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Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters

The Construction of Trafficking

Jo Doezema

Argues that the concern with trafficking in women is a modern manifestation of the myth of white slavery. This work examines in detail sex worker reactions to the myth of trafficking, questions the feminist preoccupation with the 'suffering female body' and argues that feminism needs to move towards the creation of new myths.
  • Overview
  • Author Bio
  • Table of Contents
  • Reviews
  • Details

Description

Why is the international community so concerned with the fate of prostitutes abroad? And why does the story of trafficking sound so familiar? In this pioneering new book, Jo Doezema argues that the current concern with trafficking in women is a modern manifestation of the myth of white slavery.

Combining historical analysis with contemporary investigation, this book sheds light on the current preoccupations with trafficking in women. It examines in detail sex worker reactions to the myth of trafficking, questions the current feminist preoccupation with the 'suffering female body' and argues that feminism needs to move towards the creation of new myths.

The analysis in this book is controversial but crucial, an alternative to the current panic discourses around trafficking in women. An essential read for anyone who is concerned with the increased movement of women internationally and the attempts of international and national governments to regulate this flow.

Author Bio

Jo Doezema holds a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She is a member of the Paulo Longo Research Initiative, which works shaping new directions in sex work research and policy. She has been involved in advocacy and research on sex workers' rights for two decades. Her research interests include sex work and human rights, feminism, masculinities and trafficking. In developing her research, she has worked closely with sex worker rights organisations around the world. She is the co-editor of Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition (1998).

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgements
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
  • 1. White slavery and trafficking as political myth
  • 2. The construction of innocence and the spectre of chaos
  • 3. Metaphorical innocence: white slavery in America
  • 4. 'Prevent, protect, and punish'
  • 5. Now you see her, now you don't: consent, sex workers and the Human Rights Caucus
  • 6. Towards a reinscription of myth
  • Primary sources

Reviews

'Everyone who loves sex workers or who is horrified by prostitution, everyone interested in what prostitution 'means' should read this book. Doezema's superlative analysis of inside information from sex workers and the UN illuminates the ways emotive cultural myths are compelling and how they are used. She explains the human tendency to repeat counterproductive efforts to restrict women 'for their protection' based on iconic myths.'
Melissa Hope Ditmore, Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work

'In this compelling analysis, Jo Doezema sheds new light on the meanings of the myth of “white slavery” and its contemporary, the trafficking of women. Rejecting stories about innocence lured, betrayed, and destroyed, this book importantly argues for a re-articulation of the trafficking narrative through an engagement with sex worker emancipatory struggles and a politics of social change. A must for any student or scholar of prostitution and human trafficking.'
Kamala Kempadoo, York University in Canada

'Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters offers an analytically sophisticated and politically astute analysis of myth and ideology in the creation of sex trafficking as a social issue. Doezema's work is not only smart but also lively and engaging.'
Wendy Chapkis, University of Southern Maine

Details

Publication Date: 13 May 2010
224 pages

Product ISBNs: Paperback: 9781848134140
Hardback: 9781848134133
eBook ePub: 9781848138414
eBook Kindle: 9781780328706

Zed Scholar

To request free review copies or inspection copies of this title or to learn more about our academic publishing, visit Zed Scholar.

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