Using I-poems and poetic inquiry, this paper takes a case study approach to discuss the distinctions between consensual sex work and sex trafficking by situating the knowledge and lived experience of a first-generation South Asian Canadian independent indoor sex worker. Through Anu’s words describing her own experiences with both empowering work and instances of exploitation, this paper posits that engaging in the sex trade is legitimate work when workers have agency. Despite the stereotypes perpetuated in anti-trafficking discourse, especially of South Asian women, Anu defies the expected role of a helpless trafficking victim. In highlighting Anu’s story, we aim to provide a complexified and nuanced view of sex trafficking and its common conflation with consensual sex work. This conflation leads to further harm, as can be seen in Anu’s story, when anti-trafficking legal measures do not provide safety nor justice for sex workers who experience exploitation but are not perceived as adhering to controlling narratives of a “marketable victim.”
AujlaA (2000) Others in their own land: second generation South Asian Canadian women, racism, and the persistence of colonial discourse. Canadian Woman Studies20(2): 41–47.
2.
Bailey-KlochM (2017) Poetry in street-based sex work. In: Hail-JaresKShdaimahCLeonC (eds) Challenging Perspectives on Street-Based Sex Work. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
3.
BalgamwallaS (2016) Trafficking in narratives: conceptualizing and recasting victims, offenders, and rescuers in the war on human trafficking. Denver Law Review94(1): 1–41.
4.
BenoitCSmithMJanssonM, et al. (2016) Lack of confidence in police creates a “blue ceiling” for sex workers’ safety. Canadian Public Policy – Analyse De Politiques42(4): 456–468.
5.
BeutinLP (2023) Trafficking in Antiblackness: Modern-Day Slavery, White Indemnity, and Racial Justice. Durham: Duke University Press.
6.
BlockS (2010) Ontario’s Growing Gap: The Role of Race and Gender. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
BlockSGalabuziGE (2011) Canada’s colour coded labour market: the gap for racialized workers. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
9.
BourdieuP (1987) What makes a social class? on the theoretical and practical existence of groups. Berkeley Journal of Sociology32: 1–17.
10.
BrennanD (2005) Methodological challenges in research with trafficked persons: tales from the field. International Migration43(1/2): 35–54.
11.
BrennanD (2017) Fighting human trafficking today: moral panics, zombie data, and the seduction of rescue. Wake Forest Law Review52(2): 477–496.
12.
BrockDGilliesKOliverC, et al. (2000) Migrant sex work: a roundtable. Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme20(2): 84–91.
13.
BruckertCHannemS (2013) To serve and protect? structural stigma, social profiling, and the abuse of police power in Ottawa. In: MeulenEVDDurisinEMLoveV (eds) Selling Sex: Experience, Advocacy and Research on Sex Work in Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 297–313.
14.
BuckridgeMLowmanJLeonCS (2022) ‘I’m gonna speak for me’ I-poems and the situated knowledges of sex workers. Ethics and Social Welfare16(2): 214–218. DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2022.2042039.
15.
Butler-KisberL (2022) Artful portrayals in qualitative inquiry: the road to found poetry and beyond. Alberta Journal of Educational Research48(3): 229–239.
16.
ChinKLFinckenauerJ (2012) Selling Sex Overseas: Chinese Woman and the Realities of Prostitution and Global Sex Trafficking. New York: New York University Press.
17.
ChristieN (1986) The ideal victim. In: FattahEA (ed) From Crime Policy to Victim Policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
18.
ClanceyAKhushrushahiNHamJ (2014) Do evidence-based approaches alienate Canadian anti-trafficking funders?Anti-Trafficking Review3: 87–108.
19.
CorriganRShdaimahCS (2016) People with secrets: contesting, constructing, and resisting women's claims about sexualized victimization. Catholic University Law Review65(3): 429–488.
20.
DandurandYPlecasDWinterdykJ, et al. (2023) Assistance and Support Services for Survivors of Human Trafficking: A Qualitative Study. Vancouver: International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy.
21.
DawnADucharmeJ (2019) Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
22.
EdwardsRWellerS (2012) Shifting analytic ontology: using I-poems in qualitative longitudinal research. Qualitative Research12(2): 202–217.
23.
EngM (2019) Foreword. In: DawnADucharmeJ (eds) Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers' Poetry. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
24.
FarrellACroninS (2015) Policing prostitution in an era of human trafficking enforcement. Crime, Law and Social Change64(4-5): 211–228.
25.
FaulknerSL (2009) Poetry as Method: Reporting Research through Verse. New York: Routledge.
26.
FaulknerSL (2017) Poetry is politics. International Review of Qualitative Research10(1): 89–96.
27.
FaulknerSL (2018) Poetic inquiry: poetry as/in/for social research. In: LeavyP (ed) Handbook of Arts-Based Research. New York; London: The Guilford Press.
28.
FaulknerSCloudA (2019) Poetic Inquiry as Social Justice and Political Response. Delaware: Vernon Press.
29.
GillisJRDiamondSLJebelyP, et al. (2006) Systemic obstacles to battered women’s participation in the judicial system: when will the status quo change?Violence Against Women12(12): 1150–1168. DOI: 10.1177/1077801206293500.
30.
HagensVDobrowMJChafeR (2009) Interviewee transcript review: assessing the impact on qualitative research. BMC Medical Research Methodology9: 47.
31.
Hail-JaresKShdaimahCLeonC (2017) Challenging Perspectives on Street-Based Sex Work. Chicago: Temple University Press.
32.
HuntS (2010) Colonial Roots, Contemporary Risk Factors: A Cautionary Exploration of the Domestic Trafficking of Aboriginal Women and Girls in British Columbia, Canada. Bangkok: Alliance News, July, 27–31.
33.
KayeJ (2017) Responding to Human Trafficking: Dispossession, Colonial Violence, and Resistance Among Indigenous and Racialized Women. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
34.
KempadooK (2015) The modern-day white (wo)man’s burden: trends in anti-trafficking and anti-slavery campaigns. Journal of Human Trafficking1(1): 8–20.
35.
KempadooKMcFadyenNPilonP, et al. (2017) Challenging Trafficking in Canada: Policy Brief. Report. Centre for Feminist Research York University.
36.
KrusiAPaceyKBirdL, et al. (2014) Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada-a qualitative study. BMJ Open4(6): 1–10.
37.
KrusiAKerrTTaylorC, et al. (2016) ‘They won't change it back in their heads that we're trash’: the intersection of sex work-related stigma and evolving policing strategies. Sociology of Health & Illness38(7): 1137–1150.
38.
KunimotoE (2018) A critical analysis of Canada’s sex work legislation: exploring gendered and racialized consequences. Stream Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication10(2): 27–36.
39.
LamE (2016) Inspection, policing, and racism: how municipal by-laws endanger the lives of Chinese sex workers in Toronto. Canadian Review of Social Policy75: 87–112.
40.
LamE (2018) Behind the rescue: how anti-trafficking investigations and policies harm migrant sex workers. Report, Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network. April.
41.
LeonCBuckridgeMHerdoízaM (2023) ‘I’m scared to death to try it on my own’: I-poems and the complexities of religious housing support for people on the US sex offender registry. Anti-Trafficking Review20: 144–160. DOI: 10.14197/atr.201223209.
42.
LeppA (2013) Do Not Harm: A Human Rights Approach to Anti-trafficking Policies and Interventions in Canada. Report. Western University Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children.
43.
LetourneauNDuffyLDuffett-LegerL (2012) Mothers affected by domestic violence: intersections and opportunities with the justice system. Journal of Family Violence27: 585–596. DOI: 10.1007/s10896-012-9451-3.
MaynardR (2015/2016) Fighting wrongs with wrongs? how Canadian anti-trafficking crusades have failed sex workers, migrants, and Indigenous communities. Atlantis37(1): 40–56.
46.
MillarHO’DohertyT (2020) Racialized, gendered, and sensationalized: an examination of Canadian anti-trafficking laws, their enforcement, and their (re)presentation. Canadian Journal of Law and Society/Revue Canadienne Droit et Société35(1): 23–44. DOI: 10.1017/cls.2020.2.
47.
Miller-YoungM (2014) A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
48.
MitchellG (2022) Panics without Borders: How Global Sporting Events Drive Myths about Sex Trafficking. California: University of California Press.
49.
NgR (1993) Racism, sexism, and immigrant women. In: BurtSCodeLDorneyL (eds) Changing Patterns: Women in Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
50.
O'BrienECarpenterBJHayesS (2013) The Politics of Sex Trafficking: A Moral Geography. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
51.
OrrD (2008) The politics of poetry. Poetry192(4): 409–418.
52.
PrendergastM (2009) “Poem is what?” poetic inquiry in qualitative social science research. International Review of Qualitative Research1(4): 541–568.
53.
Public Safety Canada (2012) National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. Ottawa: The Government of Canada.
54.
Public Safety Canada (2018) National Consultations Discussion Paper: The Way Forward to End Human Trafficking. Ottawa: The Government of Canada, Summer.
55.
RaguparanM (2022) ‘Of course people will hire the white person’: social and economic inclusion of migrant women in Vancouver. Canada. Report, SWAN.
56.
RatansiY (2007) Turning outrage into action to address trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Canada. Ottawa: Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
57.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (2013) Domestic Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Canada. Ottawa: Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre, October.
58.
SaxtonMDOlszowyLMacGregorJCD, et al. (2021) Experiences of intimate partner violence victims with police and the justice system in Canada. Journal of Interpersonal Violence36(3-4): 2029–2055. DOI: 10.1177/0886260518758330.
59.
SchwarzC (2022) Theorising human trafficking through slow violence. Feminist Theory24(4): 535–554.
60.
ShdaimahCLeonCWiecheltS (2023) The Compassionate Court? Support, Surveillance, and Survival in Prostitution Diversion Programs. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
61.
SociasMEDeeringKHortonM, et al. (2015) Social and structural factors shaping high rates of incarceration among sex workers in a Canadian setting. Journal of Urban Health92(5): 966–979.
62.
SoderlundG (2005) Running from the rescuers: new U.S. crusades against sex trafficking and the rhetoric of abolition. The National Women’s Studies Association Journal17(3): 64–87.
63.
SrikantiahJ (2007) Perfect victims and real survivors: the iconic victim in domestic human trafficking law. Boston: Boston University Law Review, 87.
64.
StrineMS (1989) The politics of asking women’s questions: voice and value in the poetry of Adrienne Rich. Text and Performance Quarterly9(1): 24–41.
65.
WeitzerR (2005) Flawed theory and method in studies of prostitution. Violence Against Women11(7): 934–949.
66.
WeitzerR (2015) Human trafficking and contemporary slavery. Annual Review of Sociology41(1): 223–242.
