Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Zabriskie, Queen
Area of Concentration
Sociology and Gender Studies
Abstract
This research investigates the internet as discursive field where dominant images of online sex workers are constructed as well as the ways that online sex workers navigate these discourses in their work. The data examined in this research come from a content analysis of Google image search results and a life history interview with an online sex worker. This study seeks to answer the questions: To what extent does the internet perpetuate offline discourses about sex work and workers? How do online sex workers create strategies to navigate the internet as a discursive field? Findings suggest that Google images reflect dominant ideas concerning sex, sex work, and sexuality that re/produce inequalities. However, the internet is also a site in which online sex workers imagine creative strategies for navigating these oftentimes oppressive discourses, constructing alternative ways of knowing for themselves and others.
Recommended Citation
Mason, Wolly, "PERFORMING RESISTANCE IN THE HEGEMONIC DOMAIN: ALGORITHMIC OPPRESSION, ONLINE SEX WORK, & THE POLITICS OF EMPOWERMENT" (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5749.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5749