| Fuelled by the murder and disappearance of sex workers in British Columbia, the Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws (SSLR) was enacted to review current solicitation laws and recommend changes to ensure the safety of sex workers and the communities in which they work. Discourses of prostitution used by the SSLR were analyzed using governmentality literature (Rose, 1999) and Fairclough's (1992) social theory of discourse, to determine their continuity and variability from existing prostitution discourses, as well as their embodiment within the problematic of female sexuality. Although prostitution is not illegal in Canada, associations with crime, violence and public nuisance, serve to problematize prostitution and render it governable. It was found that discourses of prostitution used by the SSLR were similar to those of the previous Canadian governmental committees. This analysis also documents the shift from the problematization of prostitution (protectionist rationalities) to the problematization of the governance of prostitution (neo-liberal rationalities). |
