By Marlene Spanger
Different views on prostitution exist in Denmark. The most prevalent view on prostitution can be described as one of double standard: That prostitution is a private affair for both buyer and seller, and further prostitution is considered as a natural thing, but at the same time the prostitute is condemned (Järvinen 1989). Another approach to prostitution, which is not so prevalent, but has made progress within the last 10 years, considers prostitution as a socio-political problem: That prostitution is rooted in social need and that women in prostitution incur social and psychological damages. Despite the slight research in Denmark on prostitution a number of reports and books have been written during the last ten years, which represent this view (e.g. Bechmann et al 1990, Bjørnholk 1994, Koch 1987). Furthermore, this approach has shed light on inequality between men and women, but in the same time the women are often approached as victims of social misery.
The subject of this article is African and Central American female migrants-who-prostitute in Denmark. I approach this subject by focusing on two themes: 1) migration and 2) notions of ‘the black woman’, which in different ways enclose the living conditions of these women. Here gender, sexuality and race will be considered as social constructions linked to specific contexts in which both prostitutes and clients are acting individuals in the construction of the so-called special ‘authentic’ sexuality of the black woman. It is my intention to destabilise or hopefully draw a more nuanced picture of coloured women, which not necessarily keep them in the position as the victimised woman or in the position as the women with liberated sexuality.
This article draws on oral sources: five interviews with black female migrants-who-prostitute (Spanger 2000).
Prostitution as an identity or a strategy
Prostitution is not a neutral term for the selling and buying of sexual services. The term evokes certain notions on how women should express and use their sexuality. Prostitution must be understood in relation to a specific society and culture in which it exists (e.g. Nencel 1997). More specifically, women-who-prostitute should be understood from a number of gender related perspectives: the social organisation around the sexual-economic exchange between men and women; the production of knowledge about prostitution; women’s working opportunities, etc. These are all conditions that influence the regulation of the practices of prostitution and the way in which prostitute women are seen.
According to Pheterson (1996) women-who-prostitute are often perceived as a homogenous group, an understanding which both Kempadoo and Doezema (1998) and Pheterson (1996) finds critical, because it neither gives a complete picture nor a nuanced representation of the women’s lives. Inspired in general by the social constructivist approach, and more specifically by Lorraine Nencel’s (1997) dissertation on prostitution in Peru, I should like to emphasise that I will not refer to the women as prostitutes, because the term prostitute reflects an identity more than an act. The women I have spoken to do not recognise themselves as prostitutes but rather as women who occasionally sell sex. Nor do they wish prostitution to be legalised. I find the term women-who-prostitute more precise for my study, because it reflects an act or some discursive practice of the women’s life. The women regard prostitution as a hidden survival strategy, which gives them an opportunity to increase their income.
The construction of black woman’s sexuality
Even if my empirical evidence does not clearly document that various notions of race, gender and sexuality influence the prostitution of black women in Denmark, I assume that this is an important perspective to take into account. The icon of the black woman has changed and has been reproduced in different discourses during the last centuries (Gilman 1985). Pieterse (1992) and Gilman (1985) argues that the notion that black women, possessing a more wild and natural sexuality and having a need for sex with many men, was a quite common picture in the late of the 19th to the early 20th century. This notion of the sexuality of black women still exists today, when black women prostitute themselves to white, western men (e.g. Davidson and Taylor 1999, Thorbek 1997). When female black migrants represent ’the foreigner’, this can simultaneously seem both attractive and dangerous; the fear for sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS, but also fantasies about the sexually unknown play a role in this. These notions of black women are, for example, used in travel advertisements and contribute to the stimulation of ’the white western mens’ desire for the sexually Other.
That the black women-who-prostitute advertise themselves in the Danish newspapers and magazines under the term: ‘exotic’, ‘mulatto babe’ or ‘chocolate-brown’ reflects an emphasis on the colour of their skin, on how they look, and on their body, which may be understood in relation to a certain discourse. This discourse can be traced back into the past.
The fact that black women exist as a specific category within the sex industry points to certain notions of sexuality connected to the prostitution of black women. Notions, which can be very denouncing and racists towards the black female migrants, but at the same time these notions can give the women a kind of anonymity, because through their mobility they can hide and hopefully live an undisturbed life.
The women I have spoken to during my fieldwork did all define themselves as black towards me despite that they came from different African or Central American states. That is also a reason why I have chosen to use the term black instead of refering to them as for example Ghanian or South African women.
Transnational prostitution
Transnational prostitution is global. It is a concern, it involves women from poorer parts of the world, with limited opportunities for increasing their income but with a duty to support a large part of their family. More or less voluntarily they choose to migrate to a richer part of the world, where the opportunities for an increased income are better. For these women, prostitution becomes a more or less deliberate survival strategy.
During my interviews with the interviewees, I focused on their life condition in general and not specifically on prostitution because I wished to place prostitution in a broad context. My questions are divided into three themes: 1) Migration process 2) Everyday life 3) Conditions of prostitution (also called: the way they earn money). By focusing on their situation in general, I hoped to avoid denouncing the women, and simultaneously show interest in understanding why they prostitute. Below, I will present two cases.
Between South Africa, Århus, Ålborg and Copenhagen:
Julia is in her late 30’s and comes from Johannesburg in South Africa. She has five children who live with her mother in Johannesburg. When her first husband died in an accident at work, she was left as sole breadwinner of the family and her salary as a teacher was not enough to support her and her five children.
When Julia came to Denmark, she got a resident permit for two years. She emphasises that she chose to migrate because of financial reasons, and that she did not have a certain kind of work in mind when she moved. Through her uncle, who lives in Denmark, she learnt about the country. It was also through him that she met her present Danish husband. They live in Århus. It was in Denmark that Julia first started to work as a prostitute, when a Danish woman introduced her to it. Julia makes it clear to me that her profession is not that of a prostitute, but of a teacher. However, she is not proficient enough in Danish to be able to teach in Denmark.
At no point during the interview does she use the term prostitute, but refers to prostitution as ‘that’. Several times she underscores the economic aspect as her only reason for working as a prostitute. Apart from the prostitution, she cleans for a few hours in various places and the cleaning work functions as a cover for the prostitution. Julia has contacts at several massage parlours both in Århus and in Copenhagen, which means that she commutes between Århus, Copenhagen and Ålborg. Julia underlines that neither her uncle, her husband nor her family in South Africa know anything about the prostitution. She simply says that she works as a cleaner, which she actually does a few times a week.
Between Copenhagen, Ghana and Amsterdam:
Sarah lives in Amsterdam, but works periodically as hostess in a bar in Copenhagen. She talks to the male guests and solicits her customers among them.
Sarah is in her early 40’s and comes from Ghana. Today she lives in Amsterdam together with her husband and four-year-old daughter. She is the only one out of a family of nine children who managed to get some education before her father died, and therefore it is her duty as the eldest and the only educated child to help her brothers and sisters in financing their education. Later, when some of the other children have found work, it will in turn be their duty to help the rest of their siblings. Sarah’s husband is also from Ghana and works as electronics engineer in Holland. She told me that she has close contact with her relatives in Ghana - sisters, brothers and mother - and she takes on an economic responsibility towards her family, which means that she sends remittances back to them.
In Amsterdam, Sarah got a job at the post office, but her salary was not sufficient to cover her family’s expenses for school fees, hospital visits, etc. This is why she started doing this ‘thing’, as she described her work in Copenhagen. She works for about one to two months at a time in Copenhagen, then goes back to Amsterdam and returns to Copenhagen after two or three months. She cannot work for a longer period at a time since she is also responsible for the running of their household and taking care of their daughter. Sarah emphasises ‘that’ ’the way in which she makes money’ in Copenhagen is not a permanent or full-time job, and therefore she does not regard herself as a prostitute, but describes prostitution as that, which she only does every now and then. Her husband knows that she works in Copenhagen, as a kind of hostess, but she has not told him about the prostitution. This part of her work is easier to hide when she works far away from her home base. Working in another city in Europe gives her better opportunities to become anonymous. The deliberate choice of working place illustrates that she is hiding from her family, relatives and friends how she earns the money.
Mobility
These two stories represent different migration patterns and at the same time the stories contain similar features. Both women have a certain duty to support their children, parents and/or brothers and sisters, and both had personal contacts in Denmark before migrating. The women’s economic responsibility towards their families and the involvement of the family members in the migration process make the migration a family strategy and not an individual strategy despite the fact that only one person actually moves. In Sarah and Julia’s cases, their migration happens between several bases and across one or two country borders, which denotes a relatively high degree of mobility. This contributes to securing their anonymity.
Migrants engage in more than one society, but at the same time they feel that they are not fully part of either of the societies, since they have neither totally left their ’original’ society nor fully integrated into their new society (Smith 1994, 20). On the other hand, migrants create social spaces between the sending and the receiving countries, where meaningful social practices are produced and identities constructed (Malkki 1992, 37-38). The women move between two or more social systems, languages, cultures etc., while they also often have different statuses and positions in the respective countries. In Denmark, they are ’the prostitute’, ’the foreigner’, while they are often regarded as ’the rich and privileged member of the family’ in the sending community. When the women’s children live with their family in another city in Europe or in the sending community, and the women regularly send remittances back and stay in close contact, they are creating social spaces across national or regional borders.
Even if the women are part of a larger group of women from the poorer parts of the world, where the possibilities to generate capital are limited, they are able to maintain the connection to their family in their home country by using technological means of transport and communication. Thus the geographical distances do not prevent the women from earning money. Prostitution in Denmark is an example of one of the few opportunities that the women have to increase their income. For some, prostitution serves as a stepping-stone to improving their living conditions; others never succeed in breaking out of it.
Between suppression and independence
For both Sarah and Julia, prostitution is something that is not talked about, but a hidden act that is carried out in secret. Furthermore, neither of the women refers to themselves as ’prostitutes’. The fact that prostitution is not mentioned among the women in the interviews can be seen as a kind of cover mechanism, which aims at ’anonymising’ the prostitution for themselves, their family and friends. Thus, these women are fully aware of the action itself - the selling of sexual services - but by not mentioning it, they presumably hope to avoid the stigma of being ’socially deviant’. Their mobility enables the women to create and maintain a social network across country borders. For them, prostitution is exclusively a hidden survival strategy, which not only concerns the individual women, but several family members.
The earlier notion of the sexuality of black women as more ’natural’ and physical still exists today within prostitution. The idea of the sexuality of black women contributes to the anonymisation of the women for their customers. Presumably, the anonymity can be tempting for the women, since they can thus conceal themselves and ensure that no outsiders interfere with their private affairs. On the other hand, this racial stereotype reduces black women (in general) to sexual objects and keeps them in a degraded position.
When prostitution is a hidden act, the balance between suppression and independence becomes very narrow. Despite their socially, financially and mentally demanding lives the women interviewed have a relatively high degree of autonomy in the organisation of their own lives, since they are not dependent on pimps. They have also been able to influence their own migration process, in spite of their limited opportunities. For some of the women, prostitution has meant a greater independence. Their income from prostitution has made them breadwinners, which has given them greater esteem and an improved position within their family. However, the size of the income from prostitution does probably vary among the women.
At the same time, prostitution may very easily place the women in a vulnerable position, since they have no rights to plead in case of abuse and violence by customers and pimps. On the other hand, their anonymous position enables them to avoid bureaucratic systems and the duties imposed by these. However, this also means that it might be difficult for the women to receive the help that the Danish public system can offer. Thus, the women are anonymous in various ways and for various groups, but at the same time their appearance as black women means that they are also elementarily visible in Danish society.
Notes
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