Shape-shifting and Strategic In/visibility: Comparing Sex Work Activism in Singapore and the Philippines

Sharmila Parmanand
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Abstract

Research on public health, crime, and policing regularly discusses sex workers in Southeast Asia but rarely recognises them as agents of social and political activism. This paper shows that sex workers and their allies in Singapore and the Philippines have long and rich histories of challenging their criminalisation and stigmatisation through cultural activism, political advocacy, consciousness-raising, and the provision of direct services to fellow sex workers. Using feminist ethnography, including interviews and participant observation with Project X in Singapore and the Philippine Sex Workers Collective, this paper explores how sex work activists have strategically adapted to their political environments. In Singapore, they maintain resistance through ‘shape-shifting,’ working within state-sanctioned mechanisms, positioning themselves as public health service providers, and creating spaces for radical political advocacy. In the Philippines, where an anti-sex work position is more deeply entrenched within dominant social blocs, sex work activists aggressively criticise state policies on social media and in carefully vetted forums but remain strategically invisible to avoid exposure, harassment, misrepresentation, and prosecution. This paper looks at how sex work activists engage in claims-making — underscoring the differences in the political resonance of human rights in both countries — and interrogates how sex work activism challenges social hierarchies, especially concerning migrants and trans individuals. Overall, it contributes to a richer understanding of non-traditional forms of political activism in Southeast Asia and makes visible sex workers’ contributions to feminism and labour movements in the global south and non-Western contexts.
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形变与战略内/可见性:比较新加坡和菲律宾的性工作活动
有关公共卫生、犯罪和治安的研究经常讨论东南亚的性工作者,但很少将她们视为社会和政治活动的推动者。本文指出,新加坡和菲律宾的性工作者及其盟友有着悠久而丰富的历史,他们通过文化活动、政治倡导、意识提升以及为性工作者提供直接服务等方式,挑战对她们的定罪和污名化。本文利用女权主义人种学研究,包括对新加坡 X 项目和菲律宾性工作者集体的访谈和参与观察,探讨了性工作积极分子如何战略性地适应其政治环境。在新加坡,她们通过 "变形 "来保持反抗,在国家认可的机制内工作,将自己定位为公共卫生服务提供者,并为激进的政治主张创造空间。在菲律宾,反性工作的立场在占主导地位的社会集团中更加根深蒂固,性工作活动家在社交媒体和经过严格审查的论坛上积极批评国家政策,但为了避免曝光、骚扰、歪曲和起诉,战略性地保持隐身。本文探讨了性工作积极分子如何提出诉求--强调了两国在人权政治共鸣方面的差异--并探讨了性工作积极分子如何挑战社会等级制度,尤其是有关移民和变性人的社会等级制度。总之,这篇文章有助于人们更深入地了解东南亚非传统形式的政治活动,并使人们看到性工作者在全球南部和非西方背景下对女权主义和劳工运动的贡献。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.00
自引率
0.00%
发文量
13
期刊介绍: TRaNS approaches the study of Southeast Asia by looking at the region as a place that is defined by its diverse and rapidly-changing social context, and as a place that challenges scholars to move beyond conventional ideas of borders and boundedness. TRaNS invites studies of broadly defined trans-national, trans-regional and comparative perspectives. Case studies spanning more than two countries of Southeast Asia and its neighbouring countries/regions are particularly welcomed.
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