Stigma to Sage: Learning and Teaching Safer Sex Practices Among Canadian Sex Trade Workers

A broad definition of safer sex including physical, sexual and emotional dimensions was used in this work to investigate how Canadian prostitutes acquire a working knowledge of safer sex practices and what that knowledge constitutes by way of specific practices (Hanson et al., 1995). Utilizing feminist standpoint theory that takes women’s experiences to be an entry point for investigation and places a high value on women’s strengths and capabilities, the practices of sex workers were viewed as sites of investigation of political struggle and a possible source of social change (Smith, 1974, 1987). The body of literature on feminist theory and critical feminist pedagogies suggests the importance of understanding the politics of knowledge production and dissemination within considering the effects of gender privilege and oppression in the learning environment (Tisdell, 1995). With an emphasis on women’s experiences, feminist pedagogy encompasses teacher–learner collaboration, cooperative communication styles and holistic approaches to learning as well as theory building linked to projects of action. By establishing a meaning of difference in addressing the specific interests of various women, divergence based on gender, race and class draws on women’s experiences in ways that illustrate that “woman” is not a homogeneous category (Ng, 1986; hooks, 1990).