Open AccessThe white-painters of Cabbagetown: Neighborhood policing and sex worker resistance in Toronto, 1986–1987
Author(s) -
Emma McKenna
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sexualities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.706
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1461-7382
pISSN - 1363-4607
DOI - 10.1177/13634607211028500
Subject(s) - downtown , oppression , resistance (ecology) , sex workers , white (mutation) , harassment , sex work , criminology , legislation , sociology , gender studies , political science , law , politics , geography , demography , population , medicine , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , family medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , gene , research methodology , biology
Toronto in the 1980s was embroiled in intense debates about the place of sex work in society. The passing of new legislation in 1985 criminalizing communication for the purposes of prostitution led to increased police harassment of outdoor sex workers. Within a gentrifying urban neighborhood, homeowners created a neighborhood organization, the South of Carlton Association, with the express purpose of collaborating with Metro Police and City Council to remove sex workers from the downtown stroll. In turn, sex worker activists in the Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes practiced a range of strategies to challenge this oppression—including archiving their resistance.