Abstract
This chapter explores issues of victimhood and agency, consent and constraint for women who experienced sexual exploitation as adolescents in order to consider how the meaning given by them to those experiences shaped the choices they felt able or unable to make. Current gendered, patriarchal narratives seek to victimise or to blame. Using feminist research, epistemologies and feminist theory, I examine the impact of dominant narratives on the lives of 12 women who experienced sexual exploitation as children and sex work as adults. I look at the sense they made of environmental, familial and individual factors informed by overarching gendered narratives impacted on them. A feminist perspective directs us to listen to the voices of those directly involved as experts in their own lives both ‘with’ women who had experienced sexual exploitation and sex work not ‘on’ them. I share messages for policy and social work practice.
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Dodsworth, J. (2022). Child Sexual Exploitation, Victim Blaming or Rescuing: Negotiating a Feminist Perspective on the Way Forward. In: Cocker, C., Hafford-Letchfield, T. (eds) Rethinking Feminist Theories for Social Work Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94241-0_16
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