Business doing pleasure? A comparative interview study of experiences of vulnerability and strategies of resistance amongst sexworkers in Sweden and the Netherlands

Abstract: Sexwork is a complex phenomenon. There are different forms of legislation surrounding the issue, ranging from complete decriminalization/legalization to complete criminalization. In this thesis, the cases of Sweden and the Netherlands are compared. Utilizing critical phenomenology and an intersectionality framework, interviews with sexworkers in Sweden and the Netherlands were conducted and analyzed. The aim was to understand how the interviewees experienced vulnerability in their work as sexworkers, and to gain insight into the ways in which they coped with and resisted these vulnerabilities. The main findings were that the interviewees all experienced similar forms of vulnerability, related to experiencing a lack of agency in their work and life, stigmatization and abjection. The degree to which these vulnerabilities were experienced differed somewhat between the interviewees in Sweden and the Netherlands, but were largely consistent between the cases. It was also found that the interviewees in both countries utilized similar forms of resistance against the challenges they faced, though larger-scale political resistance was more accessible for the interviewees in the Netherlands. Lastly, it was found that sexworkers with intersecting marginalized identities experienced layered forms of vulnerability in their work, and that they overall had less access to community and resistance strategies.