Power to the Putas : navigating visibility, agency, and sexual labor within a polarized feminist movement : a Buenos Aires case study : exploring transformative strategies, outcomes, and limitations

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Master’s Thesis | Paige Rice

International Development Studies | Graduate School of Social Sciences

June, 2018

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University of Amsterdam

Graduate School of Social Sciences

MSc International Development Studies

Master’s Thesis

Power to the

Putas

Navigating visibility, agency, and sexual labor within a

polarized feminist movement | A Buenos Aires Case

Study

Exploring transformative strategies, outcomes, and limitations

June, 2018

Paige Rice | 11855746

Paigemrice8@gmail.com

Supervisor: Dennis Rodgers

Second Reader: Esther Miedema

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Dedication

I would like to dedicate this thesis to the brave cis, transgender, transsexual, and travesti women who make up the Argentine feminist movement. Sex worker and non-sex worker alike, these women’s commitment to resistance is remarkable and inspiring. I have never felt so empowered and proud of women as I did attending the International Women’s strike in Buenos Aires and witnessing the love, compassion, and excitement of the thousands of participants. Thank you for allowing me to momentarily be a part of your movement.

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Acknowledgements

I would first like to thank Dennis Rodgers, my thesis supervisor for guiding me through this experience. I appreciate his encouragement to pursue my interests and his support, honesty, and insights. I would also like to thank Mariana Calandra, who was my local supervisor and translator in the field. She offered me friendship, emotional support, and wisdom while I was in Buenos Aires. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ana Shindell, who was my translator and friend in the field. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all the participants who took time out of their busy lives to offer insight with openness and honesty.

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Abstract

Feminists largely disagree about how to approach sex work-related vulnerabilities, which result from culturally and socially enforced stigmatization and criminalization While pro-rights advocates support establishing labor rights and protections, abolitionists believe sex work exists to satisfy the demands of patriarchy and capitalism and should be abolished. Feminists, then, serve as allies or adversaries to sex workers fighting to expand their rights. Much of the existing research about sex work focuses on these debates among academic feminists, sex trafficking, and health risks, but little attention is given to how sex workers organize within feminism to forge coalition-building and collaboration. Drawing on face-to-face interviews, participatory research, and secondary sources analysis over nine weeks in Buenos Aires, this research examines how AMMAR, a sex worker organization in Buenos Aires, attempts to influence debate within the local feminist movement and the outcomes and limitations of their activities on feminist perceptions. This research found that AMMAR had its most success through increasing visibility, which offered new insights about sex work and pushed feminists to engage in the sex work debate. Moreover, perceptions of feminists who were open to listen to sex workers were changed by AMMAR’s activities, particularly regarding, their opinions of labor rights, violence, the de-Othering of sex workers, and choice. However, many abolitionists were distrustful of AMMAR and their intentions, and therefore, remained unconvinced. This study concludes by analyzing the ways in which a moralist construction of sex serves as a barrier to destigmatizing sex work because social and personal experiences with sexuality and sexual violence permeate how feminists come to understand exploitation and violence within sex work thereby restricting their ability to view sex work outside of male dominance and female subordination.

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List of Acronyms

AMMAR: Asociación Mujeres Meretreces de la Argentina en Acción por Nuestros Derechos; Association of Female Sex Workers of Argentina in Action for Our Rights

CABA: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires; Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

CTA: Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina; Argentine Worker’s Central Union

FUERTSA: Frente de Unidad Emacipatorio por el Reconocimiento de los Derechos de Trabajadorxs

Sexuales en Argentina; Front of Emancipatory Unity for the Recognition of Sex Worker Rights in

Argentina

Palermo Protocol: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children

RedTraSex: Red de Mujeres Trabajadoras Sexuales de Latinoamèrcia y el Caribe; The Network of

Female Sex Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Map of Argentina and its provinces (source: mapsopensource) ... 6

Figure 2: Photo of the International Women's Day Strike (source: author) ... 20

Figure 3: Photo of AMMAR supporters at the Women's Strike (source: author) ... 33

Figure 4: Photo of Women's Strike planning meeting(source: author) ... 46

Figure 5: The charmed circle (source: Medium)... 64

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Chapter 1: Introduction

On a scorching hot Argentine day, I sat in the lobby of the overcrowded and underfunded Ministry of Defense Against Institutional Violence. Surrounded by anti-police violence and harassment posters, free condom distribution, and a small play center for young children, I apprehensively wondered how my first meeting with AMMAR (Asociación Mujeres Meretreces de la Argentina en Acción por Nuestros

Derechos, or Association of Female Sex Workers of Argentina in Action for Our Rights) would transpire.

AMMAR, the focus of my research, is a sex worker organization and the subject of tumultuous debate and controversy amongst the Buenos Aires feminist movement.

The office was located in Constitución, one of the poorest neighborhoods in CABA (Ciudad

Autónoma de Buenos Aires, or Autonomous City of Buenos Aires), and a common place for street sex

workers, especially transgender, transsexual, and travesti, to conduct their work, day and night. Crossing the border from San Telmo, a recently gentrified historic neighborhood of Buenos Aires, to Constitución was like stepping into a different city all together. The streets were dirtier, the buildings were falling apart, and there was not a tourist in sight. The people were more diverse compared to the mostly white, middle-class, heteronormative population in the cosmopolitan central and northern neighborhoods. On one of the hottest days of the year, trans*1 sex workers lingered in the shade clad in short skirts and high heels, chatting with one another and waiting for their next client.

I was told to arrive for a members’ meeting in the afternoon and that I would be able to interview Georgina Orellano, the General Secretary of AMMAR, afterwards. The location for the weekly meetings was temporary while the AMMAR ‘office’ in Constitución was under renovation. I would later go to this office for an interview to discover what looked like an abandoned building doubling as an office and apartment for sex workers. The inside looked like the shell of a once beautiful two-story house stripped bare and crumbling from years of neglect.

The meeting in Constitución began about an hour late when Georgina arrived. Only a few women attended the meeting, which was intended to collect information about issues on the ground and discuss

1

Generally used as an umbrella term for transgender, transsexual, and travesti individuals. Although I use this term at times throughout the thesis, it is also important to note that a big topic among transgender, transsexual, and travesti women in the feminist movement is that their identities are not erased. Therefore, I use the full phrase, that is, ‘transgender, transsexual, and travesti,’ when appropriate.

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potential solutions. Georgina, in the midst of traveling around the country to meet with smaller AMMAR chapters, making many public appearances, and preparing for the International Women’s Strike, carved out time to meet with the few women who could take time off from working to attend. The meeting was short, but covered important issues, including lack of clients, the need for hormone treatments for their transgender, transsexual, and travesti compañeras, how to provide better STI treatment and prevention education, and creating a guide for medical centers where sex workers can seek help without fear of discrimination or abuse.

Once the meeting was over, Georgina suggested that I speak to the women present in place of our interview. Nervously, I fumbled through my notes, unprepared and unsure where to begin. Before I could settle on an appropriate first question, one woman jumped in unprompted to recount her personal experiences as a sex worker in Buenos Aires. The three women agreed that the most problematic impediment to safe and profitable sex work was the Argentine sex trafficking laws, which effectively criminalized their work, forcing it on to the street, and deterring clients. The law to which they referred, the Federal Anti-Trafficking Law passed in 2008, is widely perceived as being detrimental to sex workers.

This law, while serving the legitimate purpose of criminalizing human trafficking, is also applied to those selling sex ‘autonomously’- or without ‘third party’ involvement - who are suspected of working with ‘third parties’- any person who facilitates the sale and purchase of sex, who is presumed to be exploiting sex workers (Amnesty International, 2016, 9).

Reflecting the stance taken by the Palermo Protocol, an international agreement meant to target human trafficking prevention, consent of the sex worker is largely dismissed when third party involvement or exploitation is suspected (Amnesty International, 2016).

The Palermo Protocol, adopted by the UN in 2000, was designed to prevent and combat the ‘traffic in persons’ at an international level. Article 3b of the agreement clarifies that “the consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation…shall be irrelevant.” Although the protocol has the altruistic intention of rescuing trafficking victims and prosecuting abusers, it also conflates sex work with sex trafficking (Day, 2010), with the effect that virtually all prostitution is criminalized regardless of the sex worker’s consent. For example, sex work in apartment, brothels, or cabarets is considered trafficking even if the sex workers chose to be there because they cannot legally consent if a third party is involved (Amnesty International, 2016). Sex trafficking is a global issue that deserves the attention of governments, NGOs, and advocacy networks alike; however, the conflation between sex work and

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trafficking hurts both trafficking victims and sex workers. First, it invisiblizes sex trafficking victims with over exaggerated numbers of alleged victims. Second, it hurts sex workers by criminalizing their work and leaving them vulnerable to arrest, violence, and police persecution (Einarsdóttir & Boiro, 2014). The beginning of the twenty-first century saw a newfound interest in human trafficking, particularly the traffic of women and girls. Pushed largely by feminists, evangelicals, and governments, this discourse identified the intersection of human trafficking and prostitution as ‘sex trafficking’, which remains largely interlinked in anti-trafficking consciousness (Kempadoo, 2015; Bernstein, 2010).

Over the past decade, mounting public and political attention has been directed toward the ‘traffic in women’ as a dangerous manifestation of global gender inequalities. Media accounts have similarly rehearsed stories of the abduction, transport, and forced sexual labor of women and girls whose poverty and desperation render them amenable to easy victimization in first- and third-world cities (Bernstein, 2010, 45).

The focus on anti-trafficking campaigns, and the privileging of a victimhood discourse over the rights and agency, or ability to act and make decisions despite structural constraints (Benoit & Shaver, 2006), of autonomous sex workers, has resulted in what Elizabeth Bernstein (2007) has termed ‘carceral feminism.’ Carceral feminism employs a ‘law and order agenda’ and the ‘carceral state’ to achieve feminist goals, relying on the threat of incarceration as the key deterrence to participation in a street-based sexual economy. Such laws, which in effect, criminalize all participants of prostitution despite their claims to protect the ‘victims’ themselves, are written, passed, and enforced “under the guise of [the victim] being delivered out of slavery into freedom (Bernstein, 2007,143).” Abolitionism is a prevalent stance within feminist debates that informs anti-trafficking discourse by considering all forms of prostitution, including autonomous sex work, as patriarchal violence (Leidholdt, 2003). Thus, abolitionist and anti-trafficking discourses fail to address how the carceral measures taken to stop exploitation also criminalize and cause harm to sex workers by rendering them vulnerable to police raids, violence, and detention (Bernstein, 2010).

Female sex workers in Buenos Aires face a plethora of job related vulnerabilities, many of which stem from the social barriers placed around their work for the sake of sex trafficking prevention. These vulnerabilities include difficulties accessing affordable housing and health care, risks of losing children to social services, violence from police, clients, and fellow sex workers, police extortion, housing raids, fear of being outed to friends and family, lack of retirement options, and incarceration (Amnesty International, 2016). In addition to these vulnerabilities, sex workers are criminalized by the Codigos

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Contravencionales, which restrict where street sex work can take place and prohibit ‘scandalous’ and

‘ostentatious’ behavior, emboldening police to arbitrarily detain and extort sex workers (Amnesty International, 2016). AMMAR supports all sex workers, regardless of gender, but focuses on cis2 and trans* female sex workers because they are the most vulnerable and susceptible to violence. Male sex workers exist in Buenos Aires, but most of their work is facilitated online and they are not subjected to the same kind of violence as street and indoor female sex workers (Conversations with AMMAR, 2018). Although they also suffer from lack of labor rights, male sex workers are not targeted by abolitionist or sex trafficking prevention groups looking to ‘save’ female sex workers from patriarchal violence. Furthermore, while sex trafficking and abolitionist discourse focuses on saving female sex workers from perceived exploitation, AMMAR tackles the day to day vulnerabilities sex workers face and builds their objectives and strategies from the ground up.

Many abolitionist feminists have the misconception that AMMAR acts in its own financial interest, in favor of capitalism, patriarchy, and status quo, and with the financial backing of international organizations with an interest in the sex trade. AMMAR has been portrayed as rich and thriving. In reality, AMMAR is a grassroots organization fighting to facilitate better livelihoods for sex workers in any way they can. Its members, activists, and volunteers are on the streets every day working with sex workers to tackle the stigmatization, discrimination, and marginalization faced by its members and administer care that the government refuses to provide. Moreover, because abolitionists see little distinction between sex work and sex trafficking, they do not consider sex work as a legitimate form of labor (George, Vindhya, & Ray, 2010). Therefore, many abolitionists believe AMMAR is supporting the sex trafficking industry by aiming their activities towards recognizing sexual labor as legitimate work and obtaining labor rights, rather than raising women out of prostitution and fighting traffickers. Much of abolitionist misconceptions about AMMAR and sex work is informed by panic around female victimization and sex trafficking, which pervades Argentine imagination and infiltrates feminist perceptions about sex work.

…..

At first, I was disappointed that Georgina delayed the interview. As the leader of AMMAR, and the mastermind of many of their accomplishments in the last three years, I believed she was the most important participant. Unfortunately, after showing up four times for scheduled interviews, I was never successful in formally interviewing Georgina. While I do think she was avoiding my interview, whether

2

Term used to identify an individual who express the gender they were assigned at birth (as opposed to a trans* or gender non-conforming individual).

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because she was too busy, too skeptical, or just too tired, I also believe that she felt the voices of the sex workers who make up the organization were just as important as hers. Over the two and a half months of research, I came to know this as the key strategy of AMMAR: let sex workers speak.

Later that same week, at a Women’s Strike planning meeting3, I observed this strategy on a much larger scale as a transgender sex worker and teacher representing AMMAR took the stage to plead with over 500 feminists to develop a united position in the strike’s demands. She asked for the community to recognize sex work as work, drawing on her own experience of exclusion from other forms of work based on her gender identity. Despite her powerful message, the applause was faint, especially in comparison to the abolitionist who had spoken moments before. As weeks passed and the strike drew near, the faint applause turned into dissent, then to anger. Observing the Women’s Strike planning meetings offered insight into the polarization within the feminist movement in response to AMMAR’s presence in feminist spaces. The meetings also illuminated the importance for AMMAR of being present in those spaces, with sex worker activists sharing their experiences and making demands in order to keep working towards changing the discourse from within the feminist community.

1.1 Problem statement

Sex workers experience occupational risks, including violence, criminalization, poor working conditions, limited or non-existent labor protections and rights, and representations that result in stigmatization, vulnerability, and social exclusion (Amnesty International, 2016). Feminists largely disagree about how to approach sex work. On one hand, pro-rights advocates push to establish labor rights and greater protections (Jackson, 2016). On the other hand, abolitionists believe sex work exists to satisfy the demands of patriarchy and capitalism, and is therefore, oppressive and should be abolished (Cutuli, 2015). Depending on their posture, feminists serve as a powerful ally or adversary to sex workers fighting to expand their labor rights. Although sex work is an important topic for feminists right now, much of the existing research about sex work focuses on debates taking place among academic feminists, sex trafficking, and health risks. Therefore, little attention has been given to the ways in which sex worker organizations attempt to influence the debate within local feminist communities, why feminists are an important target, and the outcomes of these activities.

1.2 The study area

3_{The Women’s Strike general assembly meetings, intended to plan the strike on International Women’s Day on March 8}th,

provided me the opportunity to conduct participatory research as it was a space in which I could observe AMMAR and the rest of the feminist community interact.

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Figure 1: Map of Argentina and its provinces (source: mapsopensource)

The research location was Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. Argentina is located in South America and shares a border with Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Buenos Aires is located on the eastern coast of Argentina on the Rio de la Plata. It is the largest city in Argentina with a population of 2,891,000 in CABA and around 15 million in the greater metropolitan area. Despite being a Latin American city, 89% of the population is of European descent4. The largest religion is Roman Catholicism, with about 20% of the population practicing (World Population Review, 2017).

Unemployment has been a continuous problem in Argentina since the 2001 financial crisis, with women having chronically higher rates of unemployment and underemployment than men. There has also been a surge of informal or irregular work, resulting in reduced wages and benefits and economic instability. As of 2011, it was estimated that about 40% of employed women held informal jobs and about 60% of women in the private sector were working irregular jobs (Di Marco, 2011). In the last quarter of 2017, the unemployment rate of the greater Buenos Aires area was 9.2%, which is around half a million people (Fernet, 2018).

High income inequality and unemployment has led many women to enter the sex trade. Due to the clandestine nature of sex work, there are many constraints that make the job more difficult. In response to these constraints, sex workers in Buenos Aires

have a history of self-advocacy and activism; however, the ongoing battle over decriminalization has been tumultuous (Cutuli, 2012; Sabsay, 2013). Sex workers today operate in a grey zone in which their work is neither criminalized nor fully protected5. Their labor is technically legal, but sex workers have few rights, work in poor, unsanitary conditions, lack proper health care, and are met with violence and policing (Amnesty International, 2016). Justified through a sex trafficking prevention paradigm, this grey zone of

4_{The relative racial homogeneity of Buenos Aires made more difficult an analysis of race-related inequalities and}

differences in perceptions. Although it is true that a disproportionate percentage of sex workers, particularly the transgender, transsexual, and travesti sex workers, were of color, most of the people I spoke to were of European decent and did not address race as a main issue. Therefore, a significant discussion of race is not included in this thesis.

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legality is to blame for much of sex workers’ marginalization as ambiguous laws prevent them from conducting their work safely and without fear of violence or arbitrary arrest (Sabsay, 2011). However, despite their legal marginality, sex workers in Buenos Aires play an active role in organizing and self-advocacy to improve their livelihoods and reduce stigmatization and violence.

1.3 Research aim and relevance

The aim of this research is to draw on qualitative data to examine why and how AMMAR works to transform the debate about sex work within the feminist movement in Buenos Aires, and to explore the intended and unintended outcomes. In a broad sense, this research highlights strategies available to sex worker organizations for self-empowerment and coalition-building within local feminist movements, and to explore the role of feminism in contributing to and fighting against marginalization of sex workers. This could provide a framework for sex workers and feminists to work together to develop strategies locally in favor of sex worker empowerment.

Much of the existing academic feminist research about sex work focuses on decriminalization versus abolition, health risks, sex trafficking, and empowerment through organization-building (Bernstein, 2007; Bernstein, 2011, Compres, 2009; Gooptu, & Bandyopadhyay, 2007; Parimi, Mishra, Tucker, & Saggurti, 2012). However, little research exists about the relationship between sex worker organizations and feminist communities, and the benefits of feminist support for these organizations. According to Kempadoo (2001), the role of feminist academics is to “collaborate with sex workers to struggle for everyday changes and transformations in the sex trade and for policies and practices that would strengthen them as autonomous, knowing subjects (44).” This research is situated within this framework, aiming to promote greater collaboration and encourage feminists to lift to the voices of sex workers as fellow feminists and experts in their field.

This research is relevant to development studies because sex work and its related vulnerabilities are largely consequences of poverty, capitalism, globalization, and patriarchy, all of which concern development academics. The global sex trade mirrors and reproduces global inequality between and within nations and effects those who are already marginalized (Kempadoo, 2001). Buenos Aires is situated in the Global South and has high levels of income inequality and unemployment (COHA, 2014), which contributes to the need for cis and trans* women to engage in sex work. Much inequality and unemployment stems from austerity measures and market liberation imposed on Argentina from western centric regimes who opened markets to satisfy the economic aspirations of the west (Di Marco, 2011). Therefore, development scholars should concern themselves with the protection of groups made

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vulnerable through global systems of oppression and advocate for expanded rights for those populations, particularly when they ask for it.

Finally, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goal 8.8, regarding decent work and economic growth, a main target is to “protect labor rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment (United Nations General Assembly, 2015).” Sex workers are largely women or gender minorities, migrants, of color, and living in poverty (Cutuli, 2015; Kempadoo, 2001; Raguparan, 2017). Their work is informal and criminalized, and therefore, precarious and unprotected (Amnesty International, 2016). Although some would not consider sex work to qualify as ‘decent work’, the reality is that it is occurring as both a job and a survival strategy that is chosen over other low-skill jobs (Rosen & Venkatesh, 2008), including fast food, domestic, farm, and factory work. Keeping in mind the agency sex workers enact by choosing sex work, these other forms of low-skill labor should not be privileged over sex work as more ‘decent’. Therefore, in accordance to SDG 8.8, development academics should have an interest in protecting sex workers and working to secure them greater labor rights.

1.4 Thesis outline

This thesis is organized into seven chapters. The Introduction introduces the research topic, relating it to global debates about sex trafficking including the Palermo Protocol, as well as situating the sex industry in Buenos Aires, legally, economically, and socio-culturally. The second chapter circumscribes the research within existing literature, highlighting the vulnerabilities sex workers face due to their occupation, the main debates occurring within feminism about sex work, and the importance of engaging sex workers in those debates.

Chapter three provides background about AMMAR and their involvement in the labor and feminist movements, as well as broader cultural context to explain why feminism is an important battleground for sex workers in Buenos Aires. Chapter four addresses research questions, conceptual scheme and operationalization, methods and methodologies, ethical considerations, and limitations.

Chapter five and six concentrates on data analysis and findings from the field, discussing AMMAR’s objectives and strategies to influence the debate about sex work within the feminist movement and the intended and unintended outcomes on the perceptions of feminists as a result of their activities. Chapter seven, the Conclusion, will answer my main research question, expand upon cultural, personal, and organizational limitations of AMMAR’s organizing, and provide suggestions for further research.

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Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework

This chapter brings together the conceptual foundation of this research, divided into three main sections. The first section offers context regarding sex work-related vulnerabilities, focusing on representations of sex workers within the paradoxical discourses of victimhood and moral depravation, and how these contradictory representations inform societal perceptions of sex workers that shape their job-related vulnerabilities. The second section reviews the positions of the two opposing sides of the feminist sex work debate, namely abolitionist and pro-rights approaches, and provides a framework for understanding choice and agency within an unequal, capitalist society. The final section elaborates on the previous two sections by discussing the importance of engaging sex workers in the feminist debate in order to build better strategies for mitigating vulnerabilities.

2.1 Sex work-related vulnerabilities

Known as ‘the oldest profession in the world’, sex work has captured the attention of journalists, authors, media, and academics alike. Since Victor Hugo (1862) documented the descent and death of Fantine, a fallen woman struggling to provide for her daughter, forced into an underworld of prostitution until she finally dies, ashamed and diseased, sex workers have faced a simultaneous representation of victimhood and immorality. While sex workers, particularly those who are female, poor, and of color, make the exemplary victim of capitalism, patriarchy, and circumstance (Raguparan, 2017), they are also represented as women of moral degeneracy and uncleanliness, in contrast to proper femininity. These representations serve to frame sex workers as the Other, distinguishing them from respectable female sexuality (Hubbard, 1998). Ideas about victimhood and immorality underscore laws and social structures that alienate sex workers and engender discrimination and stigmatization (Amnesty International, 2016). This section expands upon representations of sex workers within the dichotomy of victimhood and deviance, and the ways in which sex workers experience socially and culturally sanctioned violence and vulnerability that are justified through these representations.

2.1.1 The ‘inherent victim’: Class, race, and gender

Sex workers are often referred to within a framework of victimhood, being portrayed as poor, cis or trans* females, racialized, migrants, sexually abused, and coerced or forced by pimps, boyfriends, and

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traffickers. There is a longstanding assumption that cis and trans* women who engage in sex work only do so because devastating circumstances have brought them into the trade (Compres, 2009; Day, 2010; George et. al., 2010). Sex workers, abused, exploited, and disadvantaged, have morphed into ‘inherent victims’ within public imagination. Although there is truth that many sex workers are female, working class, and of color, the ways in which these identities coalesce into representations of victimhood are both problematic and inaccurate because they ignore complexities and differences in sex workers as individuals and as a collective (Raguparan, 2017).

Raguparan (2017) identifies three major problems with the inherent victimhood model of representation. Although her study focuses on indigenous and women of color sex workers in Canada, it can reasonably be expanded to include gender and sexual minorities and those living in developing countries. The first problem is that this normative representation of sex workers creates a definite category of trans, third world, racialized, and indigenous women who engage in sex work. The second problem is that the trope of victimhood is used to frame sex workers as “a model for a certain type of victim,” which ignores those who fall outside of this model. The third problem is that this model of victimhood is intended to influence the public, so it is not questioned, and instead, reproduced, reiterated, and unquestionably presumed to be true. Within this model of the inherent victim, those who choose, feel empowered by, and enact agency through sex work are silenced in favor of a representation more in line with acceptable female sexuality and femininity, that is, one of fragility, lack of control, and need for protection.

2.1.2 Immorality, shame, and regulation of female sexuality

In contrast to the ‘inherent victim’, the image of the cis-female and transgender or transsexual prostitute has long stood as a symbol of immorality and sexual deviancy in public social imagination (Hubbard, 1998). Taboos around sex work have grown out of religious and cultural ideas that define and regulate appropriate female sexuality (Shannon & Csete, 2010). Modern moral discourses around sex workers reinforce proper gender expression and femininity, as well as sexual and racial roles, by contrasting the proper woman against the street sex worker who lives within a ‘motif of degeneracy, contagion, and sexual lasciviousness’ Within this context, sex workers are positioned within an us/them dichotomy constituting an ‘Other’ identity, which acts as a threat to Christian, middle-class values and aids in defining and constricting respectable female sexuality (Hubbard, 1998) . “The mass media in Western societies has generally sought to perpetuate images that depict prostitutes as social pariahs, fallen women or `bad girls’ and to use such images to distinguish this `deviant’ group from `normal’ purified populations (Hubbard, 1998, 58)”. Therefore, societies distinguish between themselves and sex workers,

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as deviants, victims, or both, in order to create barriers between those who practice proper female sexuality and femininity, and those who fall outside of culturally accepted practices.

The establishment of the us/them binary demonstrates how closely tied shame is to constructions of female sexuality, and how fragile this construction is when those who deviate pose such a strong threat. Moreover, from a young age, girls are pressured to conform to appropriate femininity, which discourages expressions of hostility and anger during times of duress. The result of this is that women and girls experience internalized anger and anxiety, leading to ‘turning against the self’ and causing feelings of shame (Manion, 2003). Female sexuality has been regulated within laws, states, institutions, families, schools, and media, creating shame, guilt, and silence for women around sex that falls outside of the strict parameters of proper female sexuality. According to Rubin (1984) the ‘charmed circle’ is a set of privileged sexual behaviors deemed acceptable by society. Juxtaposed against the ‘charmed circle’ are their ‘bad’ opposites in which sex work falls among other common, yet ‘deviant’, sexual practices. Although women experience shame for ‘inappropriate’ sexual behaviors, by drawing symbolic boundaries that Other sex workers, women ‘construct a sense of superiority,’ establishing their relative purity, thus reclaiming propriety and averting shame (Armstrong, Hamilton, Armstrong, & Seeley, 2014). However, shame still pervades female sexuality and women’s understandings of power dynamics, violence, and exploitation within sexual relationships which informs female perceptions of sex work. Unfortunately, this Othering comes at the expense of discrimination, stigmatization, and violence against sex workers (Shannon & Csete, 2010).

2.1.3 Structural and gender-based violence

Sex workers are confronted with multiple forms of violence, the most insidious being structural and gender-based, which are inextricably linked together. Structural violence6 refers to the ways in which social structures and institutions cause individuals harm and deny them access to basic means of survival (Johan Galtung, 1969). Social structures are regarded as violent because they are caused by the human actions; and therefore, they are avoidable. “They reproduce violence by marginalizing people and communities, constraining their capabilities and agency, assaulting their dignity, and sustaining inequalities (Rylko-Bauer & Farmer, 2016, 48).” Structural violence is institutionalized within sex work by the laws that leave sex workers unprotected and vulnerable. The informal nature of sex work produces poor working conditions, including low returns and irregular earnings, no pension, social security, or health care, and limited work options in old age. The lack of formal or safe infrastructure for conducting work leads to unsanitary or unsafe spaces for sex, which further erodes health and safety (Campuzano,

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2009). Sexual hierarchies, which stigmatize sex work as ‘indecent’, characterize sex workers as unworthy of protection from violence exclude them from basic needs, and legitimize discrimination (Bell, 2009). Furthermore, abolitionist policies that leave sex workers unprotected and without labor rights push sex work to the street and deny them safety and dignity, while simultaneously criminalizing their work and leaving them vulnerable to undeserved punishment (Jackson, 2016). In this sense, the institutions and structures surrounding sex work enshrine and legitimize their vulnerabilities.

Moreover, cis and trans* female sex workers experience a great deal of violence because they are sex workers and women. These identities are closely interlinked, tying femaleness into much of their vulnerability to violence. Gender-based violence is characterized by cultural, social, and political power imbalances between men and women which reinforce gender roles and dynamics within societies (Russo & Pirlott, 2006). Gender-based violence is legitimized through social structures such as patriarchy and sexism that normalize and perpetuate male entitlement, female sexual objectification, and inequalities between genders. Linking together experiences of cis and trans* women, gender-based violence cuts across culture, class, and race (Russo & Pirlott, 2006). Furthermore, cis and trans* sex workers are highly vulnerable to gender-based violence because they pose a contradiction to traditional gender roles and represent a different kind of womanhood, that is, one of hypersexuality (Di Pietro, 2016; Hubbard, 1998). For women, and female sex workers in particular, socially constructed understandings of gendered impurities serve to diminish personhood, which constitutes and legitimizes the basis for their vulnerability to violence (Bell, 2016). Therefore, gender-based violence is an increasingly important issue within feminism and creates a split in how feminists view sex work. Whereas abolitionists see sex work in itself as a form of gender-based violence (Leidholdt, 2003), pro-rights advocates view gender-based and institutional violence as two sides of the same coin, both of which result from lack of rights and protections for sex workers (Jackson, 2016).

2.2 Sex work debates in feminism

Since the sex wars of the 1980s, feminists have battled over the discursive and symbolic elements of sex work. In the years following the sexual liberation of the late 1960s, two camps arose in heated opposition over the sexual morality of society. The radical feminists, echoed by elements of the current abolitionist stance, maintained that heterosexual sex, especially in the context of paid sexual labor, was violent and exploitative in a patriarchal society; while the libertarian feminists, or the ‘anti-prudes’, found a space for liberation, pleasure, and danger in sexual relationships between consenting adults (Ferguson, 1984). This debate has sustained and evolved throughout the years to culminate in a modern struggle between the abolitionist and a pro-rights approaches. This section elaborates on the debate between

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abolitionists and pro-rights advocates and highlights the importance of agency in choice, even within constrained circumstances.

2.2.1 Abolitionism

Abolitionism views sex work as inherently violent and exploitative and marked by male dominance and desire. They make few distinctions between sex work and sex trafficking, maintaining that women cannot consent within a capitalist and patriarchal system that leaves them with unsatisfactory options (George et. al., 2010). Prostitution is seen as akin to patriarchal violence and rape (Davis, 2014) and ‘women in the situation of prostitution7’ are viewed as victims who are poor, disadvantaged, and led to prostitution under duress (Rosen & Venkatesh, 2008). Due to the circumstances surrounding their entrance into the sex industry, consent is both irrelevant and impossible; and therefore, the sex trade should be abolished entirely in order to prevent further objectification and marginalization of poor and vulnerable women (Jackson, 2016). Abolitionists argue that, although victims of trafficking and prostitution should not be subjected to legal penalties, all others who profit from their work, including pimps, clients, brothel owners, and traffickers, should be criminalized. Moreover, they oppose legalization and advocate for strict legal barriers that produce a framework of criminality around all sex work-related activities ( George et. al., 2010).

Those who support sex work, including many sex workers themselves, criticize abolitionism for its focus on victimhood and male dominance (Jackson, 2016). This focus ignores agency of sex workers and reproduces sex-negative ideas about choice, female sexuality, and autonomy over one’s body. While many sex worker organizations around the world fight for decriminalization, self-determination, and safe working conditions, abolitionism undermines their work by silencing their voices in favor of a victimhood discourse. Therefore, critics of abolitionism highlight the importance of new approaches that put front and center the participation and self-representation of sex workers who make demands in their own interests (George et. al., 2010).

2.2.2 Pro-rights approach

The most common motivation for entering the sex industry is simple: money. Women can make more money in less time and with greater flexibility, than other low-skill alternatives. Moreover, sex work is

7_{The phrase ‘women in the situation of prostitution’ is how abolitionists in Argentina often refer to sex workers. It is}

intended to avoid legitimizing prostitution as a form of work, while avoiding stigmatizing women with the title of ‘prostitute’, which is associated with criminality.

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generally perceived to be a stable source of income. (Compres, 2009). More money, flexibility, and stability is particularly advantageous for caretakers or mothers who have family relying them for care and financial support (Raguparan, 2017). Due to these perks, women choose to sell their sexual capital in exchange for economic benefits. Abolitionists critique this economic exchange as selling one’s body, while pro-rights advocates and sex workers legitimize sexual labor by arguing that they are not selling their bodies, but rather their sexual services (Compres, 2009).

A pro-rights approach looks to collaborate with sex workers to build legislation focused on labor rights and human dignity (George et. al., 2010). This position places sex work advocacy within a ‘rights-based frame’, holding that sex work activism should work towards ensuring labor rights and better working conditions, including retirement, health care, and safe and clean places to conduct their work (Jackson, 2016). This approach demands state recognition of sex work, which would facilitate access to lines of credit and housing and ensure sex workers’ children are not taken from them by the state. Pro-rights advocates argue that labor Pro-rights would mitigate vulnerabilities by reducing police violence, offering life-saving benefits, and legitimizing sex work, thus destigmatizing the profession (Discussions with AMMAR, 2018; Jackson, 2016). Moreover, decreased state involvement would eliminate the need for regulation in brothels and cabarets, state enforced health checks, and registry programs, which are often part of regulationist8 projects that many sex workers, allies, and abolitionists alike criticize for reproducing stereotypes around uncleanliness and disease and marking sex workers permanently by their profession. Furthermore, the pro-rights approach maintains that sex workers are situated within a broader context of workers’ movements and the working class, placing them at the intersection of informal and gendered labor, which results in double marginalization for cis and trans* female sex workers (Discussions with AMMAR, 2018). A pro-rights approach to sex work encourages individual agency and decision-making and moves the debate towards a focus on improving the current livelihoods and wellbeing of sex workers.

2.2.3 Choice and agency

There is a ‘flawed’ dichotomy present in debates about sex work, which characterizes sexual labor in binaries of exploitation/work; coercion/choice; slavery/freedom. These dichotomies fail to address the heterogeneity of sex workers and their lived experiences which diminish and/or enhance their ability to enact agency (Benoit & Shaver, 2006). Agency refers to the ability of an individual to act and make decisions despite structural constraints. Agency is interdependent with social structures and can be limited due to gender, class, race, ability, and migration status (Gatrell, 2010). In their analysis of ‘structural

8

Regulationist approaches are different than pro-rights approaches and generally encourage state involvement. This approach is widely criticized because it is said to increase stigmatization and subject sex workers to state interference.

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vulnerability,’ Bourgois, Holmes, Sue, & Quesada (2017) address the ways in which structural constraints interfere with livelihoods of marginalized people living “within diverse but identifiable power relationships and hierarchies that can limit access to resources and can shape their decision making and behavior in ways that are sometimes beyond their capacity to control or change without extra support (300).” Those who are most affected by structural vulnerability include those living in poverty, ethnic minorities, the drug addicted, the formerly incarcerated, the uninsured, and the sexually stigmatized (Bourgois et. al., 2017). Individual sex workers encounter structural vulnerabilities which constrict their ability to enact agency; however, these vulnerabilities vary considerably between individuals depending on a variety of factors such as motherhood, class, and citizenship status (Gatrell, 2010). Moreover, within these structural constraints, sex workers enact agency through a decision-making process that illuminates sex work as a viable option within a capitalist and patriarchal society.

In their study of inner city Chicago sex workers, Rosen and Venkatesh (2008), highlight three factors that cause sex work to become a feasible option for people living in poverty: 1) the insufficient job market; 2) the normalization of sex work through family and friends; and 3) the emergence of sex work as ‘a better option’ than the alternatives. Many people living in poverty find themselves excluded from the formal job market for various reasons, including lack of ID cards, insufficient education, and criminal histories. Sex work, then appears as a viable option for those who are chronically or temporarily unemployed. Additionally, sex work is often normalized by community and family members who engaged in sex work, making it a feasible option from a young age. Finally, the alternatives are often minimum wage and stigmatized as well, meaning that sex work may offer more money and freedom than the alternatives. With these factors in mind, choice is defined through a “just enough explanation” which places agency at the center. “When outside factors come into play—such as limited resources, education, information, or limited time— pure rationality is not possible, and so individuals make decisions using ‘bounded rationality,’ producing quick solutions in the immediate, local environment that enables them to solve a problem or choose among alternatives, even though the solution or choice is not necessarily optimal or desirable in the abstract (Rosen and Venkatesh, 2008, 425).” Keeping with this definition, choice within a capitalist and patriarchal system is indeed constrained by circumstances. However, viewing choice through the lens of agency uncovers the ways in which those living in poverty make decisions from the options they are given. Therefore, although sex work may not be the first choice for most individuals with boundless options, it is a rational alternative for those whose options are constrained by structural forces. To better understand choice and agency, feminist scholars must begin to engage sex workers in the debate. Fortunately, recent years have shown that they are ready to provide insights into their experience, fight against vulnerabilities, and speak for themselves.

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2.3 Sex workers speak: Why should we listen?

In the past, sex workers have been silenced by fears of violence, detainment, deportation, stigmatization, and rejection. However, as the pro-rights stance becomes more mainstream, sex workers are carving out a space for themselves to share their experiences, make demands, and offer critical insights. Considering the underfunding of movements, and risk to one’s relationships, personal security, and reputation, the global uprising of sex worker movements is remarkable. Sex worker organizations have sprung up around the world with the backing of pro-rights feminist scholars, journalists, and NGOs. They employ a variety of strategies, from the more traditional route of filing court cases, lobbying, and collaborating with other movements and interest groups; to more creative strategies, such as publicly issuing bills to politicians who use their services (Geymonat & Macioti, 2016). Through self-advocacy, sex workers are able to work to change a system that oppresses them, resist marginalization, and offer alternatives to representations that have been imposed on them. Furthermore, sex worker movements have caught the attention of feminists who are interested in collaborating to promote labor rights and end stigmatization. By engaging with one another, sex workers and feminists widen the scope of their advocacy and expand modes of coalition-building to reimagine strategies for sex worker empowerment and mitigation of vulnerabilities (Kempadoo, 2001).

Increased knowledge of and access to sex workers’ insights is advantageous for feminists concerned with the sex work debate because it allows for a paradigm shift away from victimhood, health concerns, and disempowerment, to their interpretations of choice, advocacy, and agency. Rather than feminists theorizing about what drives women to enter sex work, what keeps them there, and if they experience exploitation, they tell us directly. Hearing these stories from sex workers allows feminists to develop deeper understandings of the motivations, struggles, and experiences of sex workers to facilitate better strategies in collaboration and support for mitigation of structural vulnerabilities and more in-depth critiques of damaging state-interventions (Geymonat & Macioti, 2016). “We could, from our academic and other non-sex work locations, collaborate with sex workers to struggle for everyday changes and transformations in the sex trade and for policies and practices that would strengthen them as autonomous, knowing subjects. We could also acknowledge their efforts as part of the contemporary transnational women's movement (Kempadoo, 2001, 44).” Recognizing the subjectivity and experience of sex workers as women, workers, activists, and feminists, should inaugurate sex worker movements into broader

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women’s movements. Moreover, feminists should listen to, reflect upon, and respect sex workers’ insights regarding strategies and policies aimed at reducing their own vulnerabilities and in favor of their own empowerment (Kempadoo, 2001). In learning from sex workers, feminists can construct a holistic view of the complex experiences with agency, exploitation, sexuality and labor that occur in sex workers’ lives. In sum, feminists should stop debating about sex work without the input of sex workers themselves. Feminists and (feminist) sex workers alike benefit when sex workers insights are at the forefront of the dialogue.

2.4 Concluding remarks

Based on this conceptual discussion, it is clear that steps need to be taken to strengthen collaboration with sex workers to mitigate culturally and legally sanctioned vulnerabilities. As overly-simplistic and Othering representations of sex workers plague the media, television, and public imagination, they navigate a world in which their means of survival are criminalized and stigmatized (Jackson, 2016). Despite the complex reality of sex workers, society has committed itself to the fetishization of a monolithic dichotomy of victimhood and perversion that fails to recognize the heterogeneity, agency, and strength of those who choose sex work and the ways in we reinforce and authorize their vulnerability by refusing to legitimize their work. By creating space for sex workers to enter the debate, feminists are offered new insights, representations, and analyses of these vulnerabilities and given the opportunity to build coalitions with sex workers feminist to work towards strategies for greater sex worker emancipation (Kempadoo, 2001).

The lived experiences, vulnerabilities, and needs, as conveyed by sex workers around the world, should be at the forefront of feminist discussion and advocacy around sex work (Geymonat & Macioti, 2016). Moreover, sex worker organizations should be taking the lead on this discussion, with non-sex worker feminists acting in support and collaboration for better livelihoods. Still, despite the demands made by sex workers for recognition of work and expansion of rights, which are believed to mitigate vulnerabilities, they are largely being ignored by many feminists in favor of perceptions of disempowerment and choice that belittle and disregard agency (Jackson, 2016). In Buenos Aires, AMMAR has embraced this battle within the feminist community and is working to change feminist perception of sex work from the inside out.

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Chapter 3: Contextual framework

Drawing on the more general conceptual framework regarding sex work-related vulnerabilities, the feminist debate, and the value of sex workers entering this debate, this chapter highlights the key contextual foundations underlying this research. The chapter has been divided into two main sections. The first section provides background about AMMAR and its connection to the feminist and labor movements. The second section discusses the growing power and importance of the feminist movement and highlight the most significant feminist spaces.

3.1 AMMAR and the great frontiers: The labor and feminist movements

Originally founded in 1994 by a group of sex workers organizing against police corruption and abuse, AMMAR is an organization comprised of cis and trans* female sex workers (Knight, 2009) whose principle objectives are advocating for legitimization of sexual labor, in favor of labor rights and workers’ benefits, for the repeal of the Codigos Contraventionales, and for greater condemnation of violence against sex workers (Hardy, 2010). AMMAR is part of the CTA (Central de Trabajadores de la

Argentina, or Argentine Central Workers’ Union) and RedTraSex (Red de Mujeres Trabajadoras Sexuales de Latinoamèrcia y el Caribe, or The Network of Female Sex Workers in Latin America and the

Caribbean), both of which link them to broader networks of workers and transnational sex worker organizations. The members of AMMAR recognize their marginalization as stemming from three sources: “as women in a patriarchal society, as members of the working class in an unjust and unequal capitalist world, and as sex workers in a hypocritical society with a double standard (Hardy, 2010, 94).” In this sense, they have situated their oppression inside both the feminist struggle within the patriarchy and the working-class struggle within capitalism.

According to Hardy (2010), AMMAR has made strides in infiltrating the workers’ movement since joining the CTA in 2001. Though initially met with skepticism, AMMAR has strengthened its position

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within the organization over the past 17 years by showing solidarity with the struggles of other workers’ unions. Despite joining the CTA, AMMAR is not formally recognized as a union by the work ministry, meaning they do not have the right to distribute social benefits offered by official unions (Hardy, 2010). However, by declaring themselves as a part of the working class and aligning their messaging with that of the labor unions, they have attempted to legitimize their demands for equal rights that are already given to other workers. By adopting this class consciousness, they have reframed their struggle within a broader political context of common struggles shared with other members of the working class. Joining the CTA has provided both symbolic capital and tangible capital. The CTA has provided space for offices, education, meeting rooms, and HIV services, which has increased AMMAR’s organizing capabilities. Additionally, they have created social and political networks, enabled access to important individuals, and provided resources, education, and institutional support for AMMAR (Hardy, 2010). Membership in the CTA has empowered AMMAR and facilitated greater political participation and capacity to become the influential organization they are today.

Despite their significant support from the labor movement, AMMAR has had more difficulty in capturing the approval of the feminist movement. Of course, the labor and feminist movements are made up of many individuals with different opinions, so support will likely never be unanimous among either group; however, the Argentine feminist movement, which tried to work towards consensus on major issues, remains heatedly divided about sex work. As AMMAR pushes its way into the feminist movement with clever slogans like puta feminista9, and by being present at every feminist event, they continue to

levy both sympathetic support and vehement dissent from feminists with whom they share spaces (Discussions with AMMAR and Argentine feminists, 2018). As the feminist movement gains political power in Buenos Aires, they have become an increasingly important ally, and conversely, an increasingly harmful adversary for AMMAR.

3.2 Growing importance of feminist spaces and the culture of resistance

The feminist movement in Buenos Aires has become increasingly visible and influential in recent years. Due to the novelty and grassroots nature of the movement, little academic literature10 exists about its current status, but much of the information about the movement has been disseminated through social media and journalism. The Ni Una Menos movement, founded in 2015 by a group of feminist academics, artists, and journalists, has become the face of the feminist movement in Argentina. Ni Una Menos, which

9

Translation: feminist whore.

10

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Figure 2: Photo of the International Women's Day Strike (source: author)

directly translates to Not One Less, is a response to the problem of machista violence11 that has resulted in a rise in femicidio12 (Beatley, 2017), broadly defined as gender-based violence, but more simply, as killing women because they are women (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2017). The movement has galvanized the support of thousands of women who identify as feminists, as well as those who do not, at nationwide strikes aimed on putting pressure on policy makers and leaders to take steps to end femicide and gender-based violence. With one femicide occurring every 18-30 hours in Argentina (Palmer, 2017), the movement is not only a vital mechanism for addressing structural issues plaguing Argentine women and girls, it is also an urgent one.

The contemporary feminist movement in Buenos Aires goes far beyond addressing femicide and travesticide13, also focusing on safe, free, and legal abortions, sexual education in schools, separation of church and state, respect for different gender and sexual identities, and a rejection of austerity and economic measures taken by the current Macri government (General Assembly International Women’s Strike, 2018). In addition to the annual Ni Una Menos marches, feminists broadcast their resistance through regular rallies in favor of legal abortion, the March 8th strike on International Women’s Day, and in solidarity with other important days of resistance such as the march on the Day of Remembrance 14 and labor strikes. The broader culture of resistance in Argentina is reflected through the frequent and dynamic protests, demonstrations, and strikes which the feminist movement spearheads and participates. Argentina, which has one of the highest levels of political protest participation in Latin America, has a long history of protest culture that has altered its history by instating and ejecting political regimes and articulating demands, particularly by the working class (Arce & Mangonnet, 2012). This culture of resistance is important to understanding the ways in which the Argentine feminist movement operates and makes their own demands.

11

Machismo refers to “: a strong sense of masculine pride, an exaggerated masculinity (Merriam Webster)” and is typically associated maintenance of traditional gender and sexual roles with Latin American countries.

12_{Translation: Femicide} 13

Travesticide refers to the gender-based killing of travestis

14_{The Day of Remembrance is a day of marches to commemorate the 30,000 people who disappeared during the military}

dictatorship in the early 1980s. Most of the disappeared were activists, students, professors, priests, and included many transgender, transsexual, and queer individuals

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Debate, activism, and knowledge-sharing between women has been occurring in Argentina at the Women’s National Encounters since 1986. “The meetings are attended by women from both popular and middle-class sectors, whether feminists or not. They are autonomous, self-promoted, pluralistic, massive, independent from institutions, and critical of the establishment… This is a space for women to ponder, debate, discuss, and establish nets, all of it related to a wide range of issues/problems. (Di Marco, 2011, 205).” The Encounters15 have grown from 2,000 in the first year to over 70,000 in 2016 (AMMAR, 2016; Di Marco, 2011). Workshops covering a variety of critical topics for women are held, promoting dialogue and debate among women from different ages, classes, and experiences. The Women’s National Encounters have been integral in activism and education around different topics, with the most recent major win being almost unanimous support within the movement for legalized abortion (Sutton & Borland, 2013). The yearly Encounters are instrumental in shaping feminist thought and guiding the forward tides of the movement.

3.3 Concluding remarks: Parallels of feminist and AMMAR organizing

In 2016, AMMAR was allowed to have their first workshop on sex work at the Women’s National Encounter in 12 years. Over 700 women participated to discuss labor rights, gender identity, and structural violence (AMMAR, 2016). Since then, they have held workshops each year in conjunction with workshops on sex trafficking and prostitution. Sex workers’ voices in spaces like this have been imperative for redefining what it means to be a sex worker. Unfortunately, their presence at these events is also met with harassment and, occasionally, physical violence from abolitionists who oppose their place in feminism. Reflecting the debates described in the previous chapter, the divide between abolitionists and pro-rights advocates in Buenos Aires is intense and highly polarizing. As AMMAR’s presence at feminist events have shown, cis and trans* female sex workers are affected by the same gender-based issues as all women. Sex workers want to be a part of the feminist movement not just because it is beneficial to their messaging, but also because they also suffer from gender injustice. In order to improve their position in the feminist movement and expand feminist support, AMMAR has adopted several key strategies aimed at influencing perceptions of feminists in favor of their cause. As AMMAR becomes more integrated within feminism, the feminist movement has a real opportunity to make a difference for the lives of sex workers by raising their voices and making their issues a focal point of Argentine feminism. Before this can happen, AMMAR needs to convince feminists that their current needs for labor rights and better working conditions outweigh the ideological issues of patriarchal violence associated with abolitionist views of sex work.

15

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Chapter 4: Methodology

After describing the conceptual and contextual frameworks which provided the foundational background of research, this chapter expands upon the methodology and methods employed to carry out this study. The fieldwork took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina over nine weeks between January 21st to March 23rd in 2018.

4.1 Research questions

These research questions are shaped by the ongoing sex work debate within feminism and the steps sex worker organizations are taking to change perceptions about themselves. In Buenos Aires, there is an intense battle between abolitionists and pro-rights advocates within the feminist movement, which is

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being heightened and influenced by the efforts of AMMAR to change the debate from within.

4.2 Conceptual scheme

The conceptual scheme demonstrates that AMMAR employs strategies to influence feminist perceptions in order to build support for their objectives, but their strategies also lend to criticism. AMMAR works from the bottom up, building strategies aimed specifically at feminist perception, namely appropriation, participation in feminist spaces, sex workers speaking, Puta Feminista feminism, working class discourse, and media. The double arrows represent the outcomes of these activities. A double arrow is used to show that, while AMMAR works to influence perceptions, preconceived notions about AMMAR and sex work from feminists also affect how and the extent to which they are influenced by AMMAR.

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4.3 Operationalization table

The operationalization table expands upon the concepts of strategies, outcomes, and perceptions by presenting dimensions, variables, and indicators to break down each concept. The operationalization of concepts is based in the literature presented in chapters 2 and 3. The strategies used by AMMAR are

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broken down to examine the ways in which they use representative and discursive strategies to address their vulnerabilities and advocate to expand rights. Outcomes are operationalized to analyze the intended and unintended outcomes of these strategies. Finally, perceptions are broken down to focus on labor rights, violence, de-Othering of sex workers, and choice.

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Power to the Putas : navigating visibility, agency, and sexual labor within a polarized feminist movement : a Buenos Aires case study : exploring transformative strategies, outcomes, and limitations

Master’s Thesis | Paige Rice

International Development Studies | Graduate School of Social Sciences

June, 2018

University of Amsterdam

Graduate School of Social Sciences

MSc International Development Studies

Power to the

Putas

Navigating visibility, agency, and sexual labor within a

polarized feminist movement | A Buenos Aires Case

Study

Exploring transformative strategies, outcomes, and limitations

Paige Rice | 11855746

Paigemrice8@gmail.com

Supervisor: Dennis Rodgers

Second Reader: Esther Miedema

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Table of Contents

List of Acronyms

List of Figures

Chapter 1: Introduction

…..

1.1 Problem statement

1.2 The study area

1.3 Research aim and relevance

1.4 Thesis outline

Chapter 2: Conceptual Framework

2.1 Sex work-related vulnerabilities

2.1.1 The ‘inherent victim’: Class, race, and gender

2.1.2 Immorality, shame, and regulation of female sexuality

2.1.3 Structural and gender-based violence

2.2 Sex work debates in feminism

2.2.1 Abolitionism

2.2.2 Pro-rights approach

2.2.3 Choice and agency

2.3 Sex workers speak: Why should we listen?

2.4 Concluding remarks

Chapter 3: Contextual framework

3.1 AMMAR and the great frontiers: The labor and feminist movements

3.2 Growing importance of feminist spaces and the culture of resistance

3.3 Concluding remarks: Parallels of feminist and AMMAR organizing

Chapter 4: Methodology

4.1 Research questions

4.2 Conceptual scheme

4.3 Operationalization table