The "fallen women” : where are they now? a critical analysis of representations of sex workers as victims of violent crime in contemporary Canadian news media

Abstract

Historical representations of sex workers have discursively linked sex workers to concepts of contagion, disease, public nuisance, vermin, and disposal. More recent public attitudes and changes in legislation have attempted to diverge from these stigmatizing associations with sex work. The overarching objectives of this study were to determine what kind of themes remain in recent news media representations of sex workers as victims of violent crime, and if there has been a shift in such representations since the implementation of Bill C-36 in 2014. I approached my research with sex-positive and postcolonial feminist theories. This research is of utmost importance because it allows us to examine how mainstream Canadian news media represents, perceives, and perpetuates ideas about sex work, and how these representations can influence the lives and safety of sex workers. This qualitative study was based on (1) secondary research into the historical themes in representations of sex work, and (2) primary research analyzing 29 CBC articles covering sex workers as victims of violent crime in Canada post-2014. The largest overarching theme was <i>Advocacy and Awareness</i>, with subthemes (1) <i>Stigma and Education</i>; (2) <i>Criminalization and Agents of the Law</i>; and (3) <i>(In)Justice for Indigenous Women</i>. Another significant theme was <i>Limitations of the Move Toward Progressive Media Coverage</i>, with subthemes (1) <i>Substance Use</i>; (2) <i>(De)Humanization</i>; and (3) <i>Language Shift</i>. While shifts away from blatantly stigmatizing language use and towards spreading awareness of the disproportionate levels of violence facing sex workers represent progressive changes to a certain extent, the findings demonstrate that sex workers still face dehumanization and stigmatization in more subtle ways that often go unnoticed and therefore uncriticized.