Are private sex workers really free?

Stanislav Ondrášek, Alena Kajanová
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Institute of Social and Special-paedagogical Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Korespondenční autor: Stanislav Ondrášek (ondras00@zsf.jcu.cz)

ISSN 1804-7181 (On-line)

Full verze:

Submitted:29. 4. 2020
Accepted: 22. 6. 2020
Published online: 10. 7. 2020

Summary

This article has two levels. The first deals with the perception of sex business from the perspective of private sex workers; the second points out the interpretation mistakes that may occur within the qualitative data analysis. This article is the result of a project focused on reflections on the private sex business. The research was carried out with the help of biographic-narrative interviews with 36 women who work in the private sex business in the South Bohemia Region and Prague. The interviews were recorded with the respondents’ consent, and subsequently transcribed verbatim and evaluated in the ATLAS.ti program with the use of the grounded theory method. In the results, freedom emerged as the central category; it pervaded all interviews and topics, including the motivation for prostitution. So, for the respondents, it appears that this is a central topic. The respondents primarily mentioned the freedom to choose their working hours; no supervisor; the freedom to choose clients; the freedom provided by the high income. They also noted the contrasting lack of freedom in other jobs. A comprehensive analysis with the use of contrasts showed this freedom can however be an alternative consequence of an ego-defence strategy of women in sex business.

Keywords: Freedom; Interpretation mistakes; Motivation; Sex business; Sex workers

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