The Living in Community report writers argue that discussions about sex work usually “exclude factors such as poverty, homelessness and race, which leave individuals with fewer options” (Living in Community Project, 2006: 23). But in our work with sex trade workers, these issues are always on the table: everyone is poor, most are at risk of being homeless and many have to deal with racism. A study of sex trade workers in Victoria who have exited the sex trade found that aboriginal people were over-represented, while members of visible minorities were under-represented (Benoit & Millar, 2001), and the WISH learning centre staff estimate that 65% of the participants are Aboriginal women (personal communication).
Murray and Ferguson’s report (2003 — see previous section) provides a useful way to look at poverty as it relates to Harm Reduction. They used an Asset-based Framework, which provides a more complex analysis of poverty than simply the absence of money or basic needs. In addition to physical assets (housing, food, services) and financial assets, three other categories are described: social assets (supports and connections); human assets (which make it possible to engage in economy and society — physical and mental health, skills, knowledge, education and leadership); and personal assets (self-direction, planning and self-advocacy — the root/launch pad for personal transformation) (Murray and Ferguson, 2003).
Sarah’s response: The social, human and personal assets remind me of Bourdieu’s (Bourdieu, 1984; 1991) notion of cultural, institutional and embodied capital. This analysis goes beyond a discussion of poverty in terms of income or purchasing power, and highlights some of the interwoven, extensive and intimate ways in which poverty impacts a person’s external and internal lives.
Although the focus of Erin Graham’s (2007) thesis was on issues related to drug use, she points out that social policy related to prostitution is parallel (p. 7). She rejects the term “sex trade worker”, claiming the use of this term abandons women as a political class. According to Graham, using this term implies that “this is a vocation freely chosen from a range of equally accessible and desirable options”.
The motivations for this de-politicizing may be noble, to remove the stigma that adheres to women engaging in these activities. But it does not. It legitimates what is essentially male violence against women and children. “Harm reduction” reduces none of the harm to women in these situations; rather it legitimates the actions of the men who commodify and consume women through the system of prostitution.