Do you really want to hear about my life?’
Doing ‘feminist research’ with women in sex work in Eastern India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12551985 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mirna Guha (Anglian Water Services (United Kingdom), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 505-521 |
| Publication date | 2019-09-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Gender & Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1355-2074 • E-ISSN: 1364-9221 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13552074.2019.1664045 |
| OpenAlex | W2982313793 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 23 |
This article reflects on insights gathered from doing feminist research during my doctoral studies in international development. My research focused on the lives of women formerly and currently in sex work in Eastern India, and their experiences and resistance of everyday violence. I argue that the adoption of a life-history interviewing method created possibilities to move away from standard topics associated with sex work, and allowed women in sex work to discuss the dynamism and fluidity within their lives, within, before, and after sex work. I also explore how this method enabled the theme of koshto (pain) to emerge which challenges the framing of violence in sex work as exceptional. I argue that women in sex work need to feel heard and acknowledged within feminist research, not simply as subjects of knowledge gathering or to inform development discourses and interventions, but as human beings with dynamic personhoods. Finally, I share lessons learnt which can be useful to future feminist researchers researching sex work, within a current environment of ideologically polarised discussions on victimhood and agency in sex work
Agency (philosophy · Dynamism · Epistemology · Framing (construction · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Sex work · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Engineering · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Medicine · Sex work and related issues
The Interpretation of Cultures
Street Corner Secrets
Prostitution and Beyond
Doing Feminist Research
Reversed Realities
Researching Women's Lives From A Feminist Perspective
Sexing Up the Subject
Sartorially weaving their way through bhodrota (respectability)
Disrupting the ‘life-cycle’ of violence in social relations
Safe spaces’ and ‘bad’ girls
Mapping the Margins
The Other Side of Agency
Speech, Gender and Power
"The Sexual Politics of the "New Abolitionism
Sex War
Talking and Listening from Women's Standpoint
Politics, Passion and Professionalization in Contemporary Indian Feminism
Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |