Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective
Mónica waits in the Anti-Venereal Medical Service of the Zona Galactica, the legal, state-run brothel where she works in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico. Surrounded by other sex workers, she clutches the Sanitary Control Cards that deem her registered with the city, disease-free, and able to work. On the other side of the world, Min stands singing karaoke with one of her regular clients, warily eyeing the door lest a raid by the anti-trafficking Public Security Bureau disrupt their evening by placing one or both of them in jail.

Whether in Mexico or China, sex work-related public policy varies considerably from one community to the next. A range of policies dictate what is permissible, many of them intending to keep sex workers themselves healthy and free from harm. Yet often, policies with particular goals end up having completely different consequences.

Policing Pleasure examines cross-cultural public policies related to sex work, bringing together ethnographic studies from around the world—from South Africa to India—to offer a nuanced critique of national and municipal approaches to regulating sex work. Contributors offer new theoretical and methodological perspectives that move beyond already well-established debates between “abolitionists” and “sex workers’ rights advocates” to document both the intention of public policies on sex work and their actual impact upon those who sell sex, those who buy sex, and public health more generally.

1102188588
Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective
Mónica waits in the Anti-Venereal Medical Service of the Zona Galactica, the legal, state-run brothel where she works in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico. Surrounded by other sex workers, she clutches the Sanitary Control Cards that deem her registered with the city, disease-free, and able to work. On the other side of the world, Min stands singing karaoke with one of her regular clients, warily eyeing the door lest a raid by the anti-trafficking Public Security Bureau disrupt their evening by placing one or both of them in jail.

Whether in Mexico or China, sex work-related public policy varies considerably from one community to the next. A range of policies dictate what is permissible, many of them intending to keep sex workers themselves healthy and free from harm. Yet often, policies with particular goals end up having completely different consequences.

Policing Pleasure examines cross-cultural public policies related to sex work, bringing together ethnographic studies from around the world—from South Africa to India—to offer a nuanced critique of national and municipal approaches to regulating sex work. Contributors offer new theoretical and methodological perspectives that move beyond already well-established debates between “abolitionists” and “sex workers’ rights advocates” to document both the intention of public policies on sex work and their actual impact upon those who sell sex, those who buy sex, and public health more generally.

89.0 In Stock
Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective

Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective

Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective

Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective

Hardcover

$89.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Mónica waits in the Anti-Venereal Medical Service of the Zona Galactica, the legal, state-run brothel where she works in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico. Surrounded by other sex workers, she clutches the Sanitary Control Cards that deem her registered with the city, disease-free, and able to work. On the other side of the world, Min stands singing karaoke with one of her regular clients, warily eyeing the door lest a raid by the anti-trafficking Public Security Bureau disrupt their evening by placing one or both of them in jail.

Whether in Mexico or China, sex work-related public policy varies considerably from one community to the next. A range of policies dictate what is permissible, many of them intending to keep sex workers themselves healthy and free from harm. Yet often, policies with particular goals end up having completely different consequences.

Policing Pleasure examines cross-cultural public policies related to sex work, bringing together ethnographic studies from around the world—from South Africa to India—to offer a nuanced critique of national and municipal approaches to regulating sex work. Contributors offer new theoretical and methodological perspectives that move beyond already well-established debates between “abolitionists” and “sex workers’ rights advocates” to document both the intention of public policies on sex work and their actual impact upon those who sell sex, those who buy sex, and public health more generally.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814785089
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 12/01/2011
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Susan Dewey is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at University of Alabama. She is the author and editor of many books, including Women of the Street: How the Criminal Justice-Social Services Alliance Fails Women in Prostitution (NYU 2017).

Patty Kelly is Assistant Research Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University in Washington, DC. She is the author of Lydia’s Open Door: Inside Mexico’s Most Modern Brothel.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Sex Work and the Politics of Public Policy
Susan Dewey and Patty Kelly
2 International Trends in the Control of Sexual Services
Michael Goodyear and Ronald Weitzer
3 Into the Galactic Zone
Patty Kelly
4 Sex Work and the State in Contemporary China
Tiantian Zheng
5 Smart Sex in the Neoliberal Present
Dawn Pankonien
6 On the Boundaries of the Global Margins
Susan Dewey
7 The Virtues of Dockside Dalliance
Henry Trotter
8 “Their own way of having power”
Zosa De Sas Kropiwnicki
9 “Hata watufanyeje, kazi itaendelea”
Chimaraoke Izugbara
10 Prostitution in Contemporary Rio de Janeiro
Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette and Ana Paula da Silva
11 Prevailing Voices in Debates over Child Prostitution
Heather Montgomery
12 Organizational Challenges Facing Male Sex Workers in Brazil’s Tourist Zones
Gregory Mitchell
13 “What is the use of getting a cow if you can’t make any money from it?”
Treena Orchard
14 Moral Panic
Erica Lorraine Williams
References
About the Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A rich and deeply insightful collection of ethnographic studies of sex work, taking us from China to Braziland from South Africa to North America. Probing into the complex nexus of structure and agency, exploitation and liberation, it sensitively exposes the need for public policy that is evidence-based and responsive to the lives and experiences of sex-working adults and children. A tremendously valuable and welcome collection for teaching, research, and analysis of contemporary conditions in the global sex trade.”

-Kamala Kempadoo,author of Sexing the Caribbean: Gender, Race, and Sexual Labour

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews