Constitution de l’univers discursif de la prostitution au Québec : enjeux autour de la sexualité dans les médias québécois à la lumière du projet de loi C-36
This thesis aims to explore how discourses around sexuality were created and circulated in the Québec media following the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to strike down the prostitution laws in December 2013 (Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2013 SCC 72). Using discourse analysis and drawing on feminist theory in order to conceptualize sexuality in regards to sex class systems and sexual dynamics, the thesis addresses rival discourses in a time frame that follows the striking down of the laws up until when Bill C-36 was introduced by the Conservative government. Media discourses and the regulating systems that they entail (privileged voices, oriented coverage, framed debates etc.) all help create certain ideas around sexuality whilst simultaneously normalizing them. With the input of numerous social agents (politicians, women’s groups, academics, prostituted women and lawyers), the rival discourses set around morality and choice in sexuality fed a public debate built on a similar antagonism to that of the feminist “sex wars”. This thesis understands these discourses framed within the debate of prostitution as constitutive of current understandings of sexuality and sex class systems.
Prostitution C-36 Discourse analysis Feminism Sexuality Media in Québec