This brief comment seeks to extend an understanding of how sex work invites what has been called ‘an unusually interested political gaze’ in the context of legislative interventions. Using examples of public pronouncements on sex workers by state functionaries as well as in judicial discourse in public interest litigation around their situation, the concern with addressing an ‘imaginary audience’ is demonstrated. It is argued that such pronouncements should be understood as serving other covert purposes and cannot be seen only in terms of stated intentions.
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