Abstract
Very little empirical work examines female sex workers’ experiences in sociological detail, particularly within an Australian context. Drawing from a small-scale sample of female sex workers in South Australia, our findings suggest that sex workers’ ongoing negotiations within private relationships represent ‘emotion work’, as described by Hochschild, which was understood as limiting the effect of stigma. Taking the lead from social scripts associated with women’s traditional roles and associated ‘feeling rules’, participants mediated their personal lives as distinct from their professional lives to navigate their way through the complex interplay between identities. This emotion work was manifest in the negotiation of intimacy. Other factors such as partner jealousy, which emerge from dual engagement in intimate and work-related sexual behaviours, were also mediated. These findings point to a broader appreciation of emotion work as dually agential and structured and undertaken by sex workers in both their home and work spheres.
The shift in nomenclature from ‘prostitution’ to ‘sex work’ has failed to address the legislative and social-structural frameworks that act to reinforce the belief that deviance characterizes this sector and its workers. Though current law reform is being pursued through parliamentary process, South Australian legislation criminalizes sex work (Scarlet Alliance, 2014), which further promotes the marginalization of sex workers. Research examining the experiences of street-based sex workers in South Australia suggests that discourses of risk ought not be individualized (Leaker and Dunk-West, 2011). Thus, the stigma associated with sex work requires the analysis of social factors alongside biographical and individual contexts. To date, little is known about the everyday experiences of sex workers and how stigma is experienced, managed and negotiated. The purpose of this study is to better understand how sex workers navigate their intimate relationships and work roles. To this end, we interrogate the contemporary manifestation of stigma, drawing from data derived from qualitative research with sex workers in South Australia.
This article commences by conceptualizing the contemporary landscape of sex work and intimacy and reviews the substantive knowledge base to contextualize our study. A detailed description of our methodology and findings is provided, and our discussion draws on the theoretical work in relation to stigma and emotion work. Specifically, we argue that stigmatized narratives are central to the everyday life worlds of participants in the study, and these experiences are present for the women in our study. Emotion work, on the other hand, is argued to enable participants to navigate the intersection and complexity inherent to the participants’ intimate and work relationships.
Contemporary sex work and intimate relationships
Australian social norms continue to promote traditional ideals of intimacy whereby sexual expression of love is validated through monogamous, committed intimate relationships (Giddens, 1992; Rice, 1993; Summers, 2002). Intimacy is thus constructed as central to a relationship. While some loosening of what constitutes a sanctioned relationship has occurred, the containment of sexuality within a committed relationship remains a central value. However, sex work involves the selling of sexual practices that are typically exclusive to the context of the intimate relationship (Warr and Pyett, 1999). Thus, public discourse reflects traditional beliefs and dictates that the idea of intimacy in sex work is deviant and immoral; it is perceived as a threat to the traditional belief that sex is an act of love (Priestley and Weatherall, 2001).
Shifts in women’s workforce participation alongside reproductive technological advance have ‘transformed’ the ways in which intimate relationships are negotiated and lived out (Giddens, 1992). Other scholars note the transformative role globalization has had on the ways in which relationships are configured, thus linking the expression of intimacy in the private domain to broader social forces and the economy (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2013). However, there is evidence that the degree to which individuals are able to negotiate intimate relations is dependent upon a range of structural factors, such as class, gender and which affect one’s ability to reflexively engage with identity (Skeggs, 2004). Given the central role of emotions in navigating intimate relationships alongside the recognition that emotion is socially mediated and gendered (Jackson, 1993), an analysis of sex workers’ intimate relationships requires careful attention to these factors.
As noted, the impacts of the work on sex workers’ private, intimate relationships cannot be examined without reference to social norms and structural inequalities. Empirical research highlights the stigma that female sex workers face in maintaining long-term intimate relationships (Sanders, 2004; Warr and Pyett, 1999). Criticisms from intimate partners are often experienced alongside these challenges, with feelings of shame and guilt reported by sex workers (Jackson et al., 2009; Warr and Pyett, 1999). Negotiating these emotions can be especially challenging, and women report in such studies that that they have little control over these situations. As a result, intimate relationships are often described as being too problematic, with some female sex workers choosing to remain single instead of engaging in these negotiations (Jackson et al., 2009; Warr and Pyett, 1999).
Despite the consequences that these challenges have for emotional well-being, there is a dearth of Australian literature regarding the intimate relationships of female sex workers. Despite increased interest in the link between late modernity, love (Beck-Gernsheim, 1998) and emotion management (Illouz, 1998, 2009; Illouz et al., 2014), sex work and intimacy remains under-researched. In other national contexts, sociologists have turned their gaze towards theorizing sex work in its historical, national and social contexts (see, for example, Hardy et al., 2010). To date, only three in-depth qualitative studies have explored the intimate relationships of sex workers (Jackson et al., 2009; Sanders, 2004; Warr and Pyett, 1999). Such studies are important in identifying female sex workers’ experiences, particularly given the strong influence intimate relationships have on emotional well-being (Cassidy, 2001; Khaleque, 2012; Nyamathi et al., 1999). Empirical work has neglected to examine the strategies female sex workers implement to maintain their experiences of intimacy. Inadequate coverage within the literature stems from previous research typically focusing on sexual and physical aspects of health related to sex work (Benson and Matthews, 1995; Boynton, 2002; McKeganey and Barnard, 1992; Surratt et al., 2012). Such research is predominantly quantitative and directed towards the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and client-related violence among street-based female sex workers (Shannon and Csete, 2010). Research has supported stereotypes of female sex workers and further promoted marginalization of both indoor and street-based sex workers (Miller and Vance, 2004; Quadara, 2008). To achieve a more in-depth understanding of female sex workers’ emotional health, qualitative research focused on the intimate relationships of both indoor and street-based female sex workers needs to be undertaken.
Some evidence points to the behavioural and interpersonal barriers sex workers implement to negotiate the work. Condom use provides an example of how female sex workers implement symbolic sexual practices to differentiate work practices from their personal, intimate relationships (Warr and Pyett, 1999). Some women report that condom use reinforces commitment to their partner by creating a physical barrier between herself and the client. Further, lack of condom use with one’s intimate partner suggests that those sexual practices are the important ones, the ones based in love and commitment.
To manage stigma and partner jealousy, many female sex workers employ concealment strategies (Jackson et al., 2009; Sanders, 2004). Sanders (2004) notes that 13 of her 28 British female sex workers kept their profession secret from their partner. Although this strategy reduces the impact of these challenges, it creates another problem: constant worry about being discovered (Jackson et al., 2009; Warr and Pyett, 1999). Research indicates that this strategy has a long-term emotional impact, with most women describing the effects of concealing sex work as overwhelming (Jackson et al., 2009; Warr and Pyett, 1999). Researchers wishing to gain access to sex workers’ narratives are often methodologically challenged because of the secrecy inherent to this kind of work (Sanders, 2006).
The pressure to conceal sex work may be heightened for women who work in geographical locations where sex work is illegal, such as South Australia. Warr and Pyett (1999) investigated concealment as a strategy for Australian sex workers; however, their sample was limited to female sex workers who were facing homelessness and had drug dependency issues. The experiences of these women are likely different from those of women who are not facing such issues. Current research has effectively identified potential strategies, but the extent to which these coping mechanisms are applicable to Australian female sex workers living under different circumstances is unknown.
Methodology and methods
An inductive qualitative approach (Marshall and Rossman, 2011) was utilized to elicit narratives from a purposively selected sample of sex workers in South Australia. To be eligible, women needed to be voluntarily involved in sex work, have worked consistently over the previous six months, and be 18 years of age or older. Ethical approval was granted by the University of South Australia Research Ethics Committee prior to data collection. Six women currently working as sex workers in Adelaide completed semi-structured telephone interviews with the chief investigator. Given the illegal status of sex work in South Australia, the study was designed so as to not compromise the wellbeing of female sex workers. The South Australian Sex Industry Network (SA SIN) was consulted about this project from the planning stage to the consideration of recruitment strategies and the study included the use of a key informant (KI).
To protect participant and researcher confidentiality, participants were called from a secured location to conduct the telephone interview. Prior to the start of the interview, participants were read a participant information sheet, and verbal consent was then obtained. Participants were also asked to choose a pseudonym (not their working name). To ensure confidentiality, consent forms were signed with participants’ pseudonyms. Interviews were audio-recorded; however, participants had the right to ask that the audio recorder be switched off at any time during the interview. The research team developed a semi-structured interview guide and included questions about age, sex work sector, relationship status, relationship length, relationship characteristics, concealing sex work, disclosing sex work, emotional well-being, and self-care activities. Interviews lasted between 30 minutes to one hour and were transcribed verbatim. This analysis was directed by an inductive qualitative approach to draw links between the findings and the theoretical work in this area. Thematic analysis was used to categorize the data.
Findings
This study aimed to better understand the intimate relationships of female sex workers by exploring the ways in which emotional well-being is influenced by sex work and describe the strategies used to negotiate aspects of sex work influenced by these relationships. Findings indicated that participants engaged in traditional gender roles to negotiate the challenges that sex work posed to their intimate relationships. This overall finding was supported in each of the three main themes identified by our analysis.
Participants ranged in age from 29 to 65 years, but most were between the ages of 25 to 45. All of the women were working in a rented private premise and had been working in the industry from 2 to 30 years (average was 10 years). Five participants were in long-term relationships and lived with their partner. Relationship length ranged from 18 months to 40 years and on average, participants had been with their partners for 12 years. Five participants also had children.
Intimate relationships and the desire for commitment
For all of the study participants, a desire to engage in a mutually committed relationship was evident, and the meaning of commitment was synonymous with monogamy. For example, one participant, Kate, associated intimacy with sexual activity that occurred outside the work context, but never within it. Kate described her intimate relationship as being a place where only she and her partner were allowed to experience physical and emotional intimacy. Speaking about her fiancé, Kate (29 years old) explains: Because he is not a sex worker, any form of interaction with another person is cheating. That may sound hypocritical but, hey, if he wanted to be a sex worker he could do that.
Indeed, evidence of intimacy being attributed solely to sexual activities outside the sex work context was evident in a majority of interviews. Only one participant cited non-traditional values around commitment and monogamy. Rose (65, married) said, ‘If he wanted to have a little fling, as long as there was no emotional commitment, that would be fine.’ The couple in this relationship had negotiated different ideals of commitment and, for Rose, sex did not always hold strong associations with emotional intimacy. Therefore, the prospect of her husband having sex outside of their marriage did not constitute a threat to her relationship unless there was an emotional attachment. Rose still chose not to have sex with other men outside the relationship except within the context of work. Rose and her partner had been together for 40 years and sometimes her partner joined her at work for client fantasies that required a male role. However, Rose was the exception in that the partners of the other women who were interviewed did not enter the work sphere. Therefore, ascribing different behaviours to work and home settings was important for differentiating intimacy from sexual behaviour.
Separation of intimacy issues was further illustrated by the control that was exerted over bodily responses in that the women discussed the ways in which they attempted to avoid pleasure in their sex work. However, the bodily response to sexual behaviour was described as less controllable than other factors, such as the environment or emotional meanings of relationships. When talking about having sex with clients, Deborah (45, married) expressed, ‘I should only be enjoying it with my husband.’ Deborah described how she felt guilty when she had an orgasm with clients. Even though she did not intend to orgasm, she described being unable at times to prevent it from happening; thus when she did have an orgasm with a client, she felt as though she had crossed a boundary related to commitment. Deborah describes how she feels guilty if sex work with clients deviates from being ‘mechanical’: because it’s a job I shouldn’t be enjoying it. I should only be enjoying it with my husband…. I think I have just programed myself to believe that work is mechanical and it’s different from the sex at home which has an emotional connection. If there’s that crossover and I enjoy it. I feel like I’m cheating.
Concealing sex work from the private sphere
Intimate relationships
Much like the way the body physically reacts to sexual stimulation, emotional reactions were complex, difficult to manage and embedded in the ‘work’. For example, most of the participants had ‘worked’ at concealing their profession from others, including intimate partners. Justine (45, single) described how the stress of concealing her work affected the quality of her intimate relationship. ‘Towards the end it started to impact on the time we spent together on the weekend.’ Like all the other participants, Justine reported valuing trust and honesty in her intimate relationships, and the perceived ‘deceit’ was antithetical to her principles.
Another participant, Deborah, who had concealed her work completely for a year, eventually revealed it to her husband. Deborah described how her partner had felt devastated that she had lied to him and how it took him a couple of years to regain his trust in her. Despite Deborah’s initial assumption that her husband would leave her, they have now been together for nine years and have two children together. She describes her husband as supportive and accepting of her work choices, but adds that it took a lot of hard work to get to this stage. Deborah also describes feeling that she ‘crosses a boundary’ if she orgasms with a client, because of the impact it might have on her relationship: we [Deborah and her partner] have discussed it [orgasm] once. I once made the foolish mistake [of saying] that I had climaxed during a session. And I will never ever do that again because he was heartbroken … heartbroken, he felt betrayed. It’s a physical thing that can’t be controlled all the time.
None of the women involved in this study were currently concealing the entirety of their work from their intimate partner. Participants described how important it was for them to be honest with their partner and feel accepted as a woman and as a sex worker; however, four participants did feel it was necessary to conceal at least some aspects of their work from their partner. Participants in our study reflected upon the ‘discrepancy’ between their sexual acts undertaken as part of their work, and their intimate relationships, which included sexual behaviours. In a recent study, researchers found that that students who undertook stripping work were insulated from the stigma attached to stripping: ‘possessing additional positive identities might offer individuals an alternative to adopt as their central, or defining, identity – a way to disengage from the stigmatizing social identity’ (Schmader et al., 2001, cited in Trautner and Collett, 2010: 259). Similarly, participants in our study sought to distinguish their intimate relationships and identity as a partner from their work. The degree to which the work was disclosed to intimate partners reflected a complex and ongoing process of negotiation. For example, the specific sexual acts they performed and the things that they enjoyed while working with certain clients were typically concealed. June talked about the terms she and her husband had negotiated in relation to discussing sex work, whereby he knows about the work but they do not talk about the details. June (31, married) said: He knows that I do it; we don’t discuss it. I don’t go home and say, ‘I did this, this and this with clients.’ I don’t go into the details of my work.
The motive behind this concealment was to prevent partner jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. Kate (29, engaged) said: I’m not going to rub it in his face with something that’s going to make him insecure. I mean, he is only human.
Participants in the study normalized the experience of partner jealousy, indicating that it was only ‘natural’ for partners to want to be protected from the information about the sexual aspects of their work. Many of these women felt they were doing the right thing by concealing the sexual aspects. Only the participants who felt guilty when climaxing with clients experienced guilt because they were withholding this detail from their partner.
Friends and family
All the women in this study discussed concealing sex work from friends and family. June was the only participant who chose to completely hide her work from others. June (31, married) found the hardest part of concealing her work was meeting new people and always being asked, ‘Where do you work?’ Other women discussed feelings of discomfort and stress when being quizzed about their work. June changes her hair, make-up and clothes immediately after work if friends are visiting. This transformation helped maintain the façade that she was a cleaner rather than a sex worker. Kate had tried to conceal her work from family and friends, which she described as ‘horrible and exhausting’. When discussing this time in her life, Kate (29, engaged) said: My biggest struggle was for me to be okay with the fact that I was completely okay that I was a sex worker.
Kate described how initially she felt that she should be ashamed of her work, and this prevented her from disclosing it to her family. Now Kate chooses to be transparent about her work with people in her private life. Not all of the participants felt this same confidence in being accepted as a sex worker by friends and family; however, five women outlined the importance of at least one friend or family member knowing and accepting, their work.
Children
All five participants who are mothers completely concealed their work from their children. A few of the women talked about ways they masked their work, including storing their work-related items in their car and fabricating stories about what they were doing and where they had been. The effects of these strategies became more stressful when their children were old enough to begin asking questions about their mothers’ work. June said she stopped working nights because it was becoming too hard to explain why, as a cleaner, she worked so late. All five of these mothers indicated no plan to ever tell their children about their work; however, they also reported being unhappy about the ongoing lies that they told to their children. Some felt that they were not being good role models for their children. When Deborah felt like a bad parent she sometimes turned to alcohol and shopping sprees to make herself feel better. On other occasions, she confided in her husband or a psychologist for support. Deborah also expressed that she would not want her daughter to become a sex worker because of the impact lying had on her emotional health: I’m comfortable about what I do, I certainly don’t look down upon sex workers. Conversely, I do not want it as a career for my own daughter. I think that’s quite common…. [But] I have been through some tough times in the sex industry. It’s very cut throat. You don’t have many peers that are friends that’s for sure. They are all after the job and if that means trampling on you to get it they will. Obviously the lying. I wouldn’t what that for my children. I would want her to have a career that she is happy in and proud of and she can discuss it openly and not have to tell lies about it. And the physical risks that come with it. I wouldn’t want my children in any occupation with physical risks.
Disclosing sex work to partner
A unique finding in our study was the importance of disclosing work to a partner. This strategy was important in upholding a traditional relationship because it encouraged traditional values of trust and honesty. Participants indicated that disclosing sex work was essential to sustaining their long-term relationships because it promoted honesty and trust and removed the fear of being discovered. A few women said it was especially important to be able to confide in their partner because they usually had to lie about their work to people outside of the industry. These women described how having an intimate partner to whom they could disclose their work made them feel supported and accepted. When describing how sharing details of her work with her partner made her feel, Amanda (40, married) said, ‘It makes me feel good. I know that I have someone I can talk to, no matter what the problem is, and I know that I’ll have his support in anything I want to do.’ Sharing aspects of work was particularly important in coping with the fallout from having endured an abusive client or a bad day at work. When Amanda has had an abusive client, she disclosed this to her husband. Amanda (40, married) expressed how her partner might support her by saying, ‘He doesn’t deserve to see you. You are beautiful. You’re a good, caring person. He is never going to see you again anyway, so put him on your banned list.’ This sharing was not present in past studies regarding the emotional work of female sex workers and illustrates how traditional values regarding intimate relationships are upheld for women who do such work.
Another aspect of sex work that was shared with partners was humorous situations. Both Rose and Kate were able to laugh about specific occasions with their partners, but of all of the participants, these two women concealed their work the least. Kate also said she shared how many clients she had, what type of service she provided, ages and descriptions of her clients, and if the clients were particularly nice to her. Kate still decided to conceal the sexual aspects of her work, bracketing off orgasming with clients and finding certain clients attractive as areas that are ‘out of bounds’. As noted previously, past studies with sex workers have found that humour can be seen as a kind of emotion work (Sanders, 2004), which is consistent with our findings. We now move on to consider in more detail the overall findings of this study and how these can be explored through sociological theory.
Stigma and emotion work
Sex work carries social stigma resulting in a ‘risky’ landscape (Leaker and Dunk-West, 2011) within which sex workers negotiate their work and home lives. Contemporary Australian heteronormative standards of intimacy link expressions of love to ideals of trust, honesty and fidelity (Hayman et al., 2013; Rice, 1993; Summers, 2002). These socialized emotions link traditional expectations for women to embody certain identities to fulfil the role as an ideal intimate partner (Hayman et al., 2013; Jackson, 1999). Sex work, by its very nature, creates significant challenges for female workers to fulfil their expected role obligations in terms of traditional standards of love, commitment and fidelity in intimate relationships (Warr and Pyett, 1999). The central finding from this study is that female sex workers engage in traditional gender roles to negotiate the challenges sex work poses to their experience of intimacy.
The women interviewed in our study expressed strong desires to both experience intimacy and maintain their long-term relationships, highlighting the ways in which everyday sexuality is experienced (Dunk, 2007). The stigma associated with sex work was influential to the ways in which participants in the study sought to conduct their intimate relationships and to distinguish these from their work. This was a strong theme, which emerged from the data. Here it is useful to refer to Goffman’s theory of stigma in which: The stigmatized individual can … attempt to correct his [sic] condition indirectly by devoting much private effort to the mastery of areas of activity ordinarily felt to be closed on incidental and physical grounds to one with his [sic] shortcoming. (Goffman, 1963 p. 24).
While Goffman’s notion of stigma goes some way to providing a theoretical examination of identity and relationships featured in our study, it is Hochschild’s (1975) notion of ‘emotion work’ which brings forth an analysis of gender, vital for understanding the context within which sex work occurs in contemporary life.
Hochschild argues that sociologists ought to employ an ‘emotion management perspective as a lens through which to inspect the self, interaction, and structure’ (1975: 551). Hochschild’s conceptual terrain helps to provide a theoretical understanding for the ways in which participants in our study negotiated, interacted and produced identities which were consistent with their work and home lives. Hochschild argues that emotional rules are a form of social structure. In this sense, women are following a set of preordained scripts, which characterize their intimate relationships. Hochschild too draws from Goffman, in particular, his articulation of the role of ‘states and attitudes’ (Goffman, 1963: 23) the foundation upon which emotion can be understood (Hochschild, 1975: 552). Of emotion, she says that: rules seem to govern how people try or try not to feel in ways ‘appropriate to the situation’. Such a notion suggests how profoundly the individual is ‘social’, and ‘socialized’ to try to pay tribute to official definitions of situations, with no less than their feeling … (Hochschild, 1975: 552)
Participants in our study noted that they were careful to predict and respond to the emotive dimension or ‘fallout’ of their work, as manifest in their intimate relationships. Thus, the ‘feeling rules’ (Hochschild, 1975) which governed participants’ engagement in their intimate relationships tie together the factors which are present in their everyday lives; that is, the social stigma associated with sex work and their emergent identities along with the expectations required in intimate relationships. This kind of negotiation parallels what Hochschild refers to as the emotion-work system. She says: the individual is conscious of a moment of ‘pinch’, or discrepancy, between what one does feel and what one wants to feel (which is, in turn, affected by what one thinks one ought to feel in such a situation). In response, the individual may try to eliminate the pinch by working on feeling. Both the sense of discrepancy and the response to it can vary in time. (Hochschild, 1975: 562)
Women noted the desire to control sexual responses in a way that was appropriate to the context; an orgasm was coded as normative in intimate relationships, and undesirable if it occurred with a client. In this way, Hochschild’s three categories of socially ordered experiences are relevant, namely cognitive, bodily and expressive forms (1975: 562). Participants in our study worked to control their bodily responses to stimulation outside their intimate relationships. The sex work itself required a cognitive shift into ‘work mode’, in which their bodily responses were inwardly ordered to comply alongside the expressive domain, which required the portrayal of ‘enjoyment’ in their work. These three areas, too, are relevant to the concealment strategies our participants highlighted. The work undertaken to participate in these strategies was identified by participants in our study and can be seen as emotion management work, which extended beyond the client/worker interaction, and into somatic and interpersonal domains. Although parallels can be drawn with particular professions in which emotional labour is embedded into worker/client interactions, for our participants, the emotion work continues beyond the work context.
A recent study into South Australian street-based sex work highlights the socio-cultural context within which the work takes place, and outlines the ways in which stigma and risk are individualized by the workers themselves (Leaker and Dunk-West, 2011). Similarly, in our study, participants reported individualizing their response to their environment through engaging in emotion work to address socio-cultural stigma and subsequent secrecy. The interaction between normative roles and identity management strategies are central to theorizing stigma (Dunn and Creek, 2015). Similarly, emotion ought to be seen as socially mediated (Jackson, 1993). As Hochschild argues, emotion is patterned and structural. Women in our study drew upon a discourse of ‘shame’, which connected the stigma of sex work with their intimate lives and relationships with others, such as friends and family. Given the prevalence of gendered inequality in intimate relationships (Sweeney, 2014), and given the stigmatized ‘spoiled identity’ (Goffman, 1963) often associated with sex work, participants’ experiences in the public and private domains are complexly interconnected.
In the contemporary landscape there is some recognition of the dedifferentiation between work and home spheres, particularly with the rise of communicative technologies provided through the internet (Wajcman et al., 2010). A recent study in Australia also points out that the negotiation between work and home life can result in women, and to a lesser extent men, experiencing ‘time pressure’ (Rose et al., 2011), which has implications for well-being and quality of life. However, participants in our study noted their agency in mitigating negative outcomes from others’ responses to their work. This points to a complex process in which stigma is mediated using agency, yet mitigated within the social structural feeling rules available. Many female sex workers choose to conceal the entirety of their work, as was found in previous studies (Jackson et al., 2009; Sanders, 2004). However, all the women who participated in this study chose to disclose their work to their partner and expressed that this practice removed the fear of discovery. Disclosing work also appeared to promote traditional ideals of intimacy through an emphasis on honesty and open communication.
Upholding particular practices such as concealment and bracketing off emotion, behaviour and bodily responses reportedly helped reduce the guilt the women felt for violating traditional standards of fidelity and distanced them from the stigma associated with sex work. McKeganey and Barnard (1992) suggest that the separation of private and commercial sex is important for sex workers but is realistically only partially achieved. In this study, the division between sexual behaviours, emotion and participants’ work and intimate lives was blurred. Emotional well-being was impacted when the interviewed women who held strong values of traditional commitment orgasmed with clients. At work, some women felt little control over physical responses to sexual arousal, and this caused them unwarranted distress. This highlights the importance of the spatial context within which the body is situated (Grosz, 1994), as well as biographical contextual meanings, which differentiate work and intimate life. The perceived loss of control over sexual responses highlights the pressure to uphold traditional values in private and work spheres.
Conclusion
This study contributes to developing literature in which the everyday lives and relationships of sex workers in Australia can be better understood. Participants in our small-scale study described the complex and shifting negotiations required to successfully navigate their home and work identities. Using Hochschild’s (1975) concepts of emotion work and feeling rules, we argue that our participants negotiate in both an agential and structured manner to mitigate the effects of stigma upon their relationships. This requires emotional labour, which extends beyond the work setting. More research is required to further understand the impact this enduring negotiation has on Australian sex workers and further ways in which stigma is reduced, negotiated and mediated in contemporary life.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.