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Condom use, power and HIV/AIDS risk: sex-workers bargain for survival in Hillbrow/Joubert Park/Berea, Johannesburg

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  • Wojcicki, Janet Maia
  • Malala, Josephine

Abstract

Through interviews with 50 female sex-workers in the Hillbrow/Berea/Joubert Park area of Johannesburg, this paper explores sexual negotiations between men and women in the sex industry. This paper focuses on factors that affect sexual decision-making including safer sex practices. In moving beyond approaches that emphasize women's 'powerlessness' in sexual negotiation, this article focuses on ways in which sex-workers capitalize on clients' reluctance to use condoms in sexual exchanges. We emphasize sex-worker's agency and use a broader, Foucauldian understanding of power, which couples power with resistance. Further, this paper examines other elements of the sex industry that contribute to unsafe sex such as competition between women for clients and violence in the industry. Finally, this paper suggests that HIV-prevention programs take cognizance that power negotiations between men and women cannot be simplistically understood as men having power and women being powerless. Rather, this article contributes to a growing body of literature in medical anthropology, which elucidates the complexities of sexual negotiations between men and women. This focus on agency is important in trying to lessen the stigma and discrimination that sex-workers face at the hands of clients, pimps/managers, police and health care workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Wojcicki, Janet Maia & Malala, Josephine, 2001. "Condom use, power and HIV/AIDS risk: sex-workers bargain for survival in Hillbrow/Joubert Park/Berea, Johannesburg," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 99-121, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:53:y:2001:i:1:p:99-121
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Shannon, Kate & Kerr, Thomas & Allinott, Shari & Chettiar, Jill & Shoveller, Jean & Tyndall, Mark W., 2008. "Social and structural violence and power relations in mitigating HIV risk of drug-using women in survival sex work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 911-921, February.
    2. Dunkle, Kristin L. & Jewkes, Rachel & Nduna, Mzikazi & Jama, Nwabisa & Levin, Jonathan & Sikweyiya, Yandisa & Koss, Mary P., 2007. "Transactional sex with casual and main partners among young South African men in the rural Eastern Cape: Prevalence, predictors, and associations with gender-based violence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 1235-1248, September.
    3. Mbonye, Martin & Siu, Godfrey & Seeley, Janet, 2022. "Marginal men, respectable masculinity and access to HIV services through intimate relationships with female sex workers in Kampala, Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    4. Sanders, Teela, 2006. "Female sex workers as health educators with men who buy sex: Utilising narratives of rationalisations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(10), pages 2434-2444, May.
    5. Luke, Nancy, 2006. "Exchange and Condom Use in Informal Sexual Relationships in Urban Kenya," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 319-348, January.
    6. Silverman, Basha & Champney, Joanna & Steber, Sara-Ann & Zubritsky, Cynthia, 2015. "Collaborating for consensus: Considerations for convening Coalition stakeholders to promote a gender-based approach to addressing the health needs of sex workers," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 17-26.
    7. Jewkes, R. & Morrell, R., 2012. "Sexuality and the limits of agency among South African teenage women: Theorising femininities and their connections to HIV risk practises," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1729-1737.

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