Upmarket boudoirs and red lights: the physical environment of sex workplaces in New Zealand

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dc.contributor.authorEasterbrook-Smith G
dc.contributor.authorWeinhold C
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-12T01:19:30Z
dc.date.available2024-11-12T01:19:30Z
dc.date.issued2024-01-01
dc.description.abstractThe physical environment and location of brothels has been the focus of significant scholarship, although much of the literature focuses on the exterior of these businesses, leaving the interiors as yet under-examined. In New Zealand, there is a tension between decriminalization’s intention that brothels are treated similarly to other businesses, and the enduring stigma which sex work is subject to. To mitigate stigmatization and public condemnation of their businesses, brothel owners sometimes mimic the aesthetic and branding of more mainstream industries. Drawing on data from media texts and interviews with brothel owners and operators, this article examines how ‘mainstreaming’ narratives of respectability and acceptability are produced in the physical space of brothels, particularly their interior décor and design. Media texts were analysed using a critical discourse analysis approach, and interviews using a Foucauldian discourse analysis model, allowing for an understanding of the interplay between the discursive production of the brothel sector and the physical environment of these businesses. We suggest that brothels’ interiors are used as a way of indexing their class status, and explore how this may be used to communicate ideas about the workers employed there, particularly in relation to existing stigmas about prostitution.
dc.identifier.citationEasterbrook-Smith G, Weinhold C. (2024). Upmarket boudoirs and red lights: the physical environment of sex workplaces in New Zealand. Social and Cultural Geography.
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/14649365.2024.2410272
dc.identifier.eissn1470-1197
dc.identifier.elements-typejournal-article
dc.identifier.issn1464-9365
dc.identifier.urihttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/71976
dc.relation.isPartOfSocial and Cultural Geography
dc.relation.urihttps://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2024.2410272
dc.rights(c) 2024 The Author/s
dc.rightsCC BY-NC-ND 4.0
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.titleUpmarket boudoirs and red lights: the physical environment of sex workplaces in New Zealand
dc.typeJournal article
massey.relation.uri-descriptionPublished version
pubs.elements-id492019
pubs.organisational-groupCollege of Humanities and Social Sciences
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