Abstract

PUGLIA, María de las Nieves. “He wanted to have everything cleaned, the house and the saber”: from domestic service to the subjective construction of prostitution as a trade in Argentina. Rev. interdiscip. estud. género Col. Méx. [online]. 2017, vol.3, n.6, pp.127-158. ISSN 2395-9185.  https://doi.org/10.24201/eg.v3i6.156.

This paper analyzes trajectories of initiation of paid domestic workers into the world of prostitution in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, through certain social meanings and uses of money. For this I will recover some scenes from the practice of dobleta as moments in which domestic services and sex services begin to intermingle, tensing preconceptions of prostitution as “easy life”, “easy money” and the idea of women as a “victim” of both a structural system of sexual exploitation and poverty. I will inquire the transmission of knowledge of sexual practices, place of work or territory and introduction of reliable customers by intermediate figures who act as initiators. Then, I will show the symbolic displacement of violence into the realm of marriage and the construction of the occupation of prostitution as a source not only of income but also of pride. Finally, I will conclude that the idea that women “fall” into prostitution as inevitable, undesirable and objectionable destination is problematic because its complexity includes social meanings made possible by the money obtained and the gender social order that it founds. The results were obtained from extensive fieldwork with ethnographic approach during the years 2011 to 2013, with affiliated to the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina. The techniques used were informal and spontaneous group interviews and participant observation, building a dialogue that takes this group of women as key interlocutors to produce knowledge.

Keywords : iniciation in prostitution; paid domestic workers; dobleta; meanings of money; gendering money.

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