Identity, Spatiality and Power: Sexual emancipation opportunities and constraints of betel nut beauties
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Chang, Hua-sun
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Most sociological and geographical studies concerning the sexual autonomy of sex workers investigate their autonomy only at work and thus extract workers from their daily lives. However, this could cause misreading of the workers’ performances. Therefore, I draw on Hägerstrand’s (1973) Time geography and reinterpret it with Rose (1993) and Massey’s (1994) spatial concepts in order to put sex workers, betel nut beauties in particular, back into their everyday lives.
I focus mainly on how workers’ identities and spatiality affect their interpretations and actions. First, I try to investigate how the workers I interviewed understand and react to the assigned subject positions and accordingly imposed spatial rules, and so repress, ensure, or pursue their preferred sexual modality. Second, I ask what the role of the work is in their sexual lives. Third, I investigate how the work affects their identity and spatiality, and hence their sexual autonomy and possibilities to pursue sexual emancipation.
Drawing on my 175 hours of in-depth interviews and participatory observations with 11 betel nut beauties, and 15 hours of interviews with 6 owners of betel nut vending businesses, I found there are many strategies betel nut beauties can use to help them interact with their bosses and customers at work with autonomy. From the view of radical humanist and sexual pluralist, the work experience is good for the workers. The work itself and spatial characters of the work place provide opportunities for the workers to extend their sexual, social, cultural, and economic capital to resist their boyfriend’s gender and sexual domination and restriction. Some of them take full advantage of the sexual opportunities the work provides. Some of them flexibly cross use their subject positions and “regulations they have to follow” at work and in other private social relations to pursue their sexual opportunities. Their passive or active reactions to their bosses and customers are some times strategies that are purposefully adopted to pursue their own sexual autonomy in other places.
However, the extension and expansion of various strategies and opportunities the workers use is highly influenced by their identities and spatiality. Although some workers do overturn sexual restrictions that were originally taken for granted in order to explore alternative sexual modalities and possibilities, the overthrow of the original beliefs is usually triggered by accidents. These accidents, mistakes which put the worker in an unfamiliar situation in which they can let go of their original ideologies for a while, provide them chances to see what will happen and thus chances to experience other possibilities.
Subjects
空間感；認同；權力；日常生活；情慾解放；情色工作
spatiality
identities
power
everyday life
sexual emancipation
sex work
Type
thesis
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