Millions of people in the world are infected by HIV/AIDS or/and other Sexually Transmitted Infections, STIs. Ethiopia is, with its population on almost 94 million people, one of the worst affected countries. One of the methods that are used in the prevention work in order to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and STIs in Ethiopia is Social Marketing, a concept that adopts traditional marketing techniques in order to obtain social change. This inductive study explores how three various Ethiopian organizations are utilizing Social Marketing in their HIV/AIDS and STI prevention work throughout Ethiopia, how the concept can be used to achieve attitudinal- and behavioral change by people, as well as if the organization’s various Social Marketing projects strive to provide vulnerable groups of the Ethiopian society with empowerment, and if so, in what ways. The empirical material was collected through six qualitative interviews and two focus group discussions during an eight-week long stay in Ethiopia during March-May, 2012. The findings of this study have been analyzed through theories about human behavior with a focus on behavior change, as well as various definitions and concepts of empowerment. The study’s result shows that Social Marketing can be utilized in several ways in the HIV/AIDS and STI prevention work in Ethiopia to obtain attitudinal- and behavior changes, for instance by using various commercial techniques, street campaigns, information/education/behavioral change materials, as well as trainings, outreach work and peer education, which aims to educate people about HIV/AIDS, STIs, condoms and condom use. The organization’s joint Social Marketing project “Wise Up-program” includes Drop In Centers and Cooperative Activity for sex workers. The findings of this essay shows that these projects do strive to provide vulnerable groups of the Ethiopian society with empowerment, psychologically as well as economically.

International aid organizations and wealthy nations have contributed billions to combat the spread and treatment of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa; however, these programs have been critiqued for not addressing the socioeconomic and cultural context of the epidemic, instead relying upon generalized approaches. The prevalence rate in Zanzibar, Tanzania is low in the general population, but high among vulnerable segments of Zanzibari society, resulting in interventions focusing on particular groups (e.g. sex workers, drug users, and men who have sex with men). Through interviews with government agencies, non-profit organizations, medical professionals, vulnerable populations, and HIV/AIDS patients, this paper examines how local realities inform and challenge HIV/AIDS programming in Zanzibar.

Orientadores: Paulo César Giraldo, Ana Katherine da Silveira Gonçalves / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T20:57:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Amaral_RoseLuceGomesdo_D.pdf: 1220448 bytes, checksum: d6f8f0907e1226cc41668603ab978683 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: O uso de duchas vaginais é comum em diferentes povos e culturas. Entre as mulheres que a praticam, a maioria a faz após a menstruação, antes ou após a relação sexual, com a finalidade de evitar o odor desagradável ou para eliminar corrimentos, refrescar a genitália ou prevenir a gravidez. Não está claro na literatura se as duchas poderiam causar problemas às usuárias. Objetivo: Verificar se o uso habitual de duchas vaginais associa-se à infecção genital por Chlamydia trachomatis/ Neisseria gonorrhoeae e Papilomavírus humano (HPV) em mulheres profissionais do sexo. Sujeitos e Métodos: Estudo de corte transversal avaliou 200 mulheres - 111 profissionais do sexo (PS) e 89 não profissionais do sexo (NPS) - assistidas em uma Unidade Básica de Saúde de Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil. Todas as mulheres foram entrevistadas e examinadas por um único pesquisador. A anamnese abordou os antecedentes demográficos, higiênicos, sexuais e médicos, como idade, cor, paridade, escolaridade, tabagismo, estado civil, uso de duchas vaginais, idade da primeira relação sexual, número de parceiros sexuais, número de coitos por semana, práticas sexuais, uso de preservativo e lubrificante. Amostras de células cervicais foram coletadas para testes de captura híbrida objetivando Chlamydia trachomatis/Neisseria gonorrhoaea e HPV. Na análise estatística usou-se o teste exato de Fisher ou X2 para as variáveis discretas, e Mann-Whitney para as variáveis não-paramétricas. O estudo foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa (no 902/2009) e contou com a colaboração da Secretaria de Saúde do Estado de São Paulo e Laboratório Digene. Resultado: Cerca de 40% das mulheres investigadas praticavam duchas vaginais três ou mais vezes por semana (61,7% das PS e somente 14,6% das NPS). A infecção por CT/NG foi positiva em 10,5% do total dos casos, 17 casos (15,3%) em PS e em quatro casos (4,5%) das NPS (p=0,01), porém não houve diferenças significativas entre usuárias de duchas vaginais (14,81%) e não usuárias (7,6%), (p=ns). As PS não usuárias de duchas vaginais tiveram quase o dobro de infecção CT/NG que as NPS usuárias de duchas vaginais (13,9% vs 7,7%). O HPV foi positivo em 40,5% dos casos, sendo 55,8% da PS e em 21,3% das NPS (p=0,001), contudo DNA-HPV não foi significativamente diferente (p=0,47) entre PS usuárias de duchas vaginais (54,4%) e em não usuárias (58,1%). HPV de alto risco foi positivo em 16,2% e 11,6% (p=ns) e o HPV de baixo risco em 23,5% e 30,2% (p=ns) em usuárias e não usuárias de duchas vaginais respectivamente. Os HPV de alto e baixo riscos foram encontrados simultaneamente em 14,7% e 16,2% das usuárias e não usuárias de duchas vaginais, respectivamente (p=ns). Conclusão: O uso de duchas vaginais não se associou às infecções genitais por CT/NG e HPV de alto ou baixo grau nas mulheres estudadas (profissionais do sexo e não profissionais do sexo) / Abstract: The use of vaginal douching (VD) is widespread around the world, and is more common than is to be expected. The majority of women douche after menses, before or after sexual intercourse to prevent odor, to alleviate vaginal symptoms, or to prevent pregnancy, however it is not clear in the literature if this habit can cause damages for women. Objective: Establish whether high frequency VD favors Chlamydia trachomatis (CT)/Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and Papilomavírus humano (HPV) infection in female sex workers (SW). Subjects and Methods: A clinical cross-sectional study involving 200 women, 111 SW and 89 non-sex workers (NSW) in a Health Center in Brazil. The subjects were submitted to an interview and examined by a single researcher. A questionnaire was filled out with data that included, medical and demographic history (age, race, parity, education, smoking, marital status), hygiene (use of VD, frequency and the solution used) and sexual behaviour (first sexual relation, number of sexual partners, frequency, sexual practices, homosexual relationships, use of condom and lubricant). Cervical samples were collected for CT and NG testing by hybrid capture 2 assay. Statistical analysis used the Fisher's exact test or qui square for discrete variables and Mann-Whitney test for nonparametric variables. The study was approved by Committee the Ethics in Research (no 902/2009) and received the cooperation of São Paulo Secretariat of Health and Digene laboratory. Results: Approximately 40% of women practiced douche three or more times per week (61.7% of SW and only 14.6% of the NSW). Infection with CT / NG was positive in 10.5% of the total cases, 17 cases (15.3%) in SW and in four cases (4.5%) of the NSW (p = 0.01). However, It was in 14.81% of D and but in and 7.6% of ND (p = ns). SW douchers had almost double CT and NG infections than NSW douchers (13.9% vs 7.7%). HPV infection was detected in 40.5% of cases, 55.8% of SW and 21.3% of NSW of (p = 0.001), despite of DNA HPV was not different (p = 0.47) between SW douchers (54.4%) and non-douchers (58.1%). High-risk DNA-HPV was positive in 16.2% and 11.6% (p = ns) and low-risk DNA-HPV in 23.5% and 30.2% (p = ns) in douchers and non-douchers respectively. High and low risk DNA-HPV were found simultaneously in 14.7% and 16.2% of douchers and non-douchers respectively (p = ns). Conclusion: The use of VD is not a causal factor for cervical CT/NG and High-/low risk HPV infection in women studied (SW and NSW) / Doutorado / Tocoginecologia / Doutor em Tocoginecologia

Orientadores: Paulo Cesar Giraldo, Ana Katherine S. Gonçalves / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T15:31:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Amaral_RoseLuceGomesdo_M.pdf: 734908 bytes, checksum: 93d7f5663377e139f755920fc4edece2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Objetivo: Verificar se o uso de duchas higiênicas íntimas (DHI) pode interferir na microbiota vaginal de mulheres profissionais do sexo. Sujeitos e Métodos: Estudo de corte transversal realizado durante seis meses verificou o risco de 155 mulheres profissionais do sexo (PS), usuárias e não usuárias de DHI, apresentarem flora vaginal alterada e/ou vaginose bacteriana. As PS foram atendidas em centro de saúde (CS) localizado em zona de prostituição no município de Campinas, São Paulo, e agrupadas em usuárias e não usuárias de duchas higiênicas íntimas para análise da microbiota vaginal. A anamnese determinou os perfis sociodemográfico e sexual destas mulheres que procuraram o CS por diferentes motivos. O conteúdo vaginal foi coletado com swab estéril de Dacron e disposto em duas lâminas de vidro que foram coradas por técnica de Gram. A caracterização da microbiota vaginal pelos critérios de AMSEL adaptado foi realizada por microscopia óptica com lente de imersão. Análises univariável, bivariável com testes de qui-quadrado e exato de Fisher, além de regressão múltipla variável (stepwise) demonstraram o poder de associação entre as variáveis. Resultados: A média de idade, a etnia branca, a escolaridade básica e hábito de fumar encontrados respectivamente nas 94 usuárias e nas 61 não usuárias de DHI foram de 25,5 (± 6,2) vs. 26,0 (± 6,8)anos (p=ns), 48,9% vs. 47,5% (p=ns), 60,6% vs. 45% (p=ns) e 41,5% vs. 49,2% (p=ns) dos casos. Não houve diferença no uso regular de condom com seus parceiros sexuais fixos. Apenas o uso de lubrificantes vaginais foi significativamente maior nas usuárias de DHI (63,8%) que nas não usuárias (36,1%), p=0,0007. As prevalências de flora vaginal alterada, vaginose bacteriana, candidíase, tricomoníase e vaginose citolítica foram de 75,48%; 50,96%; 5,1%; 0,64% e 1,9%, respectivamente. Não houve diferenças significativas destas prevalências quando foram analisados estes achados entre as usuárias e não usuárias de DHI (78,7% vs. 70,5%, ns), (47,9% vs. 55,7%, ns), (5,3% vs. 4,9%, ns), (0 vs. 1,6%, ns) e (1,1% vs. 3,3%, ns). A análise de regressão múltipla tipo stepwise não identificou qualquer risco aumentado de ter flora vaginal alterada ou de vaginose bacteriana em mulheres usuárias de DHI. Conclusão: O uso de DHI não aumentou o risco de flora vaginal alterada e/ou de vaginose bacteriana em mulheres PS. Palavras-chave: profissionais do sexo, duchas higiênicas íntimas, microbiota vaginal, vaginose bacteriana, candidíase vaginal / Abstract: Aims: Verify if vaginal douching (VD) can cause vaginal flora imbalance in Female Sex Workers (FSW). Patients and Methods: A cross sectional study, carried out for six months, analysed the risk of vaginal flora imbalance and/or vaginal bacteriosis due to vaginal douching in 155 FSW. The FSW were seen at a public outpatient in a prostitution area in the city of Campinas, the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The vaginal douching (VD) users and non-users made up the two groups for vaginal microbiological analysis. The social-demographic and sexual profile of these women, who were seen for different reasons, was checked by anamnesis. Vaginal content was collected using a sterile Dacron Swab and placed on two glass slides that were stained using Gram technique. Adapted AMSEL criteria characterized the vaginal flora using optic microscope with immersion lens. Univariate, bivariate statistical analyses with X2 and exact Fisher tests apart from multiple variate regression (Stepwise) analysis determined the association between variables. Results: Mean age, white ethnicity, level of schooling and the habit of smoking analysed in the 94 users and 61 non-users of VD respectively were 25.5 (± 6.2) vs. 26.0 (± 6.8) years (p=ns), 48.9% vs. 47.5% (p=ns), 60.6% vs. 45% (p=ns) and 41.5% vs. 49.2% (p=ns) of the cases. There was no difference in the regular use of condoms with their steady sexual partners. Only the use of vaginal lubricant was significantly higher in the VD users (63.8%) than in the non-users (36.1%); p=0.0007. General prevalence of abnormal flora, bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis, trichomoniasis and cytolitic vaginosis was 75.48%, 50.96%, 5.1%, 0.64% and 1.9% respectively. There were no significant differences when analysing the findings between users and non-users of VD (78.7% vs. 70.5%; ns); (47.9% vs. 55.7%; ns); (5.3% vs. 4.9%; ns); (0 vs. 1.6% ns) and (1.1% vs. 3.3%; ns). Stepwise multiple regression analysis did not identify any increased risk of altered vaginal flora or bacterial vaginosis in VD users. Conclusion: The use of VD did not increase the risk of vaginal flora imbalance and/or bacterial vaginosis in FSW / Mestrado / Ciencias Biomedicas / Mestre em Tocoginecologia

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-12-08T11:38:49Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Dulce Helena Rebouças de Souza - 2012.pdf: 1582264 bytes, checksum: 81d7319b908561e96506800f7a644899 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-12-08T11:39:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Dulce Helena Rebouças de Souza - 2012.pdf: 1582264 bytes, checksum: 81d7319b908561e96506800f7a644899 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-08T11:39:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Dulce Helena Rebouças de Souza - 2012.pdf: 1582264 bytes, checksum: 81d7319b908561e96506800f7a644899 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-02 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Lymphotropic virus human T cells 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus associated with the development of diseases such as T cell leukemia in adults (ATL) and tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) or HTLV-associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP). Transmission occurs by sexual routes, parenteral and vertical. Female sex workers (FSW) are a population vulnerable to parenteral and sexually transmitted infections since they have often risky behaviors including drug use and unprotected sex. The study aimed to investigate the seroepidemiological profile of HTLV-1 infection among a population of female sex workers in Goiânia city, using the Respondent driven Sampling methodology. A total of 402 FSWs were interviewed about demographic and risk characteristics for HTLV infection, between May 2009 and June 2010. Blood samples were collected from all females and screened by ELISA for detection of antibodies to HTLV-1/2. Positive samples were retested for confirmation by western blot and PCR, and characterized by sequencing and phylogenetic analyses. The mean age was 27.5 years (SD: 9.1 years). Most of FSWs (67.1%) were single, 47.3% had 10 a 12 years of formal education. One third of female sex workers reported illicit drug (34.1%), thought only (2.7%) used injection illicit drugs, 51.9% had more than seven sexual partners in the last week and 36.3% did not use condom with their steady sexual partners. Some women reported to recruit their clients in more than one type of venue, being nightclubs (41%), bars (27.7%) and streets (25%) predominant. Of the 402 samples screened by ELISA, three were positive and submitted to detection of DNA-HTLV for the tax, LTR and env regions. Only one was positive for HTLV-1, resulting in a prevalence of 0.2%. (CI 95%: 0.0-1.6). The virus isolate was classified as Transcontinental subgroup of the HTLV-1 Cosmopolitan subtype. These findings show a low endemicity for HTLV-1 infection in female sex workers in Goiânia-GO, however epidemiological studies of this infection are important to reinforce the need for prevention strategies based on the disclosure of the modes of transmission and status tracking serological the infected. / O vírus linfotrópico de células T humanas 1 (HTLV-1) é um retrovírus associado ao desenvolvimento de doenças como leucemia/linfoma de células T do adulto (ATL) e mielopatia associada ao HTLV-1/paraparesia espástica tropical (HAM/TSP). A transmissão ocorre por vias sexual, parenteral e vertical. As mulheres profissionais do sexo (MPS) constituem uma população vulnerável as infecções de transmissão parenteral e sexual, uma vez que apresentam comportamentos de risco, incluindo o uso de drogas e o sexo sem proteção. Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar o perfil soroepidemiologico da infecção pelo HTLV-1 em mulheres profissionais do sexo em Goiânia, GO, usando a metodologia Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS). Um total de 402 MPS foi entrevistada sobre dados sociodemográficos e características de risco para a infecção pelo HTLV, entre maio de 2009 e junho de 2010. As amostras de sangue foram coletadas de todas as mulheres e triadas pelo ELISA para a detecção de anticorpos para HTLV-1/2. As amostras positivas foram retestadas para a confirmação por western blot e PCR, sendo caracterizadas por sequenciamento e análise filogenética. A idade média das mulheres foi 27,5 anos (Dp: 9,1 anos). A maioria (67,1%) era solteira, 47,3% tinham entre 10 e 12 anos de educação formal. Um terço das profissionais (34,1%) relatou uso de drogas ilícitas, embora apenas 2,7% usaram drogas injetáveis, 51,9% tiveram mais de sete parceiros sexuais na ultima semana e 36,3% não usaram preservativos com parceiros não pagantes. Algumas mulheres relataram recrutar seus clientes em mais de um tipo de local, boates (41%), bares (27,7%) e ruas (25%). Das 402 amostras triadas pelo ELISA, três foram positivas e submetidas à detecção do HTLV-DNA para as regiões tax, LTR e env. Apenas uma foi positiva para HTLV-1, por PCR, resultando numa prevalência de 0,2% (IC 95%: 0,0-1,6). O isolado viral foi classificado como subtipo Cosmopolita (HTLV-1a), subgrupo Transcontinental (A). Os resultados mostram uma baixa endemicidade para a infecção pelo HTLV-1 em mulheres profissionais do sexo em Goiânia-GO, entretanto estudos epidemiológicos sobre essa infecção são importantes para reforçar a necessidade de estratégias de prevenção baseadas na divulgação dos modos de transmissão e acompanhamento do status sorológico dos infectados.

The goal of this master's thesis is to understand the link between legalization of prostitution and human trafficking. The thesis is divided into three major sections. The theoretical part defines major terms, such as human trafficking and prostitution. This section also describes the issue of human trafficking and prostitution in the context of the Czech Republic and in the context of Germany. The empirical part/section is based on interviews with a number of social workers in Germany, and its primary goal is to elicit whether legalization of prostitution in Germany caused an increase in the number of victims of human trafficking. Lastly, the final part, the discussion, compares findings of interviewed social workers with findings in scientific articles. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

In my diploma thesis I focus on women who work in the sex business and their careers. The aim of the work is to present relevant theories and current knowledge about the life careers of sex workers, expanded by my own research. The work is dividing sex business according to the place of provisioning of services as well as according to the trends of this profession in our country and abroad. It describes present social and health risks in the historical perspective, career in the sex business, motivation to do such a job, and also mentioning an organization that works with women from the sex business. The work concerns only women who provide sexual services for a fee and are over 18 years of age. In my work I focus on biographies of women who provide paid sexual services from their point of view, and how they view their lives. I also adapted a selected sample of respondents to this work and addressed both existing clients of ROZKOŠ bez RIZIKA, z. s., including those who no longer work in the sex business. I used the method of structured interviews, through which it was possible to get a basic picture of the interviewee's family, personal and work situation. Furthermore, I focused on capturing their view of the stage of life when they were working in the sex business. I tried to identify the key...

This dissertation examines the role of scientific and medical disciplines in the construction of homosexuality in Mexico, and how non-normative gender and sexual subjects engaged in political activism, body modifications, and aesthetic production to challenge the pathologizing discourses reinforced by the increasing authority of the biomedical sciences. Chapter 1 examines the role of photography as a medical instrument in the first documented sex-reassignment treatment in the Western Hemisphere performed by Mexican physician and sexologist Rafael Sandoval Camacho in the early 1950s, and how his patient Marta Olmos, Mexico’s first transsexual woman, embraced photojournalism as a medium to document, archive, and validate her identity as a woman. In chapter 2, I examine the popular phenomenon of publishing photographs of erotized trans sex workers known as Mujercitos during the 1970s in Alarma!, Mexico’s most influential crime tabloid magazine, and how these marginalized subjects appropriated biomedical technologies like “sex hormones” intended to regulate gender and sexual deviance to construct bodily identities that challenged the medical and criminological positions on the essentialist natures of gender expression, sexual desire, and the sexed body. Chapter 3 examines the early gay narrative of Luis Zapata and José Rafael Calva that emerged in conjunction to Mexico’s Homosexual Liberation Movement in the late 1970s. My analysis demonstrates how Zapata’s El vampiro de la colonia Roma [Adonis García: A Picaresque Novel] (1979), and Calva’s Utopía gay [Gay Utopia] (1983) present sharp critiques shared by Mexico’s homosexual liberation groups on the growing authority of disciplines like psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and biomedicine in pathologizing homosexuality. Chapter 4 examines the changing understandings of homosexuality, homosexual desire, and the homosexual body during the HIV/AIDS crisis through the work of Julio Galán, Nahum B. Zenil, and art collective Taller Documentación Visual. My analysis presents the role of the HIV virus not as an explicit visual reference but rather as an elusive, spectral, and dangerous entity that is identifiable through the aesthetic and formal composition of the artists’ works, best exemplified by the references to condoms as physical and symbolic devices in the mediation of gay sexual contact and desire. This dissertation demonstrates the critical roles of biomedicine, criminology, sexology, and psychiatry in regulating diverse forms of Mexican homosexualities, while simultaneously functioning as liminal disciplines strategically adopted by homosexual subjects to redefine, shape, and validate their desired bodily, sexual, and subjective identities.

La littérature offre une occasion singulière pour transformer les postulats qui forgent notre compréhension des groupes marginalisés. Cependant, en raison de sa capacité à exposer des discours politiques, la littérature court aussi le risque d’exprimer des formes de représentations stéréotypées. Mon mémoire a pour objectif d’explorer l’industrie du sexe sous différents points de vue et à travers l’analyse de deux œuvres littéraires : « Becoming Abigail » écrit par Chris Abani et « On Black Sisters’ Street » de Chika Unigwe. Ma recherche consiste à comprendre l’impact de l’économie globale sur la prolifération des industries criminelles telle l’industrie du sexe. En établissant un lien entre la sphère corporative et le trafic du sexe, on peut dessiner un portrait de la structure du capitalisme global et de son influence sur les comportements individuels. A cet égard, les romans étudiés dans ce mémoire présentent diverses représentations de l’industrie du sexe, des travailleuses du sexe jusqu’aux femmes victime de trafic. Le roman de Chris Abani se concentre sur les expériences traumatiques que subit Abigail et qui, par conséquent, la rendent invisible. En contrepartie, celui de Chika Unigwe offre une perspective nuancée de l’industrie, en se penchant sur les ambiguïtés du monde du travail du sexe. Mon mémoir met l’accent sur le fait que l’industrie du sexe est composée de sa partie visible, soit celle qui est décriminalisée, et de sa face cachée, soit celle portant sur le trafic du sexe. Entre ces espaces, nous y trouvons les femmes et les jeunes filles qui sont marginalisées et invisibles parce qu’elles ne possèdent pas les caractéristiques de la victime parfaite. Je cherche à démontrer que la littérature a un rôle important à jouer quand vient le temps de changer notre façon de percevoir ces femmes et jeunes filles, en les présentant comme des personnes qui ont de l’agentivité plutôt que des êtres nécessairement impuissants. / Literature can present us with many opportunities to transform our perspectives of a marginalized group. Nevertheless, with its capacity for political expression, there comes the risk of falling within stereotypical modes of representation. In my thesis I not only explore aspects of the sex trafficking industry, but also how literary works such as Becoming Abigail and On Black Sisters’ Street examine its underbelly. I will also examine the ways in which the global economy has helped criminal industries like this one to proliferate. In understanding the structure of global capitalism, we can trace similar patterns of exploitation between its behaviours in the corporate sphere and within the sex trafficking industry. The novels studied hereafter present different forms of representations of the trafficking industry. Where Becoming Abigail is focused primarily of the traumatic experiences the protagonist has endured, On Black Sisters’ Street offers a nuanced perspective on this industry, by tackling the ambiguities of the sex trade. This thesis emphasises the fact that the sex industry is composed of its visible—and at the very least decriminalized—side of the industry known as sex work, and its shadow that we know as sex trafficking. In the spaces in between we find those who are marginalized, the women and girls left unseen because they do not fit within the criteria of a perfect victim. I seek to demonstrate that literature has an important role to play in shaping our understanding of who the marginalized people are, by contextualizing them within a frame of agency, rather than helplessness.

L’idéologie dominante de la sexualité influence la place des femmes dans la société et soutient la mise en place des structures sociales et étatiques de contrôle du corps de la femme. Ces discours et structures s’articulent dans l’espace public. Pour comprendre comment la conception de la sexualité influence le contrôle du corps de la femme, cette recherche vise à identifier le courant de pensée dominant qui sous-tend la législation entourant le travail du sexe au Canada et à explorer l’impact que cette législation a sur les conditions de travail et le vécu des travailleuses du sexe. En s’appuyant sur une analyse soutenue des transformations législatives et une analyse d’une littérature grise autour du sujet, cette recherche fait une analyse multiéchelle des cadres légaux entourant le travail du sexe dans la ville de Montréal. Cette analyse met en relation les différentes réformes législatives pour identifier les changements d’idéologie à travers le temps. L’analyse a permis de constater que la législation canadienne contemporaine se base principalement sur une approche néoabolitionniste et que malgré les réformes législatives, il y a eu en réalité peu de changement dans la nature du contrôle des corps des femmes travailleuses du sexe à travers le temps. Dans le but de comprendre quel rôle joue les législations et réglementations dans le contrôle du corps des travailleuses du sexe dans l’espace public, une analyse de la présence des travailleuses du sexe dans les quartiers Hochelaga-Maisonneuve et Ahuntsic-Cartierville est réalisée. Cette recherche démontre que la régulation du travail du sexe se trouve à l’intersection du cadre légal fédéral et de la réglementation municipale, ce qui génère des contradictions dans l’application des lois. Le service de police de la ville de Montréal utilise le principe de nuisance publique pour orienter les actions des policiers dans des secteurs définis. Cette pratique cherche en particulier à rendre le travail du sexe moins visible dans l’espace public, principalement dans les secteurs où les plaintes de nuisance publique sont faites par des citoyens. Cette façon d’appliquer le principe de nuisance publique pourrait entrainer un déplacement des travailleuses du sexe dans d’autres secteurs de la ville, ou encore, augmenter la vulnérabilité de ces dernières. / The dominant ideologies regarding sexuality shape the place of women in society and support the establishment of social and state structures of control over women's bodies. These discourses and structures impact the social construction of space, in particular the access and use of public space. To understand how the conception of sexuality influences the control of the female body, this research aims to determine the dominant current of thought that underlies the legislation surrounding sex work in Canada and to explore the impact that this legislation has on the working conditions and the lived experience of sex workers. Drawing on a sustained analysis of the legislative transformation in Canada and the analysis of ‘grey literature’ around the topic, this research presents a multi-scale analysis of the legal frameworks surrounding sex work in the City of Montreal. Through an analysis of the legislative reform, this research attempts to understand the shifting ideologies that have underpinned these legal frameworks. This analysis indicates that contemporary Canadian legislation is based on a neo-abolitionist approach to sex work and that, despite multiple legislative reforms, there has been little change in the control of female sex workers' bodies over time. In order to understand what role laws and regulations play in controlling the bodies of sex workers in public space, this research then turns to an analysis of the presence of sex workers in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighborhoods. The analysis demonstrates that stat control of sex work occurs at the intersection on the federal laws and municipal regulations. In particular, the police department of the city of Montreal uses the principle of public nuisance to guide the actions of police officers in particular sector of the city. This practice seeks to make sex work less visible in public space, which may increase the vulnerability of sex workers.