Women’s Narratives of Prostitution as Roadmaps to Positive Identities

• In Event: Women’s Perspectives on their Experiences of Prostitution

Abstract

The impacts of prostitution on women’s self-image are well documented. Questions remain, however, about the ways in which women maintain or construct a positive identity despite involvement in prostitution. Based on a narrative identity perspective, we use life stories to explore how women integrate personal experiences of prostitution into preferred identities. Women’s discourses about prostitution allow us to explore how its consequences in terms of losses and traumas are presented and therefore, how strong and mature is their current sense of self. Twenty qualitative life story interviews were conducted among women who were (and possibly still are) involved in prostitution, guided by McAdams’ Life Story Interview (1995, 2008). Results suggest that participants were not resisting “prostitute” identities, nor were they denying the consequences of prostitution. However, participants made it a point to distance their experiences and themselves from other women involved in prostitution. Such “othering” conveyed the message that because principles governed their decision-making and because they were somewhat able to protect themselves, prostitution was not as damaging as it could have been. Positioning their prostitution as “not as bad” as the prostitution of others was therefore a powerful mechanism to manage its consequences.

Authors

• Mathilde Turcotte, Université Laval

• Nadine Lanctot, Universite de Sherbrooke