‘I’m Gonna Speak for Me’ I-Poems and the Situated Knowledges of Sex Workers

ABSTRACT

In academic and political spaces, as well as in the dominant culture in the United States, sex workers are granted little authority, and their lived experiences are not privileged as a form of valuable knowledge. As feminist scholars, we seek to counter this pattern by highlighting the situated knowledges and agency of sex workers in the United States. To do so, we share the words of sex workers through I-poems. I-poems are a form of poetic inquiry and a method for qualitative research analysis. As a form of found poetry, these poems are constructed using only the words of the participants. Unlike prior scholars, we use focus groups that capture conversation about people involved in street-based sex work rather than individual interviews. By centering the participants’ own words, we hope to moderate our influence as researchers on the presentation of data.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex work
• qualitative research
• found poetry
• feminist scholarship
• abuse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Office on Women’s Health, Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services [grant number WH-CCE-10-001].

Notes on contributors

Maggie Buckridge

Maggie Buckridge is an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware studying Criminal Justice (B.A.) and Women and Gender Studies (B.A.) with a concentration in Domestic Violence Prevention and Services. She is passionate about the antiracist work of expanding higher education for those who are currently or formerly incarcerated. She is active both as a researcher, and as a victim advocate with the university’s Sexual Offense Support. She wants to promote justice for both victim-survivors, as well as those convicted of sexual crimes.

Jules Lowman

Jules Lowman is an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware studying Criminal Justice (B.A.), Global Studies, and History. She is interested in the expansion of prison education at UD and the impact of poetry by incarcerated individuals. Jules has done research in conjunction with UD’s Anti-Racist Initiative in an effort to allow incarcerated students in Delaware more access to college courses.

Chrysanthi S. Leon

Chrysanthi S. Leon JD, PhD, is Deputy Dean of the Honors College, Associate Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice, Women & Gender Studies, and Legal Studies, and founding member of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender-based Violence at the University of Delaware. She received her graduate degrees from UC Berkeley. Leon is an interdisciplinary scholar in penology, law and society whose research and teaching address sex crime and punishment, sex work, and the prison system; she teaches in a local women’s prison. Her book, Sex Fiends, Perverts and Pedophiles: Understanding Sex Crime Policy in America, is available from NYU Press. Leon is co-editor, with Katie Hail-Jares and Corey Shdaimah, of Challenging Perspectives on Street-Based Sex Work (Temple University Press).