Sex work and decriminalization in South Africa
SUP is proud to present an adapted excerpt from Policing Bodies: Law, Sex Work, and Desire in Johannesburg.
Though clearly sex work is often dangerous and hazardous, these dangers can be mitigated under decriminalization. Accordingly, decriminalization seems suitable in most contexts in its recognition of the sex worker’s autonomy and liberty. However, a singular model for sex work regulation should not be transposed to all contexts.
The treatment of sex work should be localized. As seen during the course of myethnographic inquiry, Policing Bodies », there is no singular sex work, even within the same city or the same locality. Sex work is continuously shifting, and its formations are vulnerable to minor geopolitical changes. The appropriate regulation of sex work will vary by location, and different sites may require different solutions to accommodate this.
In South Africa, stark economic realities make sex work a viable option for some women. Taking away these women’s clients does nothing to redress their economic situation and treats them as infants incapable of independent decision making. In this way, a perspective that is decidedly intersectional, that is sensitive to overlapping systems of oppression by considering the sex workers’ gender, race, and economic status, allows for a nuanced analysis of the realities of using sex for work.
Many women do not view criminalization and policing as sources of protection. Several sex workers, all of whom were Black women with no comparable economic alternatives, complained about the economic realities that brought them to their work, and their words best describe the reality of their options:
Annie (central Johannesburg sex worker): I come every day for money. I have children. The hotels are full so I’m working in the street.
Cathi (Rosebank sex worker): They are taking our clients. The clients now know about it that in Rosebank that the police take money. This is our money. These Rosebank police must stop; Norwood must stop. Some are from Norwood and Johannesburg Central. Our clients are under threat. We are raising our children and we need this money. . . . All police are involved, men and women.
Although I agree with the sex workers and the police I encountered that sex work should be decriminalized in Johannesburg, I do not think that the question of how sex work should be treated stops there.
There has been an overemphasis on legal change and a fetishization of the law. As I have discussed, there are strong reasons why sex work should not be criminalized, but there should be an infrastructure in place that guides police on how to interact with sex workers, circumventing the need for the informal rules that generally dictate the police approach to sex workers in the current state of de facto decriminalization.
It is inadequate merely to state that there should be decriminalization without specifying what decriminalization should look like. Furthermore, overemphasizing formal criminalization, even if only of clients, places too much confidence in the penal system to address issues relating to sex work. Policing sex work increases sex workers’ contact with the state actors charged with the violent enforcement of the law. Even if this violent enforcement is intended to protect all womankind, the most marginalized women are likely to suffer the most brutal aspects of policing, as was illustrated in the policing of sex workers in central Johannesburg.
The history of the policing of sex work in South Africa reveals that sex work has mostly been policed informally and treated as a public nuisance matter. The overemphasis on pushing for decriminalization or against criminalization fails to appreciate how other discourses indirectly police sex workers’ bodies while empowering the discussants rather than the sex workers.
The continuing tension between policy and practice indicates that policies have been unsuccessful in responding to the lived reality of sex work. In this sense, broad pronouncements about the decriminalization of sex work require additional nuance that appreciates the historical conditions that inform sex work, as well as localization to address the particular concerns of the relevant community. In fact, activist attempts have reinforced the discourses that police sex workers’ bodies, for example in the public health context, even while advocating for decriminalization.
The law is viewed as the solution for sex worker issues, and the thrust of the debate focuses on criminalization. However, the law can be violent and discriminatory, especially toward disenfranchised women.
In South Africa especially, it is important to establish a broader regulatory framework that recognizes the realities of sex workers. This framework might deploy messaging and communication manuals and toolkits that educate stakeholders about how to talk about sex workers and advance a narrative that empowers them; partnerships and community forums that center the perspectives and views of sex workers to discuss concerns and problem-solving strategies; the funding of community organizations that can provide emergency services to sex workers; increased sensitivity in the public health research that pertains to sex workers in the choice of language used to speak about sex workers and the inclusion of sex workers’ clients in the discussions; and the adoption of non-police strategies to respond to sex workers’ security needs and the reduction of police interactions with sex workers.
These reforms would create much-needed transparency in the policing of sex workers. Where the negotiation of relationships is explicit and not the result of informal responses, more favorable rules can aim to balance existing power imbalances. This may help to insulate sex workers against negative expressions of masculinities and protect them against discrimination. . . .
In imagining a state where decriminalization exists, it will be important to acknowledge the complexity of the relationship between police and sex workers and to promote strategies for security that look beyond the police.
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