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By Meena Saraswathi Seshu
Is sex work violence against women? This is a question that has been posed to me a number of times by some of my dearest friends. I recognize that this question is not asked from a moralistic view point and that it comes from a genuine need to engage on a contentious space which has pitted women in sex work against mainstream feminist thought and theory. Some of the issues they have raised includes that sex work reduces the female body to an object of sexual pleasure and brings the female body into the market place to be exploited by any male.
Veshya Anyay mukti parishad [VAMP] the collective of women in sex work challenges the concept of `exploitation by any male’. They define sex work as adult, monogamous or polygamous sexual partnerships within a commercial context. The contexualisation of sex work is therefore critical, between consenting adults and where the exchange of money is a contract between two or more individuals. The image of the unwilling victim, forced and exploited to offer her services is an image that is informed by a false construction of the female consciousness. The contract itself signifies the `mutual’ nature of the exchange more so because the terms of the contract are controlled by the person/woman offering the service.
The challenge that the sex work paradigm poses is the fact that there is nothing sacred about sex and that it can be offered as a service for monetary gain.
The disbelief that women would never willingly offer their sexual services for money is morphed into societal consciousness. Thus women, who offer such services are constructed as either debauched, debased or worse that they do not comprehend what they are doing. This judgemental attitude is violence against all women who practice sex work. It has contributed immensely to the alienation and marginalization of all women in sex work where force, deception, debt bondage and slavery like practice is the ruling principle.
Meena Saraswathi Seshu is a feminist from India. She is from SANGRAM in India which works with a sex workers collective called VAMP (Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad) Prostitutes Against Injustice. SANGRAM and VAMP are both international members of the Women WON'T wait. End HIV and Violence Against Women. NOW. Campaign.
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Watch out for our daily blogs during the 16 days of Activism:
25 Nov - Intensify efforts in ending all forms of violence against women and girls (Shamillah Wilson, South Africa)
26 - Are All Defenders Equal? (Cynthia Rothschild, New York, USA)
27 - Give me back my movement! (Everjoice J. Win, Zimbabwe)
28 - An essential package of services to deal with two interlinked human rights and rights crises. (Neelanjana Mukhia, India)
29th - Questions of accountability and violence against women and girl and HIV&AIDS. (Shamillah Wilson, South Africa)
30th - Female Condoms: Now More Than Ever. (Kimberley Whipkey, USA)
1st Dec - Violence of Judgementalism (Meena Saraswathi Seshu, India)
2nd - Violence Against Women, Disasters and Climate Change (Jacqui Patterson, USA)
3rd - Silenced Links: Violence and HIV in Women. A current look at Latin America and the Caribbean. (Mabel Bianco, Argentina)
4th - Sexist Violence. Some Data to take into consideration. (Nirvana Gonzalez Rosa, Puerto Rico/Chile)
5th - Sex Workers. Sex Worker Rights. (Aziza Ahmed, USA)
Rights Not Rescue. Experiences of Sex Workers in Southern Africa. (Vicci Tallis, South Africa)
6th - Criminalisation of HIV and concerns for violence against women. (Norah Matovu Winyi, Kenya)
7th - Issues of violence against lesbian women and lesbian, bi- and transsexual women. (Vicci Tallis, South Africa)
8th - Violence against women in conflict situations. (Mary Wandia - Kenya and Neelanjana Mukhia - India)
9th - Today the enemy is homosexual. Tomorrow it could be you. (Christine Butegwa, Uganda)
10th - Our work isnt done - response to VAW as a consequence of HIV (Neelanjana Mukhia, India)
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The Women WON'T wait. End HIV and Violence Against Women. NOW. Campaign is an international coalition of organizations and networks working to promote women's health and human rights in the struggle to address HIV and AIDS and end all forms of violence against women and girls.
Members of the campaign are: Action Aid; African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET); Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID); Akina Mama wa Afrika; Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL); Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE); Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM); GESTOS-Soropositividade, Comunicação & Gênero; International Community of Women Living with HIV&AIDS Southern Africa (ICW-Southern Africa); International Women’s AIDS Caucus; International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC); Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network; Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA); Program on International Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; SANGRAM; VAMP; and Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA).
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