SEX WORK, CARE, AND RISK IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND AIDS EPIDEMIC

Abstract

This article analyzes the discursive, moral, and social resonances in response the AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic in two important contexts of sex worker movements and organizations. It engages with Viviana Zelizer’s contributions to problematize how the commercial transaction of paid sex contributes to attributing moral, affective, and symbolic value to different caregiving practices circulating within sex work. The research gathered information from archived documents and digital environments, including surveys on social networks. The relational approach privileged the political and creative action of sex workers in the two contexts where care is intersected by moral ambiguities. Results indicate the changing meanings that care can acquire. In AIDS prevention policies, paid sex and care are intertwined, denoting trust and safe sex. In the pandemic, paid sex and the risk of infection, together maximize the idea that sex workers pose risks.

Keywords:
Sex work; Care; Gender; Intimacy; Epidemics