Who Pays the Price Exploring the regulation of erotic labour in England and Wales

1
Who Pays the Price? Exploring the regulation
of erotic labour in England and Wales

• 
  Mary Elizabeth
  Whowell
• Loughborough University
• Supervised by
• Dr. Phil Hubbard and Dr. Sarah Hall

2
Aims

• To explore the feminisation of sex work within
  policy contexts
• To make suggestions about why men are absent from
  the strategy
• Case study Manchester

3
The 2006 strategy

• Out of date and feminised information
• Male and transgender/transsexual prostitution
• Working Mens Project case study
• No relevant research?
• Feminisation of policy

4
Feminisation 1

• Intrinsically feminised?
• Hester and Westmarland (2004) Paying the Price
  (2004) Prostitution Strategy (2006)
• Sexual Offences Act 2003
• Effects?

5
Feminisation 2

• Conflation of sex work with sexual exploitation
• Discourses of nuisance and morality (Kantola and
  Squires, 2003, Outshoorn, 2001)
• Men as traffickers
• Sex work equated with women's (and potentially
  child) exploitation  
• Domestic trafficking of young men

6
Feminisation 3

• Stigma and male identity (UKNSWP, 2004)
• Clients as exploiters (Home Office 2004, 2006)
• Workers as delinquent, not vulnerable (UKNSWP
  2004)
• Feminised packages of support
• Inadequate provision (Cusick and Berney 2005)

7
Why?

• Invisibility of male sex work in the landscape
• Men selling sex in public space are less visible
• Female more visible, and associated with
  dis-investment in city space ( see Kerkin 2003,
  Papyanis 2000)
• Removal re-values land
• No similar need to displace men if more hidden
• What have the effects of this been?

8
Invisibility 1

• Not the same problems as women?
• Drug use
• Domestic violence
• Sexual exploitation
• Sexual identity (Clegg and Whowell, forthcoming)

9
Invisibility 2

• Invisibility compounds vulnerability
• Localised phenomenon
• Importance of scale
• Local vs. national regulatory mechanisms
• How they are implemented

10
Where now?

• Need more research
• Service needs
• Re-address sex work and its relationship with
  gender
• Recognise the importance of scale

11
Ta! Any questions?

• References
• Clegg,T. and Whowell, M. (forthcoming) Research
  on the sexual exploitation of young men through
  grooming MSWOP 2006
• Cusick, L. and Berney, L. (2005) Prioritising
  punitive responses over public health Commentary
  on the Home Office consultation document Paying
  the Price Critical Social Policy LTD 25 (4)
  pp596-606
• Hester, M. and Westmarland, N. (2004) Tackling
  Street prostitution Towards a holistic approach
  Home Office Research Study 279, London Home
  Office
• Home Office (2004) Paying the Price a
  consultation paper on prostitution London Home
  Office
• Home Office (2006) A Coordinated Prostitution
  strategy and a summary of responses to Paying the
  Price London Home Office
• Image on slide 2, accessed from
  http//perso.orange.fr/la-communication/Prostituti
  on201.gif 02/11/06
• Kantola, J. and Squires, J. (2004) Discourses
  surrounding prostitution policies in the UK
  European Journal of Womens Studies 11 (1)
• Kerkin K. (2003) Re-placing difference planning
  and street sex work in a gentrifying area Urban
  policy and research (21) pp137-149
• Outshoorn, J. (2001) Debating Prostitution in
  parliament A feminist analysis European Journal
  of Womens Studies 8 (4) pp473-91
• Papyanis, M. (2000) Sex and the revanchist city
  zoning out pornography in New York Environment
  and Planning D Society and Space (18)
  pp341-354
• United Kingdom Network of Sex Work Projects
  (2004) Response to Paying the Price
  Manchester UK NSWP
• Email me! whowellgirl_at_hotmail.com