Życiowa zaradność czy nieporadność – świadczenie usług seksualnych z perspektywy kobiet pracujących w agencjach towarzyskich
Resourcefulness or Helplessness – Provision of Sexual Services from the Perspective of Women Working in Escort Agencies

Summary/Abstract: Women providing sex services have been hitherto described in the research literature from the two main perspectives: as victims who are unable to manage their lives, or, much less frequently, as conscious beings who make decisions about this way of earning their living. These two perspectives are juxtaposed in the article with the experiences of women who interpret their involvement in sex services as resourcefulness. The empirical data have been collected by means of the unstructured interviews with 52 women providing sex services in escort agencies. Grounded theory procedures have been used to analyze the research material. The analysis allows to distinguish the subtypes of resourcefulness. The article discusses an ambivalent nature of resourcefulness understood in this way: the sense of being proud of their ability to cope well in life is intertwined with a sense of shame and anxiety that arise from the awareness of being perceived negatively by the society.

• Details
• Contents