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Sex Work, Essential Work: A Historical and (Necro)Political Analysis of Sex Work in Times of COVID-19 in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Betania Santos

    (Associação Mulheres Guerreiras (Warrior Women Association), Jardim Itatinga, Campinas, São Paulo CEP 13052-444, Brazil
    Coletivo Puta Davida, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil)

  • Indianarae Siqueira

    (Coletivo Puta Davida, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil
    CasaNem and Transrevolução, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro CEP 22220-040, Brazil)

  • Cristiane Oliveira

    (Independent Sex Worker, Vila Mimosa, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil)

  • Laura Murray

    (Coletivo Puta Davida, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil
    Center on Public Policy and Human Rights, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NEPP-DH/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro CEP 22290-240, Brazil
    Prostitution Policy Watch, Le Metro—Urban Ethnography Laboratory, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20051-070, Brazil)

  • Thaddeus Blanchette

    (Coletivo Puta Davida, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil
    Prostitution Policy Watch, Le Metro—Urban Ethnography Laboratory, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20051-070, Brazil
    Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Macae, Rio de Janeiro CEP 27965-045, Brazil)

  • Carolina Bonomi

    (Campinas State University (UNICAMP), Campinas, São Paulo CEP 13083-896, Brazil)

  • Ana Paula da Silva

    (Coletivo Puta Davida, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil
    Prostitution Policy Watch, Le Metro—Urban Ethnography Laboratory, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20051-070, Brazil
    Licenciatura Interdisciplinar em Educação do Campo/INFES/UFF, San Antônio de Pádua, Rio de Janeiro CEP 28470-000, Brazil)

  • Soraya Simões

    (Coletivo Puta Davida, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20270-200, Brazil
    Prostitution Policy Watch, Le Metro—Urban Ethnography Laboratory, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro CEP 20051-070, Brazil
    Institute for Urban and Regional Planning and Research, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IPPUR/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro CEP 21941-909, Brazil)

Abstract

Brazil has made international headlines for the government’s inept and irresponsible response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, sex worker activists have once again taken on an essential role in responding to the pandemic amidst State absences and abuses. Drawing on the theoretical framework of necropolitics, we trace the gendered, sexualized, and racialized dimensions of how prostitution and work have been (un)governed in Brazil and how this has framed sex worker activists’ responses to COVID-19. As a group of scholars and sex worker activists based in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, we specifically explore the idea of sex workers as “essential workers”, but also of sex work as, essentially, work, demonstrating complicities, differences, and congruencies in how sex workers see what they do and who their allies in the context of the 21st century’s greatest health crisis to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Betania Santos & Indianarae Siqueira & Cristiane Oliveira & Laura Murray & Thaddeus Blanchette & Carolina Bonomi & Ana Paula da Silva & Soraya Simões, 2020. "Sex Work, Essential Work: A Historical and (Necro)Political Analysis of Sex Work in Times of COVID-19 in Brazil," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2020:i:1:p:2-:d:467542
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