Sex Workers in Nigeria Deserve Fair Treatment From the Media

In most African societies today, social, cultural, economic, and political forces continually place women in the back seat. While there is much focus on the physical abuse of women, there are other ways through which abuses are sustained. One is how the media represent the realities of sex work and sex workers, writes Gever Verlumun Celestine, Nathan Oguche Emmanuel, and Hashim Muhammad Suleiman for The Conversation.

Studies in Nigeria emphasize the general representation of women in a multi-cultural society, there are sparse studies that problematize and address the voice of sex workers within a media context.  30 news stories that were published between 2017 and 2020, collected from the websites of three newspapers - Daily Sun, Vanguard and Daily Trust - found that newspapers are used as channels where issues about sex workers and their lived experiences were framed and reframed, their identities negotiated and renegotiated. The Nigerian news media tend to be obsessed with framing female sex workers in negative ways. They were mainly constructed as dangerous to society.

Sex workers face dangers that include physical attack, rape, ritual killing, and murder. Their many challenges were sparingly mentioned by the news media. When they were, sex workers were still mainly cast in a poor light. Most government policies have neglected the multifarious needs of sex workers. This makes sex workers vulnerable to violence, poor health, and numerous other factors, making it more challenging to move out of their circumstances.