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    Placement and displacement : the fallen woman in discourse : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1993) Dacre, Anna
    This thesis is an invitation to reconsider the process of reading and representing the fallen woman. It combines an eclectic theoretical approach, drawing on works by Foucault, Derrida and Kristeva, with the metaphor of colonisation and the palimpsest. Using this construction, the thesis examines the placement of the fallen woman in discourse. The first section discusses how she falls in discourse, and uses textual and visual examples (predominantly Esther Barton from Gaskell's Mary Barton, Monica Widdowson and Rhoda Nunn from Gissing's The Odd Women). The reading of these figures uncovers three characteristic issues in the fallen woman's representation: her construction as murderer, the 'justice' of her death, and her pornographic interaction with the reader. This examination of the placement of the fallen woman continues in the second section. Here, the thesis explores how representations of her placement in discourse also suggest a displacement--that is, how her fall in discourse is a fall from discourse. Reading her site as a palimpsest of colonising representations uncovers the placement and displacement of the fallen woman in discourse.
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    The game : the percieved (i.e. perceived) impacts of the decriminalisation of prostitution in Aotearoa : a thesis presented in fulfilment of requirements for the Master of Philosophy, Women's Studies, at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2004) Nichol, Anna Jane
    This thesis investigates the perceived impacts of the decriminalisation of prostitution in Aotearoa. It is a feminist analysis of the legislative change from prohibitive prostitution legislation (Massage Parlours Act 1978) to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Examination of the perceived impacts of the decriminalisation of prostitution are developed through analysis of submissions on the Prostitution Reform Bill, the Justice and Electoral Committee Report, and parliamentary debates on the subject of prostitution and decriminalisation. These views about prostitution and the perceived impacts of decriminalisation in Aotearoa are compared and contrasted with interviews of four women who had a collective 50 years' experience and knowledge of the sex industry. Important factors illuminated in the investigation are: the language used to describe prostitutes and prostitution; the differentiation between social, cultural and moral concerns about prostitution; the value system that drives the stigmatisation of prostitutes; and the chasm between actual prostitution experience and public perception of prostitution. The difference between the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 and the first draft of the Prostitution Reform Bill are shown to be indicative of the public perception that prostitutes are not legitimate citizens or women who are deserving of freedom to commercial sexual activity. The analysis process unearths a reiteration of stories about 'bad women' and finds that clients (men) are viewed as victims of prostitution. The structure of the political lobby in Aotearoa and the notion of a conscience vote are found to be bound heavily within a climate of the moral right. The control, surveillance, and reform of 'bad women' is central to the configuration of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003.
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    Sexual pleasures and dangers : a history of sexual cultures in Wellington, 1900-1920 : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by thesis only in History at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1998) Gillingham, Mary
    This thesis examines sexual cultures between 1900 and 1920. It is based on court records of trials for 'sex crime' in the Wellington Supreme Court district, which covered the lower north island. Although sex crimes were an extreme manifestation of sexual practice, and court records represent only partial and constructed accounts of it, the sources can provide insight into attitudes toward sexuality in the past. In this thesis, a crime is posited as an 'extraordinary moment', capable of illuminating a variety of cultural beliefs about sexuality. Victims, their families, the accused men, criminal justice authorities and many others expressed views about codes of sexual behaviour in response to sex crimes. Combined, they form a multi-layered and, at times, contested grid of understandings about sexual mores. This thesis is focused on the reconstruction of these codes of sexual behaviour. To do this, a case study method has been employed which traces the construction of sexuality by individuals and within the courts. The possibilities of sexual pleasure and sexual danger - autonomy and victimisation - framed the meaning attached to sexual encounters by the parties involved, and by others. Such understandings were predominantly shaped by the variables of age and gender. Very young children lacked sufficient sexual knowledge to identify a sexual encounter as either sexually pleasurable or dangerous; they labelled it a physical attack. By adolescence, girls and boys were increasingly sexually aware. For them, and for adults, sexual experiences were characterised by the possibility for sexual pleasure or danger, or a mix of the two. This potential for sexuality to be experienced as pleasure shaped observers' understandings of codes of sexual behaviour. Observers often conflated sexual maturity with consent: childhood was predominantly constructed as a time of sexual innocence and adulthood as times of sexual activity and agency. But codes of sexual behaviour were also mediated by gender. Gendered constructions of character shaped self-representations and observers' understandings of sexual mores. While the double standard of sexual morality set the backdrop for the understanding of sexual mores in the wider Wellington area during the early twentieth century, there were considerable variations in levels of acceptance of it. This thesis examines constructions of sexuality in relation to children, adolescents, and adults of both sexes.
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    This is work not your private life : a discourse analytic study of sex work in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Whibley, Jill
    The majority of previous research conducted on sex work has reflected and reinforced popular cultural constructions of sex work. This present study examines alternative constructions of sex work from the viewpoint of sex workers themselves using the discourse analytic method developed by Potter and Wetherell (1987) and Parker (1992). Nine female sex workers were interviewed on a wide variety of relevant topics. The analysis revealed that five distinct discourses were used to construct sex work. These included construction of the dissociation of the self; clients as being everyday types of men who were further constructed as being wounded, as having a higher sexual drive than women and of sometimes being friends and lovers; the 'whore stigma'; sex-as-work and sex work as valuable. In general, these discourses presented positive and powerful ways of talking about the sex work industry. Participants recognised the stereotypical and stigmatic ways that they were constructed in social discourse and actively concentrated on resisting such language about sex work. The participant's alternative constructions of sex work generally functioned to justify sex work as being valid work. The results of this study have relevance for other socially marginalised groups in society, which are confronted by prejudice, stigmatisation, and oppression.