Abstract
This Article argues that sex workers are silenced when they attempt to contribute to lawmaking processes. As a result, they are unable to contribute their knowledge in a meaningful way. The consequence is that laws reflect only one perspective of life in the sex trades: the prostitution abolitionist position that all sex work is inherently a form of violence against women. Without the ability to help shape this narrative, sex workers will continue to be silenced by the allegation that they are a danger to the feminist movement, courts will make harmful rulings, and legislatures will continue to enact laws that put sex workers in danger.
This Article makes several contributions. Firstly, it contributes to feminist philosophical literature by coining the “Cycle of Epistemic Oppression” as a tool to excavate silencing within the law. It then examines how this cycle operates in the context of sex work policy making. Finally, this examination demonstrates the wide applicability of the Cycle of Epistemic Oppression to diverse areas of law.
About the Author
Yvette T. Butler, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Thanks to Alison Bailey (Professor of Philosophy), Antonia Eliason, Deborah Tuerkheimer, India Thusi, Lauren Bartlett, Lawrence Solum, Ngozi Okidegbe, Paul Gowder, Stacey Lantagne, and Will Berry for your feedback on this piece and to Lawrence Solum for running across my Article and deeming it worthy of one of the few “highly recommended” downloads of the week on the Legal Theory Blog. Thank you to attendees of the Lutie A. Lytle Work in Progress Intensive (June 2023) and the Decarceration Law Professor WIP Workshop (July 2023) for questions and feedback. Thank you also to Texas A&M University School of Law and Saint Louis University Law School for inviting me to present on this topic in Spring 2022. The faculty questions and comments were incredibly valuable in framing this issue. Thank you also to Eva Payne (Assistant Professor of History) and Puneet Cheema (Manager of Policing Reform Campaign, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund) for comments and discussion. Thank you to Sophie Barry-Hinton (JD 2022) for your research assistance when I first started this project in Summer of 2020; Allison Payne (JD 2022); Kaitlyn Call (2025 JD Candidate) for research assistance. Thank you to the University of Mississippi and Indiana University Maurer School of Law for the research support. Finally, thank you to C.T. who somehow never got tired of hearing me discuss (or rant) about sex work policy. Your infinite well of support never went unappreciated.
