Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience
The notion of resilience has been widely invoked as that essential resource by which sex workers may endure, cope, or thrive despite encountering adversities and stressors. A useful definition within the resilience discourse around sex work is the ability to connect, reconnect, and resist disconnect...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Sexes |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5118/6/1/7 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850088225104723968 |
|---|---|
| author | Heather Worth Karen McMillan Hilary Gorman Merita Tuari’i Lauren Turner |
| author_facet | Heather Worth Karen McMillan Hilary Gorman Merita Tuari’i Lauren Turner |
| author_sort | Heather Worth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The notion of resilience has been widely invoked as that essential resource by which sex workers may endure, cope, or thrive despite encountering adversities and stressors. A useful definition within the resilience discourse around sex work is the ability to connect, reconnect, and resist disconnection in response to hardships, adversities, and trauma. In this article, we will examine the history of ‘resilience’ and show how it has been ubiquitously applied to sex workers in some Pacific Island settings. The resounding message of resilience discourse is that sex workers must learn to cope, accommodate, and adapt themselves to conditions that oppress them, and in fact, presuppose a continued acceptance of a degraded place in the world. Rather than resistance as a political action aimed at changing the social, institutional, and economic structures that have placed sex workers there, resilience shifts the onus onto the individual sex worker or her community support to learn to adapt to those conditions. Resilience strategies may be pragmatic but, in the end, to present these as any kind of solution to sex worker struggles becomes little more than victim blaming. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-15d8b665baab4fb4aa2588efcfbf4625 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2411-5118 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sexes |
| spelling | doaj-art-15d8b665baab4fb4aa2588efcfbf46252025-08-20T02:43:03ZengMDPI AGSexes2411-51182025-01-0161710.3390/sexes6010007Sex Work and the Problem of ResilienceHeather Worth0Karen McMillan1Hilary Gorman2Merita Tuari’i3Lauren Turner4Te Puna Vai Mārama|the Cook Islands Centre for Research, The University of the South Pacific, Rarotonga P.O. Box 130, Cook IslandsIndependent Researcher, Auckland, New ZealandTe Puna Vai Mārama|the Cook Islands Centre for Research, The University of the South Pacific, Rarotonga P.O. Box 130, Cook IslandsTe Puna Vai Mārama|the Cook Islands Centre for Research, The University of the South Pacific, Rarotonga P.O. Box 130, Cook IslandsTe Puna Vai Mārama|the Cook Islands Centre for Research, The University of the South Pacific, Rarotonga P.O. Box 130, Cook IslandsThe notion of resilience has been widely invoked as that essential resource by which sex workers may endure, cope, or thrive despite encountering adversities and stressors. A useful definition within the resilience discourse around sex work is the ability to connect, reconnect, and resist disconnection in response to hardships, adversities, and trauma. In this article, we will examine the history of ‘resilience’ and show how it has been ubiquitously applied to sex workers in some Pacific Island settings. The resounding message of resilience discourse is that sex workers must learn to cope, accommodate, and adapt themselves to conditions that oppress them, and in fact, presuppose a continued acceptance of a degraded place in the world. Rather than resistance as a political action aimed at changing the social, institutional, and economic structures that have placed sex workers there, resilience shifts the onus onto the individual sex worker or her community support to learn to adapt to those conditions. Resilience strategies may be pragmatic but, in the end, to present these as any kind of solution to sex worker struggles becomes little more than victim blaming.https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5118/6/1/7resiliencesex workPacific Islandsstructureagencyresistance |
| spellingShingle | Heather Worth Karen McMillan Hilary Gorman Merita Tuari’i Lauren Turner Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience Sexes resilience sex work Pacific Islands structure agency resistance |
| title | Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience |
| title_full | Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience |
| title_fullStr | Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience |
| title_short | Sex Work and the Problem of Resilience |
| title_sort | sex work and the problem of resilience |
| topic | resilience sex work Pacific Islands structure agency resistance |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5118/6/1/7 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heatherworth sexworkandtheproblemofresilience AT karenmcmillan sexworkandtheproblemofresilience AT hilarygorman sexworkandtheproblemofresilience AT meritatuarii sexworkandtheproblemofresilience AT laurenturner sexworkandtheproblemofresilience |