Kontakt 2012, 14(2):171-176 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2012.019

Prostitution as a profession (View of women working in sex-business)Health and Social Sciences - Original article

Alena Kajanová^*, Milena Mutlová

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra sociální práce

The article deals with perceiving sex-business by the women involved who consider they form of income as a profession. It has been compiled in terms of their narrative testimonies which made them possible to provide appropriate self-evaluation and detachment. In the theoretical elimination, we characterized prostitution in the contemporary public as well as professional discourse, where sex-business is perceived as socially pathological phenomenon and the prostitution is not accepted as a legal profession. Thereafter, we mention forms of the prostitution and reasons for entering the sex-business environment.
The empirical part of the article includes a presentation of results of our own research examination under field conditions, which was implemented with the help of semi-structured and narrative interviews with seven women providing paid sexual services in different sex-business environments (private, club and street scenes). The direct records of the interviews acquired were furthermore analyzed at three levels: past time - contemporary time - future, which formed an axis of all the answers and which also considerably penetrated into life plans of respondents. The analysis of data suggests that the sex-business is perceived by the respondents as their profession and that this concept is most negotiable for the self-assessment of these women. Within the framework of the professional perception, the prostitution is not only separated from their private life (environment, where the woman performs the prostitution, behaviour, dressing and making-up), but it is also accompanied by a strict determination of limits between the prostitute and client and between the prostitutes themselves (since they are perceived in terms of a competition). The movement in sex-business is a process associated with the development and changes in the evaluation of the sex-business itself as well as of the persons involved.

Keywords: sex-business; prostitution; limits; client; profession

Received: November 25, 2011; Accepted: February 29, 2012; Published: June 22, 2012  Show citation