Staying safe: how young women who trade sex in Toronto navigate risk and harm reduction

Abstract

Celling Sex was a community-based participatory research project that used a strengths-based approach to explore the agentic harm reduction practices employed by young women who trade sex and learn about their experience accessing health and social services. Fifteen racially diverse young women participated in interviews. They described how they tried to stay safe and advice for others. Each participant also individually made a brief digital video (cellphilm) to tell their story. Participants were invited to a private screening at which cellphilms were screened and common themes identified. The interviews and cellphilms were subsequently coded according to these themes. Participants identified a number of trading risks including: physical risks (unwanted pregnancy, STIs, and violence), social risks (racism and fetishisation), and mental health risks. To mitigate these concerns, participants detailed the harm reduction strategies they used which included use of technology, screening measures, boundary setting, and actively incorporating sexual health protections. Young women who trade sex are keenly aware of the risks inherent in transactional relationships and proactively negotiate and navigate harm reduction strategies in the context of deep systemic barriers. Further intervention may be necessary for them to actualise these strategies and access important forms of health and social support.

Keywords:

• Transactional sex
• harm reduction
• stigma
• youth health
• community-based research
• trading

Acknowledgements

We thank participants and advisory council members for bravely sharing their stories, Halimo Abdi and Erica Marrison for their research assistance, and our community partners – Planned Parenthood Toronto and the Black Creek Community Health Centre. Thanks go to Sarah Switzer, Paul Flicker and anonymous reviewers for providing constructive feedback on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Using preferred gendered pronouns, we refer to participants as either she or they throughout.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.