‘Reproachable Victims’? Representations and Self-representations of Russian Women Involved in Transnational Prostitution

Abstract

The article investigates how the concept of victimhood is constructed within debates on transnational prostitution and trafficking, and how representations of victimhood intersect with representations of the person/self, class, ethnicity, gender and nationality. Using research findings based on observation and interviews with women from post-Soviet societies involved in prostitution in Norway, we discuss how the women embrace, resist or rework dominant representations of migrant prostitution and attendant notions of victimhood, as well as how they relate to multiple notions of the person/self, femininity and nation through their handling of the stigma of prostitution

Keywords:

• Transnational prostitution
• female migration
• trafficking
• victimhood
• person/self

Notes

Among a number of contested concepts, we have chosen ‘women involved in prostitution’. This term is more precise and less politicized than ‘sex worker’, and in contrast to the term ‘prostitute’ avoids links with the act of selling sex to the person. We do however make use of this latter term when referring to ‘a prostitute’ as an identity category. We also use the term ‘whore’ when referring to the stigma attached to the category of the ‘prostitute’.

If we had explored women's narratives of the self in relation to other areas of their lives, we would presumably have found alternative discourses of the person/self less.

Our use of ‘women from post-Soviet societies’ should not be read as a denial of the differences that exist among the states of the former Soviet Union, in terms of history, gender and power relations, but rather as a category useful for the analytical purposes of this article.

Policy efforts up to now have been limited to trafficking for prostitution.

Fifteen women were interviewed by May-Len Skilbrei and/or research assistant Irina Polyakova in Russian and/or English. Polyakova has written an MA thesis on the same material. Skilbrei has done empirical work on post-Soviet women in prostitution in Norway since 2005, and this material provides an important backdrop for the present study (see e.g. Skilbrei 2007; Skilbrei & Polyakova 2006).

The women were selected for interviews on the basis of having experienced lack of information and control during parts of the migration process or in their involvement in prostitution. Some of the women identified themselves or were identified (NGOs, the government or the courts in cases involving pimping/procuring and/or trafficking) as victims of trafficking.

Section 224 of the Penal Code criminalized anyone: ‘who by force, threats, or underhand conduct unlawfully brings anyone into his own or another person's power with the intention of reducing him to a state of helplessness, enlisting him in foreign military service, or taking him into captivity or other state of dependence in a foreign country, or transporting him to a foreign country for indecent purposes’.

Scholars from various disciplines have critically examined the relationship of the concept of victimhood to colonial and post-colonial Western dominance (Mohanty 2003), contemporary humanitarian efforts (Väyrynen 2005), global politics (Sjoberg & Gentry 2007) and neoliberal modes of governing (Brown 1995; Bumiller 2008).

Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol states that the consent of the victim (i.e. to migrate and work in prostitution) is irrelevant as long as one of the methods in the definition (ranging from violence to deceit) has been used.

The macro socio-economic and political changes associated with the fall of the Soviet Union do not automatically translate into people's daily lives, experiences and self-representations. However, the Soviet/post-Soviet distinction is, as will be argued further on in the article, a central frame through which the women we interviewed interpret their own lives.

On the complexities of the portrayal of Russian femininity, see Roudakova and Ballard-Reisch (1999). On gender in post-communist societies, see Kay (2007), Ashwin (2000), and Haukanes (2001).

In addition, there are countries listed as ‘transit’ countries and ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ countries can also function as ‘transit’ countries.

On the politicization of the use of the terms ‘organized crime’ and ‘mafia’, see Ruggiero (2003).

The collapse of the Soviet Union was not followed by a public ‘settling of accounts’ like those that occurred with other colonial powers that had to deal with recognizing past atrocities (Carey & Raciborski 2004). For a discussion of whether the Soviet Union can be seen as a colonial power, see Carey and Raciborski (2004).