"We will sue you if you publish our pictures!": Blind-spots in research on sex-workers

This sentence summarizes the feelings of a group of sex workers, members of a self-led sex workers organization in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, shortly after Sabelis and Nencel finalized a participatory visual methods workshop. Until then, they had assumed the project had gone relatively well; the photo workshop was a big success (lots of laughter, experiment, and fast-growing quality of expressive pictures). It wasn’t until later, during the interviews after the picture taking that they realized something was most definitely wrong. After a brief analysis of what went “wrong”. Sabelis and Nencel scrutinize the assumptions behind their research practices, which are generally considered by the feminist research community to be a proper way to do research. In the aftermath, they contend that being engaged feminist scholars inadvertently can create a particular form of myopia, that generally goes unnoticed when all goes well, but when things go wrong, it unveils its limitations. Firstly, regarding the significance and the ability to create “empowering” reflexive spaces through research. Secondly, showing the myopia of western feminist researchers to recognize the power constituting vulnerability. And finally, even though everything is in place to succeed, a lot more time is required to assure that relationships and networks are solidified in order to produce the trust required for genuine communicative practices, something which all too often is lacking due to the time constraints created through grant-makers’ requirements. Despite all these drawbacks, this experience did not make the authors question the value of critical feminist research. On the contrary they continue to see its worth as well as adhere to its epistemological principles. Rather, knowledge gained through this “failure” made them acutely aware of the challenges contemporary critical feminist researchers are up against, being caught up in neo-liberal research regimes and colonial development practices.