Sex Work and Human Dignity by Stewart Cunningham

Author:Stewart Cunningham [Cunningham, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Law, Legal Profession, Social Science, General, Sociology, Prostitution & Sex Trade
ISBN: 9781000218046
Google: YhEHEAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 53907115
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-11-02T02:54:20+00:00

What is interesting about this activist’s comment is that while he acknowledges the elasticity of the concept of dignity, he also associates it very strongly with extreme examples of dehumanisation and genocide, making specific reference to the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. This, together with his reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, suggests that his primary association is with the notion of ‘intrinsic dignity’.

Dignity as an empty signifier

The description of dignity as “elastic”, in the quote above, recalls the discussion in Chapter 1 about how the word dignity, to use Laclau’s term (1994), acts as an empty signifier. Describing a signifier as ‘empty’ does not denote that it has no meaning but instead the ‘emptiness’ of the signifier points to its ability to have different meanings and connotations projected onto it in order to satisfy different political objectives (Howarth and Stavrakakis 2000: 9–10). The fact that dignity is capable of holding within it various different meanings was not, however, readily accepted by all of the abolitionist activists. The two Canadian abolitionists who worked for faith-based organisations, for example, felt that the concept of dignity was very clear and unambiguous. They specifically contrasted the certainty of meaning that they perceived as being attached to the term ‘dignity’ with the ambiguity and flexibility of the notion of ‘rights’:

I much prefer, actually, to talk about dignity as opposed to human rights, because I think human rights can vary so much depending on who you’re talking with, right. We all have so different [an] understanding, I think, of what a human right is, whereas dignity to me is pretty foundational; it’s pretty basic, I guess … Human rights can just about mean anything you want it to mean, it seems to me. Dignity, I don’t think you can muck around with that so much.

(Abolitionist Activist A, Canada)

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