Abstract. The trade in prostitution/sexual services is regarded as a major social problem in Sweden. The prostitutes are seen as a group of passive, neglected and exploited victims, subject to repeated and forced outrage. However, there exists a network of sexworkers who claim their free will in selling sex as a trademark. They describe themselves as active subjects with a business of selling sex out of free will. The purpose of this study is to shed light over the way these women create and put forward their identity. The study applies a discourse analysis in order to reveal the rhetoric used by them in describing their identity. Four sexselling women were subject to interviews. The focus is on the interpretation of the repertoire of the expressions used by these women. The results reveal the sexworkers own discourse regarding their roles, attitudes and identities. Their discourse is in glaring contrast to the common discourse as we know it in Sweden. The women expressed views of free will and independence, as well as desire and love. This study gives a theoretical and philosophical background to the complexity in the analysis of how a marginalised subgroup creates an identity in describing themselves in their own words.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-28127 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Dierauer, Louise |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete - Socialhögskolan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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