Over the last several decades, politicians, police and communities have increased their attention on the activities and behaviours of men who solicit prostitutes. This study critically examines one recent legal policy aimed at addressing the demand side of prostitution: Bill 206, the Traffic Safety (Seizure of Vehicles in Prostitution Related Offences) Amendment Act, 2003. This study explores what claims-making processes are used to justify this legislation, how johns and prostitutes are represented, and how this legislation (re)produces racialized and gendered subjects. It argues that several claims-making strategies are employed, including a crisis of child prostitution, individualization and responsibilization tactics, and stereotypes about johns and prostitutes, to justify and legitimate this legislation as an appropriate response to prostitution. As a result, the perspectives of prostitutes were absent from the debates, and there was a broad neglect of a socially and historically contextualized analysis of prostitution as a social problem.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1430 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Ickert, Carla |
| Contributors | Hogeveen, Bryan (Sociology), Grekul, Jana (Sociology), Gotell, Lise (Womens Studies) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 607688 bytes, application/pdf |
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