Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry

Using a pro-sex workers' rights perspective, this thesis analyzes how and what mainstream, English-language Canadian newspapers contribute to the public, common sense knowledge of the adult, female sex workers in Thailand's sex tourism industry. It also considers the positions, actions, or...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Peters, Heather
Format: Others
Published: 2007
Online Access:http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/975442/1/MR34642.pdf
Peters, Heather <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/view/creators/Peters=3AHeather=3A=3A.html> (2007) Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
id ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-QMG.975442
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-QMG.9754422013-10-22T03:47:25Z Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry Peters, Heather Using a pro-sex workers' rights perspective, this thesis analyzes how and what mainstream, English-language Canadian newspapers contribute to the public, common sense knowledge of the adult, female sex workers in Thailand's sex tourism industry. It also considers the positions, actions, or policies with regard to the industry and its workers that this knowledge promotes or justifies. Through an analysis of newspaper articles about sex tourism published in three major newspapers between 1985 and 2005, I argue that the predominant discourses surrounding these sex workers are structured around ideas of guilt and innocence in ways that silence these women and negate the need to consider their concerns and demands with regard to the industry. Specifically, I demonstrate how the varying ascriptions of guilt or innocence in these newspaper articles intertwine with preexisting discourses and stereotypes so as to limit the portrayals of these women, positioning them as guilty contagions in need of control or, occasionally, childlike and therefore innocent victims in need of rescue. As these portrayals could easily help justify actions and policies that ignore sex workers' voices, I conclude with suggested changes to coverage of sex tourism that might aid the development of a common sense in which these women's demands are at the centre of any debate around the industry. 2007 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/975442/1/MR34642.pdf Peters, Heather <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/view/creators/Peters=3AHeather=3A=3A.html> (2007) Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry. Masters thesis, Concordia University. http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/975442/
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
description Using a pro-sex workers' rights perspective, this thesis analyzes how and what mainstream, English-language Canadian newspapers contribute to the public, common sense knowledge of the adult, female sex workers in Thailand's sex tourism industry. It also considers the positions, actions, or policies with regard to the industry and its workers that this knowledge promotes or justifies. Through an analysis of newspaper articles about sex tourism published in three major newspapers between 1985 and 2005, I argue that the predominant discourses surrounding these sex workers are structured around ideas of guilt and innocence in ways that silence these women and negate the need to consider their concerns and demands with regard to the industry. Specifically, I demonstrate how the varying ascriptions of guilt or innocence in these newspaper articles intertwine with preexisting discourses and stereotypes so as to limit the portrayals of these women, positioning them as guilty contagions in need of control or, occasionally, childlike and therefore innocent victims in need of rescue. As these portrayals could easily help justify actions and policies that ignore sex workers' voices, I conclude with suggested changes to coverage of sex tourism that might aid the development of a common sense in which these women's demands are at the centre of any debate around the industry.
author Peters, Heather
spellingShingle Peters, Heather
Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry
author_facet Peters, Heather
author_sort Peters, Heather
title Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry
title_short Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry
title_full Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry
title_fullStr Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry
title_full_unstemmed Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry
title_sort guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in canadian press coverage of thailand's sex tourism industry
publishDate 2007
url http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/975442/1/MR34642.pdf
Peters, Heather <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/view/creators/Peters=3AHeather=3A=3A.html> (2007) Guilty contagions and innocent victims : adult sex workers in Canadian press coverage of Thailand's sex tourism industry. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
work_keys_str_mv AT petersheather guiltycontagionsandinnocentvictimsadultsexworkersincanadianpresscoverageofthailandssextourismindustry
_version_ 1716607899999928320