Twenty women linked with the sex trade in Edmonton, Canada went missing or were
murdered between 2001 and 2008. In this study, I use Foucauldian and feminist theories,
via discourse analysis, to examine the ways that Edmonton’s newspapers (re)present
these murders. My findings show that the newspapers’ discourse deviantises these
women, thereby minimising the tragedy of their disappearances and deaths. This
deviantisation is deployed in three ways; by framing sex trade workers as criminally,
medically, and morally deviant. Criminal deviance places sex trade workers firmly on the
‘wrong’ side of the law, making them undeserving of police protection; medical deviance
implies that only women who are mentally ill in some way would take part in the sex
trade, and, simultaneously, hyperbolises the role of sex workers in the spread of venereal
diseases. Finally, discourses of moral deviance place sex workers on the ‘wrong’ side of
morality and femininity.
iv / ix, 126 leaves ; 29 cm
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/2596 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Larter, Tamara, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | Malacrida, Claudia |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Sociology, c2011, Arts and Science, Department of Sociology |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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