Narratives About Necessity-Constructions of Motherhood Among Drug Using Sex-Sellers in Denmark

摘要

This ethnographic study explores norms and practices concerning motherhood among 37 drug-using female sex-sellers in Denmark. It is based on extended fieldwork in a drop-in center and narrative interviews with clients and staff in this center from 2001-2005. A strong norm guiding the staff's relation to the users is that drug-use, prostitution, and motherhood are incompatible. The women meet such institutional expectations and norms about motherhood either by constructing norm-conforming narratives or by opposing the institutional view. As the institution offers no 'back-stage', the women's self-representations often appear chaotic and inconsistent. Either way their strategies often become contributions to the reproduction of the structures they resist.