Precarious empowerments: Sexualized labor in the coffee shops of Santiago, Chile

• In Event: 4446 - Sexualities III: Sexual Culture and Performance

Abstract

This article examines the everyday life of ‘tinted cafes,’ spaces hidden from public view where women dance sensually and perform sexual services for a male clientele. Based on a two-year ethnography, this article addresses women’s sexualized work as a form of service that embodies gendered, transnational social structures, but also as a practice that represents women’s resourcefulness and resilience. By relying on their bodily labor, strategies, caring practices, and social networks, women can navigate a neoliberal context marked by profound social inequalities and precarious labor conditions. Expanding on the literature on sex work in the ‘global South,’ this article shows sex work as part of a variety of informal economies that both support and depend on women’s sexual labor.

Author

• Pilar Ortiz, CUNY Graduate Center