Abstract
This study explored the lived experiences of young female sex workers in Zimbabwe. Having worked with female sex workers in the area of HIV prevention, I was inspired to take a step that would enhance my understanding of the women involved in sex work and the meaning they attached to the world they found themselves in. The study was informed by the qualitative approach. Qualitative methods were better situated for this study as this allowed me to explore and obtain an in-depth appreciation of the experiences of women involved in the sex industry. With some studies centred predominantly on how HIV/AIDS affected the sex, issues around violence, and how they would cope, this study viewed sex workers beyond the Covid-19 pandemic's challenges and included the experiences that shaped their lives. Through applying qualitative methods, the participants were given a chance to share their experiences in their own words and reflect on their lives. The study used qualitative data collection strategies such as interviews and observation to collect data.
The study was based on the philosophical principles of interpretivism, a sociological school of thought, which posits that knowledge can be best produced through exploration, taking note of people's accounts, reflecting and understanding the social world of the participants, and paying attention to their meanings and interpretations of the world and how they make sense of it. Considering that no single qualitative research paradigm can generate knowledge independently, the study applied the interpretive view and some principles of phenomenology as complementary branches of qualitative research to develop a better understanding of the issues at hand. The data analysis also utilised some principles of narrative analysis, whose base is narrative enquiry whereby the researcher analysed the stories people create in their lives. This analysis approach allowed me to examine underlying ideas and latent assumptions instead of taking the facts at face value in terms of the analysis.
Sex work presents a subject matter that is highly contested, with some positions, such as the feminists, taking centre stage in studying sex work and how it affects women. Taking a polarised position, some feminists consider the sex industry as a form of women's subjugation and exploitation. In contrast, others believe sex work should be treated like
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any other form of work where women exercise their financial independence. These debates have also influenced the legal approaches that have shaped how sex work is dealt with. As much as the two feminist positions have made some enormous contributions toward the appreciation of sex work, no approach has given a nuanced position and comprehensive understanding of sex work as it takes cognisance of the diversity of sex work. Sex presents a multi-faceted profession which should be understood within the context it happens as opposed to applying a universal approach to explain it. With both approaches having their flaws, an alternative becomes apparent, hence the application of the polymorphous approach, which is sensitive to the complexity of the sex industry.
The study was informed by Simon and Gagnon's sexual script as the theoretical framework to pay attention to the fundamental question aimed at how the women involved in sex work constructed meaning out of the sexual scripts that form and influence their behaviour in sex work and how these scripts have evolved in different contexts. The sexual script perspective positions sexuality as embedded in the social interaction processes that inform human behaviour. Sexuality within the sexual script is understood as a social construct that is learned and proportioned into moments in one's life span and through varying modes of behaviour. Applying the sexual scripts among young women in sex work presents an opportunity to understand how the scripts are negotiated, contested, reconstructed, or maintained within a socially condemned form of sexuality. This study revealed how the sexual conducts of men and women are not rigid but have always evolved and challenged the status quo. This has led to the emergence of more egalitarian scripts, for example, situations where women are found to take the lead in sexual conduct.
The findings present two contrasting positions by the participants. One depicts sex work as masked with challenges such as physical abuse and stigma. In this position, the women provide detail of how they manage their every day in the sex industry, capturing the pathways into the trade. The pathways into the sex industry are presented partly as the intersectionality of the micro collapse of the economy as well as a dysfunctional family system. For some of the women in the study, entry into sex work was based on the need
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to acquire personal material things and clothing that would enhance self-identity with other social groups they wished to be part of.
In making sense of the world that they found themselves in, for the women in the study, sex work presents an opportunity to display the qualities of a self-sacrificing mother. As selfless mothers, the sex workers must manage between families and their work, a task shrouded in secrets and half-truths about the nature of what they do. As the participants engage in sex work and try to assume an identity of good and responsible mothers, they also must manage the stigma and disciplining practices rooted in age, space, and what is seemingly socially acceptable conduct of an ideal woman. The findings in the first part also demonstrate how the women reshaped the narratives of motherhood, the family, and romantic relationships to make sense of an otherwise transgressive form of sexuality.
In contrast to describing their experiences in sex work in the form of some challenges inherent in the sex industry, as the first part of the findings reveal, the women also give an analogy they drew between sex work and other jobs. By constructing what they do as a form of ordinary employment, the sex workers distance themselves from the dominant discourses of sex work, which is stigmatised and victim-centred, thus challenging existing (re)presentations of sex work as a site of immorality, poverty, and struggles. These narratives functioned to negotiate and navigate dominant stereotypes about themselves by bringing in multiple competing representations. By likening it to any other profession, they also shift the contestations of how the sex industry is viewed from a moral and cultural perspective to one grounded in economics.
Keywords:
Sex work; sexual scripts; Agency; gender; feminism; phenomenology; polymorphous.