eradicated its existence and that HIV, STIs and gender-based violence remain scourges giving ??further impetus to the need to find an alternative framework.???
???(?African?)? Sex-positive feminism???
?Richter notes that ?some ?“abolitionist feminists” view female sexuality as inevitably repressed by patriarchy. Sex-positive feminists, on the other hand, believe that ?compulsory ?heterosexism and sex negativity produce this repression.
??Sex-positive feminism is based on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential part of a person’s freedom and that no ?legitimate ?restrictions should hinder sexual activity and expression – provided that it occurs within the boundaries of adult mutual consent?.
“There isn’t anything inherently oppressive about sex work if it is regarded as work, reflects people’s choices, and takes place within the frameworks of mutual consent, human rights and ‘decent work’,” says Richter, and emphasises that ?sex work should never be conflated with trafficking and child prostitution. An African sex-positive feminism perspective is key to challenging harmful stereotypes.
?Most scholars and activists agree that criminal law will not eradicate the sex industry? (if that is indeed its aim)?, and that criminalisation worsens conditions for sex workers, rendering society less safe. Rather, they say, advocate for recognising sex work as legitimate labour.
??A sex worker’s story
??Amanda, 38, has ?provided services? as a sex worker since she was 24. She is also a peer educator at the Wits RHI’s sex worker outreach programme, offering advice and clinical services to other sex workers, including clinic referrals, the provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), male and female condom distribution and peer counselling. Her peer education work takes up most of her time, but she ?works? as a sex worker on weekends.???
?????“The best part about being a sex worker is the money. It’s simple. I didn’t have the opportunity to go to school because my parents died young. There were no jobs when I tried to get a job to support my younger siblings. I became a sex worker. Because of this I was able to pay for my younger siblings’ school and university fees. The best part of this is that I paid for my child to go to school. Now, she has almost finished her third year of university. We also have a nicer and bigger house to live in. This is all because of sex work.”???
??Although the money earned from sex? work? is more than other types of work, Amanda says the operating environment is dangerous. “ Clients abuse us and so do the police. If we get raped, which often happens, we can’t report the crime. The police will say, ‘But you can’t get raped as a sex worker.’ Then it’s worse if you are a migrant sex worker. Especially if you don’t have papers. You are treated extremely badly.”???
?Amanda ?is a street-based sex worker? and says that some days are financially better than others. She can earn as much as R1500 on a good day and as little as R50 on a bad one.???
?She also talks about the prevalence of agism in the sector. “The younger girls – 18 and 19 – can charge a higher price. The client will rather go to them for services, so we have to lower our prices. Business has been really affected by this.”
??Amanda hopes that the police will understand that sex work is work, and that sex workers are entitled to protection, instead of further threats of violence. She also hopes that nurses will see past their stigma and provide necessary services to sex workers, who are often too scared to go to clinics for basic healthcare services.
- Beth Amato is a freelance writer.
- This article first appeared in?Curiosity,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 18th issue, themed #Work, which delves into the evolving nature of work, shaped by societal shifts, technological advances, and equity challenges.