¿A qué le nombra salud? Salute pubblica e commercio sessuale tollerato a Oaxaca de Juárez, Messico

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the prostitutional politics of Oaxaca de Juárez, a city in Southern Mexico, the logics underlying it and the effects on the lives of sex workers. After tracing briefly the history of the regulation of prostitution in Mexico and after synthetically explaining the current legislative framework, I discuss the concept of protection of public health that sustain the current regulation, highlighting how it represents a variation, no doubt updated, of the “classic regulation” born and became widespread in the nineteenth century. In addition, I emphasize how prostitutes’ bodies, considered only as vectors of infection, undergo a process of “genitalization”. Finally, I consider how, despite the lack of medical and sanitary relevance of the regulation of prostitution, the obligation to register and the weekly attendance at the local center for the prevention of STDs provide the sex workers with greater leeway in the relationship, although asymmetrical, with the municipal authorities.