“Those feminists haven't come to us, they don't know our reality”: Indian sex workers' narratives of love and power

Abstract

Based on a collaborative project with the Sex Workers' Freedom from Injustice Collective (Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad, otherwise known as “VAMP”) in Maharashtra, India, this article explores sex workers’ narratives on love, life, power and freedom. Sex workers’ own accounts of the joys and difficulties they face in their intimate lives, in and outside work, we suggest here, offer important insights into the way in which they navigate patriarchy and throw fresh light on the questions of power and choice that have been so much at the heart of the sex work/prostitution debate.