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Cover image for book Brokered Subjects

Brokered Subjects

Sex, Trafficking, and the Politics of Freedom
By:Elizabeth Bernstein
Publisher:University of Chicago Press
Print ISBN:9780226573632
eText ISBN:9780226573809
Edition:1
Copyright:2018
Format:Reflowable

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Brokered Subjects digs deep into the accepted narratives of sex trafficking to reveal the troubling assumptions that have shaped both right- and left-wing agendas around sexual violence. Drawing on years of in-depth fieldwork, Elizabeth Bernstein sheds light not only on trafficking but also on the broader structures that meld the ostensible pursuit of liberation with contemporary techniques of power. Rather than any meaningful commitment to the safety of sex workers, Bernstein argues, what lies behind our current vision of trafficking victims is a transnational mix of putatively humanitarian militaristic interventions, feel-good capitalism, and what she terms carceral feminism: a feminism compatible with police batons.