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estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
Prostitutes, Mercenaries and Feminism:
The Public and the Private in International
Relations
Prostitutas, Mercenários e Feminismo: O Público e o
Privado nas Relações Internacionais
Prostitutas, mercenarios y feminismo: lo público y lo
privado en las relaciones Internacionales
Wagner Santos1
Cristiano Mendes2
DOI: 10.5752/P.2317-773X.2023v11n3p72-88
Recebido em: 15 de fevereiro de 2022
Aprovado em: 1º de abril de 2024
A
Feminist approaches have become increasingly present in International Rela-
tions studies. Using these theoretical perspectives, the present article analyzes
the basis on which rests the prejudice toward prostitutes and employees of
Military and Private Security Companies (MPSCs). The premise is that social
constructions ideally locate the role of women in the private sphere, while
public spaces are reserved for regular military soldiers. Our argument is that
both the prostitute, when positioning herself in the public environment, and the
MPSC employee, when in the private sphere, destabilize the expected idealities
for their categories, generating distrust, repulsion, and uncertainty.
Key-words: Prostitutes, Mercenaries, Feminism, Public and private, Private
Military and Security Companies.
R
Abordagens feministas têm se tornado cada vez mais presentes nos estudos de Rela-
ções Internacionais. Utilizando essas perspectivas teóricas, o presente artigo analisa
as bases sobre as quais se sustenta o preconceito em relação às prostitutas e funcio-
nários de Empresas Militares Privadas (MPSCs). A premissa é que as construções
sociais localizam idealmente o papel das mulheres na esfera privada, enquanto os
espaços públicos são reservados aos soldados militares regulares. Nosso argumento
é que tanto a prostituta, ao se posicionar no ambiente público, quanto os funcioná-
rios de Empresas Militares Privadas, na esfera privada, desestabilizam as idealidades
esperadas para suas categorias, gerando desconança, repulsa e incerteza.
Palavras-chave: Prostitutas, Mercenários, Feminismo, Público e Privado, Em-
presas Militares Privadas.
1. Doctor in political science, Federal
University of Pernambuco
2. Doctor in International Relations,
Pontifical Catholic University of Minas
Gerais
73
Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
R
Los enfoques feministas se han vuelto cada vez más presentes en los estudios de
Relaciones Internacionales. Desde estas perspectivas teóricas, este artículo anali-
za las bases sobre las que se sustentan los prejuicios en relación con las prosti-
tutas y los empleados de las Empresas Militares Privadas (MPSC). La premisa
es que las construcciones sociales ubican idealmente el papel de las mujeres en
la esfera privada, mientras que los espacios públicos están reservados para los
militares regulares. Nuestro argumento es que tanto la prostituta, al posicionar-
se en el ámbito público, como los empleados de Empresas Militares Privadas,
en el ámbito privado, desestabilizan los ideales esperados para sus categorías,
generando desconanza, repulsión e incertidumbre.
Palabras clave: Prostitutas, Mercenarios, Feminismo, Público y Privado, Empre-
sas Militares Privadas.
Introduction
The public/private dichotomy has been used to categorize human
beings and normalize their actions as social agents (Barry, 1996; Chapkis,
1997; Gorman-Murray, 2008). The construction and cultural dissemina-
tion of this dichotomy point to ideal spaces of occupation of gender that
reproduce relations of domination between the masculine and the femi-
nine. The emergence of feminist approaches in International Relations
(IR) since the 1980s has sought to introduce the study of these dicho-
tomies into more traditional academic debates. According to feminist
theory, binary oppositions such as public and private spaces are mobilized
to accommodate pre-dened social roles, with each gender occupying an
expected location. Any undue occupation of spaces by certain identities
would be seen as abnormal or pathological.
Traditional male-privileging views assign women to the private
sphere, the ideal place for their assumed natural qualities and virtues,
such as motherhood, love, trust, and integrity. On the other hand, men,
likewise idealized for their bravery, boldness, and strength, would nd
in the public sphere the necessary tools so that their own natural virtues
could be fully expressed (Siltanen; Stanworth, 1984).
Drawing on the analytical contributions of feminist scholars, the
present work analyzes two categories that contradict this logic of the pu-
blic/private: the prostitute and the mercenary. Without ignoring the fact
that there are also male sex workers, as well as female mercenaries or
employees of Military and Private Security Companies (MPSCs), this stu-
dy focuses on the socially constructed idealities around these professions.
Despite the fact that there are men who prostitute themselves and wo-
men who work for MPSCs, the narratives that describe these functions
refer us to the role of the feminine and the masculine respectively.3
Our argument is that, in contradicting the acceptable logic of their
social roles, both the prostitute, occupying the public environment, and
the mercenary, when situated in the private sphere, destabilize the expec-
ted idealities of their genders, generating distrust, repulsion, and uncer-
tainty. The analysis is developed with reference to a literature composed
of theoretical views in the areas of Sociology and International Relations.
3. We may even note that part of the
prejudice that is held about men prosti-
tuting themselves or women fighting as
mercenaries or soldiers comes precisely
from the social expectation that delimits
their professional idealities into the two
genders.
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estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
In particular, we try to show how the problem of gender manifests for
the two categories analyzed. Through a literature review on this topic,
and applying a deductive methodology, we’ll discuss the reasons for these
specic cases.
The denition of the public/private dichotomy is not a consensus
in the literature. In a more traditional sense, the realm of the public is
linked to the idea of social practice and politics. According to Hannah
Arendt (2016), the very condition of being human requires the company
of other people who give meaning to the actions of our species. Thus,
according to her, a person who lives in complete isolation from other
people, would not dier from other animals for not being able to obtain
awareness of their condition or give meaning to their acts as something
that occurs beyond the merely biological processes of survival (labor).
The condition of being human requires the activity of creating
articialism over the natural world (work), and, on a social level, prac-
ticing interaction in the plurality of a society (action). In this way, the
private realm would be linked to the mere eort of survival and to the
more restricted human interactions originally linked to family. The
creation of the public space occurs in the transposition both of the fa-
mily nucleus and of the condition of mere provider of biological life. The
public (usually guaranteed by the establishment of the State, but histo-
rically also having its condition created by the role of religion) would be
the exercise of plurality in social and political spheres with the aim of
generating consensus, not by the exercise of violence, but by discourse
and persuasion (Arendt, 2016).
In this article we work with the dichotomy of public and private
using the state sphere as a reference. The regular soldier, by nature an
agent of the state sphere, would always be in the public domain. Not so
much for defending the interests of society (which could also be done by
private agents), but because they are subject to control, inspection, and
regulation by governments. Similarly, the activity of prostitution would
also be in this public sphere because it is subject to regulation and control
by the State.
The mercenary and the gure of the domestic woman would be
in the private sphere. Both would not be subject to state inspection and
regulation, since their relationships (the mercenary with their contractor
and the wife with her husband) ideally dont belong to State interference.
When referring to combatants considered mercenaries, we are not
including employees of larger and more transparent Private Military and
Security Companies, which are subject to state laws and become suscep-
tible to government regulations. In these cases, social prejudice is mini-
mal or almost nonexistent because the State can control and limit the sco-
pe of their actions. Social prejudice towards the gure of the mercenary,
when referring to MPSCs, comes precisely from companies that escape
this regulation, leaving their employees free to act without any interfe-
rence from the States.
The same occurs with the phenomenon of prostitution. Those wo-
men who prostitute themselves as the only means of survival are not the
main targets of social prejudice. These are considered more as victims of
75
Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
society than susceptible to social opprobrium. By prostituting themselves
only for their own sustenance, such women are merely ensuring their
biological subsistence (labor). However, those who choose this profession
freely, even having other opportunities to ensure their own sustenance,
are the main victims of collective prejudice. It is precisely these last wo-
men who, instead of limiting themselves to the private sphere of the fa-
mily nucleus, submit to the regulation of their activities by public bodies,
and, therefore, move out of the private sphere and come to be situated in
the public sphere.
The debate on mercenaries and prostitutes, with their respective
prejudices linked to these two gures, can contribute to a better unders-
tanding of two contemporary debates in this area of knowledge. One of
them refers to the use of Private Military Companies. Beyond discussions
about eectiveness, pros and cons, and the legitimacy of these organiza-
tions, there is an ongoing debate about whether the employees of these
companies can or cannot be considered modern-day mercenaries.
This discussion becomes relevant not just from a legal standpoint
(since mercenary activity is prohibited by the Geneva Convention) but
also because the prejudice surrounding the gure of the mercenary leads
to any study advocating the closeness between employees of MPSCs and
mercenaryism resulting in the tacit delegitimization of the use of these
companies. Thus, understanding the origins of the international commu-
nity’s aversion to the gure of the mercenary means situating the debate
beyond its merely legal aspects, showing all the complexity of this type
of discussion.
A second debate in vogue in International Relations lies in the femi-
nist view of this eld of knowledge. Among the various points addressed
by feminist authors in IR, we nd the denunciation of the sexist view of
society that restricts womens roles to spaces ideally considered as private.
In this way, women who act in the international environment are often
prevented from playing roles as soldiers; from occupying decision-ma-
king positions and even from acting in prominent positions in interna-
tional politics. Therefore, understanding how these idealities restrict and
judge the places reserved for women also means having a clearer view of
how prejudices can arise from the transpositions of these barriers created
by the sexist view. The case of prostitutes, although it can also be applied
to the domestic environment (as in the case of mercenaries), helps us bet-
ter understand the dynamics and the basis of these aversions created by
the breaking of these idealized locations by societies.
We begin the article exposing the emergence of feminist theories
in International Relations and its main approaches: liberal, critical, cons-
tructivist, poststructuralist, and postcolonial. Above all, we emphasize
the omnipresence of the gender problem in its critiques and analyses, as
well as the denunciation of the power relations and domination that this
variable carries. Proceeding with the theme of prostitution, the second
part analyzes feminist approaches to prostitution, highlighting the se-
xological, constructivist, and Marxist interpretations of the theme. We
introduce into our analysis a discussion about the binary dichotomies
between the prostitute and her conceptual opposite, namely the wife/
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mother, showing how the characteristics attributed to each category di-
verge substantially from each other.
After that, we advance with the analysis of the gure of the merce-
nary and his conceptual opposite, the soldier in the regular armed forces.
In this part, we highlight how the private version of the soldier—the mer-
cenary or employee of an MPSC—destabilizes the idealities expected for
his category. Just as the ideal space of occupation of women would be the
private sphere, in the case of the soldier defending the homeland, it would
be the public sphere. While the soldier (public) is associated with love
of the motherland, humanitarian work, nationalism, and ideology, the
mercenary (private) is seen as someone who is at the service of whomever
pays more; the mercenary is seen as serving their personal interests and
can easily abandon their charge in case of a more attractive oer.
In the third and fourth parts, we discuss how gender identities in
the international environment (in the case of mercenaries) reproduce the
same logic of domination found in the local sphere (the case of prosti-
tutes), reserving for each category a space considered legitimate for the
stabilization of their identities. Because they fail to understand the idea-
tional logic, both in the international environment and in the domestic
sphere, these workers end up being the targets of prejudice because they
do not occupy the places reserved to them.
Feminism and International Relations
Feminist theories emerged in IR between the late 1980s and early
1990s (Sylvester, 2003; Tickner, 2001), associated with the so-called third
debate (Lapid, 1989).4 The rst works in the 1980s aimed to question
womens role in global politics and how they would be represented
(Elshtain, 1987; Enloe, 2014). More than that, these works challenged
scholars in International Relations to think about how their theories
could be reformulated and their understanding of global politics im-
proved by paying special attention to new analytical experiences.
According to these authors, only with the introduction of gender analy-
sis in international studies would we observe a considerable analytical
impact on some key IR concepts such as sovereignty, state, and security
(Sjoberg; Tickner, 2013b). The introduction of the gender issue as a re-
levant category and analytical tool would construct alternatives to dis-
ciplinary studies dominated by rationalist and reproductive methods of
the logic of masculine (True, 2005; Ackerly; Stern; True, 2006; Steans,
2006). Certain that women would be underrepresented in IR, the main
concern for feminists would be to explain the subordination of the fe-
minine gender, or the unfair asymmetry between the positions held by
women and men in the social, economic, and especially political sphe-
res (Whitworth, 1994).
According to these authors, global politics would not only relegate
female experiences to the margins, but would also ratify relations bet-
ween dichotomies, especially those related to the division between the
public and the private. Women would be ideally reserved for the private
sphere and characterized by irrationality, weakness, emotion, sensitivity,
4. According to the author, the first
debate would be between realists and
idealists. The second between neorea-
lists and neoliberals. The third between
the latter and post-positivist theoretical
approaches, among them, feminism.
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Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
and motherhood. Men would be assigned to the public sphere and ideali-
zed as rational, virile, strong, brave, and heroic (Shepherd, 2010).
Feminists questioned the frontiers through which such opposition
had settled in the international arena and sought the means to combat
them. Starting from hermeneutical, discursive and humanistic metho-
dologies, they used philosophical traditions previously ignored by con-
ventional approaches, looking at global politics through “gender lenses”
(Peterson, Runyan, 2010; Sjoberg, Tickner, 2013a).
In the eld of foreign policy, feminists warn that the male sex is not
only dominant, but also the policymaker based on the assumption that if
they are rational and strategically oriented actors, they would be better
able to represent the nations line of defense, making better life or death
decisions (True, 2005). In their study of foreign policy and defense, Nancy
E. McGlen and Meredith Reid Sarkees (1993) concluded that women are
rarely insiders in the political game and even more rarely make or parti-
cipate in foreign policy decisions that lead to war, for example.
But despite sharing a deep interest in gender equality or, as they
prefer to assert, in “gender emancipation” in IR, feminism is not a one-no-
te theory. The variety of activism associated with feminism parallels the
innumerable paths that its arguments may take (Jaggar, 1983; Mohanty,
Russo, Torres, 1991; Steans, 1998; Sylvester, 1996; Zalewski, 2000). Liberal
Feminism, for example, draws attention to the subordination suered by
women in global politics and argues about the need to include women
in the areas of the public sphere that have been denied to them (Sjoberg;
Tickner, 2013b). It departs from the assumption that women have the
same capacity for action as men and cannot be excluded from any social
sphere: higher education, government, international institutions, and -
nancial aairs, among others. Liberal feminists investigate, for example,
the inequalities between men and women and the human rights viola-
tions committed disproportionately against women, such as internatio-
nal tracking and rape at war. Their approach uses gender as an expla-
natory variable in the analysis of foreign policy through statistical varia-
tions (Caprioli; Boyer, 2001). They also argue that discrimination deprives
women of having equal rights to achieve their own goals. While men
are judged by their individual merits, women are judged by their femini-
ne qualities or collectively as a group. Such barriers could be eliminated
by removing the obstacles that underpin them, and by providing equal
opportunities to both genders (Whitworth, 2008; Tickner, 2001)5 .
Critical Feminism, by contrast, goes beyond Liberal Feminism and
its use of gender as an analytical variable. This approach focuses less on
womens participation in the public sphere and more on unequal rela-
tionships between men and women as gender representations in a patriar-
chal society, in which men have historically wished to control womens
sexuality, reproduction, and other social roles. For critical feminists, men
and women are essentially dierent and similar to each other in several
respects. These authors tend to agree that men are less prone to showing
emotion and more aggressive and competitive, while women are more
caring and more emotional. In these terms, society is organized taking
into account masculine characteristics, privileging patriarchal norms and
5. However, Liberal Feminists tend to
be criticized by other approaches for
using methods considered positivist
in their analyses. See, for example,
McMillan C (1982) Women, Reason and
Nature: Some Philosophical Problems
with Feminism. Princeton: Princeton
University Press; Steans J (2010) ‘Femi-
nist perspectives’ in Steans J et al. An
Introduction to International Relations
Theory: perspectives and themes, 3rd
edition. Essex: Pearson, p. 155-82; and
Mohanty CT, Russo A; Torres L (eds.)
(1991) Third World Women and the Po-
litics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
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estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
rules, inuencing not only our institutions, but also the way we see the
world (Fraser; Nicholson, 1990).
The same impetus for achieving change in the way we unders-
tand international politics is also shared by Constructivist Feminism.
Constructivist feminists focus on how ideas about gender form and are
shaped by global politics. In her book The Global Construction of Gender,
Elisabeth Prügl (1999) analyzes how women have been treated in inter-
national negotiations and in international law. Even when they represent
a greater number of workers than men, women still suer lower wages
and poorer working conditions. In the specic case of domestic wor-
kers, the author explains that the justication is given because domestic
work is not considered “real work,” since the private sphere associated
with the family diers from the public sphere in which work, in fact,
would occur, lacking higher wages and individual rights. Such a dicho-
tomy would not be limited to the local environment, but also the inter-
national (West; Austrin, 2005). Although in similar positions and with
responsibilities as great as those of men in international organizations,
the salary between them would diverge under the claim that women are
less productive than men who hold the same positions. Prügl and other
Constructivist feminists study the processes by which ideas about gen-
der inuence global politics, as well as the ways in which global politics
shape ideas about gender.
In an even more relativistic and discursive spectrum, Post-
structuralist Feminism constitutes one of the most important contribu-
tions to International Relations. Post-structuralist feminists assert that
the meanings attributed to the things around us are coded through lan-
guage (Sjoberg; Tickner, 2013b), and that linguistically constructed di-
chotomies such as strong/weak, rational/emotional, and public/private
serve to empower the masculine over the feminine. As regards interna-
tional relations, the civilized/barbaric, order/anarchy, and developed/
underdeveloped dichotomies play an important role in how we divide
the world linguistically, always considering a positive side and a negative
one. In this way, post-structuralist feminists want to deconstruct hierar-
chies, especially those related to gender that lead women to be portrayed
as inferior and men as superior. To disrupt the hierarchies that privilege
one (man) to the detriment of the other (woman), it would be crucial to
verify how we value and ratify the superiority/inferiority relationship
between genders.
Some prominent works by poststructuralist feminists, the main
theoretical argument of this article, serve as the basis for the decons-
truction of social roles, especially those related to the valuation of gen-
der dichotomies. Hooper (2001), among others6 , are examples of posts-
tructuralist researchers who have contributed to feminist thought.
Shepherds work, in particular, looks at how the concept of gender
factors into the UN Security Council resolutions and how it is imple-
mented in peace processes. In arguing that women are more peaceful
than men, the former would be expected to be more involved in con-
ict negotiation processes, assuming that they would be more adept at
dealing with the stabilization of violence and the resumption of peace.
6. See also Shepherd L (2008) Gender,
Violence, and Security: Discourse as
Practice. London: Zed Books; Sylvester
C (1994) Feminist Theory and Interna-
tional Relations in a Postmodern Era.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;
Sylvester C (2003) Feminist International
Relations: An Unfinished Journey. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
However, this process does not always work, revealing its precarious-
ness and simplicity, as well as the very inability of the United Nations to
include women in their peacemaking processes. Something that could
represent gender emancipation instead reinforces the continuity of di-
chotomies and stereotypes around women.
Post-colonial Feminism is also based on binary dichotomies crea-
ted from gender relations (Spivak, 2010; Lorde, 2007). Its concern, howe-
ver, is with the relationship of subordination established under the aegis
of imperialism. In claiming that history has been told by colonizers who
tend to be white and Western, post-colonialist theorists embark on a dif-
cult task: rewriting history including those whose perspectives have
been excluded, as well as incorporating interpretations from the margins.
Post-colonial feminists criticize Western feminists for treating women as
a homogenous category, failing to recognize their dierences in culture,
social class, race, and geographic location. Such disregard would deprive
women of their own stories by assuming that they all have similar needs
for emancipation when in fact their realities are quite dierent.
Prostitutes and mercenaries
Feminist approaches in International Relations introduced gender
as an essential variable to analyze the dynamics of actors’ interactions
in the international environment. However, despite this eort, their
analyses still seem to have little practical impact on international policies
(Hutchings, 1999). Feminist analysts argue that this vacuum exists becau-
se politics, at its various levels, is still considered a mostly male environ-
ment (Enloe, 2014). Nevertheless, because it is the only approach that uses
gender as an analytical starting point (Sylvester, 1996), some themes nd
in feminism a legitimate spokesperson for their positions. Prostitution is
one such theme.
Commonly considered an intrinsic condition of women under a
patriarchal society (Barry, 1984; Gorman-Murray, 2008; Pateman, 1998;
Scoular, 2004) and often cited as the absolute embodiment of male pa-
triarchal privilege (see Kesler, 2002, p. 219-35) prostitution has been
approached from dierent perspectives. Sexological approaches, for
example, start from the premise that male behavior, when using women
in prostitution, is a simple result of their biological imperative, for whi-
ch such behavior would be natural. Constructivist approaches, on the
contrary, consider male behavior in relation to prostitution as historical
and socially constructed through male domination in detriment of fe-
male subordination, with responsibility and guilt over the existence of
prostitutes (Jereys, 1997; Rezeanu, 2015). Marxist feminists allege that
prostitution is the only activity in a capitalist society in which women
are, not infrequently, better paid than men (Overall, 1992)7 .
As previously observed, the private sphere has historically been
considered feminine, while the public sphere has remained exclusive to
the masculine gender (Bourdieu, 2002; Bryson, 2007; Löfren, 2003) with
each environment having expected and acceptable behavior. In the case
of women, the good wife, aectionate, reproductive, and sensitive, would
7. For a critique of the Marxist analysis
raised by Overall, see Laurie Shrage’s
(1993) Moral Dilemmas of Feminism.
New York: Routledge.
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estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
nd in the domestic environment the ideal place where her natural vir-
tues would blossom. Prostitution, by contrast, contradicts this logic. If
the private sphere is the proper place for a woman, the prostitute, in per-
vading the public environment, violates the natural order of things.
At the state level, prostitution in the past was considered by au-
thorities as a problem of law and order; an abnormal phenomenon that
would be associated with other anomalous behaviors such as drun-
kenness and trickery, causing embarrassment and public annoyance in
neighborhoods, threatening security and violating peace. Authorities ge-
nerally took steps to control or to curb prostitution, limiting it to certain
areas, and registering women who provided sex services in taverns, pubs,
and brothels. From the morality point of view, prostitution was a sin or
an addiction. Prostitutes would be “fallen women,” lacking redemption
and salvation (Outshoorn, 2004).
From the 1970s, with the strengthening of feminist movements, a
great eort has been made to change the stigma created around the pros-
titute. Claiming that the arguments surrounding the practice said little
or nothing about the actual situation of women, feminists problemati-
zed this practice, presenting the idea of “erotic work” (see Chapkis, 1997
and Nagle, 1997) in an attempt to eliminate the stereotypes surrounding
prostitution and to bring the discussion to a commercial and professional
level (Augustín, 2005; O’connell Davidson, 2002). The use of new terms
such as “sex work” or “sex worker” represented not only an important se-
mantic change but also the strengthening of the practice in terms of work
and human rights8 (see Delacoste; Alexander, 1998 and Pheterson, 1989).
In relation to the study of prostitution, at least two great perspecti-
ves are present in the literature. The rst argues that women who work
as prostitutes are exploited by the sex industry (mostly men). In addition,
prostitution and the sex industry together would serve to sustain and
reinforce this practice while strengthening the distorted image created
around the prostitute. The second argues that in a free society, prostitu-
tion is chosen by many women as a way of working, although they do not
enjoy the same rights aorded to other professional workers (O’connell
Davidson, 1998). These women should be free to work without fear of ex-
ploitation or violence (O’neill, 2001). More than that, sexual/erotic work
arguably serves as a “liberating ground for women” (see Chapkis, 1997)
regarding the discipline of their social role, traditionally relegated to the
private sphere. These authors also argue that violations of the practice
are linked to the legal and social construction of prostitutes as sexual
deviants rather than as workers (Oconnell Davidson, 2002). Such a view
becomes even clearer in light of criticisms of binary dichotomies around
sex: normal/abnormal, pleasurable/dangerous, healthy/ill. In this way,
prostitutes, besides being stigmatized, are seen as dangerous due to the
fact they became accessible to anyone, what is considered inappropriate
for the feminine gender.
But we are far from reaching a consensus regarding the idea of
considering prostitution a job, especially as regards its ability to liberate
women from a strictly patriarchal society. Jill Jesson (1993), in reviewing
several papers on the subject, argues that feminism and prostitution are
8. In this article, we used the term
“prostitutes” as it is the one most
closely associated with the prejudice
under analysis. Although we agree that
the term “sex workers” is more appro-
priate, this choice would not reflect the
prejudice present not only in reality but
also in the designation of this type of
professionals.
81
Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
not easily reconcilable. If, on the one hand, some feminists claim that
prostitution is a free choice that empowers women in a society that has
little to oer them, many others understand that, regardless of how the
practice is seen, it will always represent a masculine exploitation of the
feminine. For more radical feminists, for example, prostitution makes a
woman a “sex slave” because of the sexual violence that is always present
in the relationship between genders. In addition, legalizing the practice
means authorizing and granting men the right to women, legally ar-
ming a phenomenon to be combated (Barry, 1996; Jereys, 1997). In other
words, exploitation and submission would continue, only under a die-
rent guise.
Regardless of which argument best represents prostitution, the
fact is that by introducing the idea of gender into the discussion, feminist
analysis challenges the sexual and social inequalities which, in their view,
serve to replicate ideology, patriarchy, and hierarchical gender relations
(Barry, 1996).
In turn, studies on Military and Private Security Companies
(MPSCs) have noted the growth of this market after the end of the Cold
War9 . Several factors are considered responsible for this exponential gro-
wth: the large labor force, militarily well-trained and idle, available for
hire by these companies; the presence of cutting-edge weapons on the
black market—mainly from the former Soviet republicsand oered at
relatively low prices to the private sector; the increase in the number of
regional conicts, generating a greater demand for private security servi-
ces; and the advent of the neoliberal wave with its assumption that priva-
tization is the best way to increase the eciency of services provided in
society (Singer, 2003).
The myriad of services oered by MPSCs has since ranged from
contributing troops for direct combat to reinforce the regular military
and personnel in conict zones to providing military apparel, training
soldiers from various countries, and/or working on data processing and
logistics. Unlike the former mercenaries, who concentrated their eorts
on direct support of regular troops during battles, the current MPSCs
also provide aid to humanitarian organizations by supporting popula-
tions in regions hit by natural disasters and supporting UN peace opera-
tions (Avant, 2005; Ostensen, 2009).
Private security companies provide military and security services to states,
international organizations, INGOs, global corporations, and wealthy individu-
als. Every multi-lateral operation conducted by the UN since 1990 included the
presence of PSCs (AVANT, 2005, p. 7).
With the Cold War leading to the growth of MPSCs, there emer-
ged, as might be expected, criticisms surrounding hiring these compa-
nies. Among the main arguments used in opposition to this phenomenon
are: the high costs and the lack of transparency in the contracts between
states and MPSCs; the de-characterization of the nature of states due to
their loss of legitimate monopoly over the use of violence; the constant
reports of incidents between MPSC employees and the local populations
in the regions where they operate; the lack of a clear legal framework for
accountability on mistakes made by the MPSCs on the battleeld; and
9. It is a fact that PMSCs (Private
Military and Security Companies)
can be hired by various international
actors, including states themselves.
However, even when they are serving
governments and, therefore, in pursuit
of public objectives, the prejudice
surrounding the term ‘mercenaries’ still
prevails. Evidence of this is the nume-
rous criticisms made by authors who
work on this topic regarding this type
of hiring when done by state agents
(AVANT, 2005; SINGER, 2003).
82
estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
the need for greater control of the activities of these rms by the con-
tracting actors (Thomson, 1996). Several experts still criticize MPSCs for
the notion that their employees’ activities approach mercenary activities
condemned by the international community (see Percy, 2007).
In spite of the criticism, however, the growth of the MPSC mar-
ket seems to be an irreversible phenomenon. The degree of dependence
that states have developed in relation to these agents, as well as the need
for continuity of services provided to international organizationsespe-
cially in humanitarian missionshas made the search for better regula-
tion and transparency of this market the only feasible option to combat
the misconduct of MPSCs. As international eorts move towards further
limitation of their functions and activities, there is also a collective com-
mitment by the companies themselves to increase the legitimacy and
condence of the international community in the services provided by
the MPSCs (Chesterman; Lehardt, 2009).
For centuries the hiring of mercenaries to ght in conict regions
has fueled the imaginary and the discussion about the legitimacy of this
phenomenon. Accused of going to war only for material gains, merce-
naries have always been seen as second-rate soldiers. Authors studying
politics and war have always characterized mercenaries as materialistic
people who cannot be trusted, either because of the danger of their chan-
ging sides if the enemy oers a greater value than the one already paid,
or their easily eeing from conict when the violence gets out of hand
(Chestermn; Lehardt, 2009).
As noted previously, one of the main criticisms of the activities of
Military and Private Security Companies is precisely the proximity of the
services oered by these companies to the centuries-old mercenary acti-
vities. Authors who try to show the similarities between MPSCs and mer-
cenaries often do so to delegitimize these companies as legitimate actors
in the international scene. The more the gure of the MPSC employee is
narratively approximated to the role of the former mercenaries, the less
legitimacy these companies have to continue oering their services (see
Lanning, 2005).
[...] The private military market was delegitimated by the end of the 1800s for
both material and normative reasons. The practice of hiring foreign soldiers
was universally condemned and legislated against, culminating in the Geneva
Conventions that withdrew from mercenaries the legal protections that soldiers
enjoyed in warfare. Essentially, the mercenary trade was criminalized (SINGER,
2003, p. 42).
The inverse of this logic can also be seen. The narratives cons-
tructed mainly by the owners of these companies, which emphasize the
humanitarian work of the MPSCs and idealize them as maintainers of
the international order and as stabilizers of conict zones, try to bring
the identity of these actors closer to the narrative ideality of regular sol-
diers. Dissembling the material motivation of these ocials, defenders
of MPSCs try to build a counter-narrative that distances the role of their
employees from the traditional caricature of the mercenary and brings
them closer to the UNs blue helmets with their broad legitimacy already
won internationally (Lanning, 2005).
83
Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
The narratives about MPSCs are not exempt from the relations of
power and gender present in every international phenomenon. Discourses
on the role of these companies, as well as the imaginary created from
their representations, are embedded in subjectivities that idealize the ro-
les of the masculine and the feminine, placing them in supposed discur-
sive arenas with apparent status of naturalness. Through the processes of
contraposition, reication, and erasure of identity instabilities, narratives
about MPSCs are constructed by contrasting the nature of their activities
with other similar phenomena present in the international environment,
such as mercenaries and regular armed forces (Singer, 2003).
As with all social phenomena, all constructed identities are ideally
linked to the public domain or the private sphere. In this way, the narra-
tives about regular soldiers, precisely because they emphasize their na-
tionalistic aspects and ideological motivations, end up relating them to
the public scope. Adherence to the military must be justied by supposed
ethical and collective standards and not by personal and nancial inte-
rests. In this way, the arena of the public ends up becoming the place par
excellence of these characters (Singer, 2003).
As for the mercenaries, we can verify the opposite logic. Stories
about soldiers of fortune identify them as selsh characters that join in
as supporters of regular troops only to take advantage of the money paid
by their contractors.10 In this way, the private sphere becomes the natu-
ral domain of this type of agent because the construction of its image
ends up presupposing the total absence of national or ideological values
(Singer, 2003; Thomson, 1996).
But other ramications can still be found in these accounts of re-
gular soldiers and mercenaries. Both identities are linked to the role of
masculinity, defenders of the homeland or feminized victims (Eichler,
2015). However, although the narratives refer both the soldier and the
mercenary to the role of the masculine, the former is always portrayed as
a civilized masculinity, while the latter is related to barbaric masculinity,
one that imposes order from virility and unorganized eciency. MPSC
employees would thus be posited somewhere between these two iden-
tity ideals. When represented as conict stabilizers, they would approach
the public sphere of the regular soldier. However, when narratives about
MPSCs depict their military capabilities and eciency by force, their
identity would tend to approach the opposite eld, the private sphere and
close range of the mercenary.
Prostitutes, Mercenaries, and Feminism: The Public and the Private
Several academic studies have already been and continue to be done
regarding MPSCs. Several authors in the eld of International Relations
study and are dedicated to the classication, criticism, and defense of, or
at least reection on, the future of this security market.
Although studies on feminism and International Relations have left
their status of marginality in recent years, research on the relationship
between gender and MPSCs is still relatively scarce. Among the eorts
to think about the relationship between these two themes, there are
10. Machiavelli’s The Prince already
drew attention to the danger of relying
on mercenaries. According to the author,
mercenaries would not be trusted to
fight for money and would be on your
side only in times of peace. See Niccolo
Machiavelli’s The Prince (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2011).
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estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
productions that call attention to the reproduction of the relations of
exploitation caused by neoliberalism within these companies. Research
shows how hiring MPSCs replicates the dominant male logic in the regu-
lar military. Other authors demonstrate that MPSCs are a depository of
the male chauvinist imaginary that relates the role of their (male) emplo-
yees to the protection of their always feminized victims.
Though dierent in content, critical accounts of the contractor business, parti-
cularly in the media, take part in this gendered framing of the new state-market
relationship and rely on the ideal of soldier masculinity associated with state
forces. The stereotype of the hyper masculine, aggressive, greedy, and unpatrio-
tic contractor is contrasted with the image of the disciplined restrained, patriotic,
and self-sacricing state soldier (Stachowitsch, 2015, p. 32).
We believe, however, that other relationships between MPSCs and
gender issues can be unraveled. Especially those that refer to the criticis-
ms suered by these companies and the imaginary that delimits mascu-
line and feminine roles within the armed forces. The choice of this study
to focus on the designation of mercenaries is justied by the contempora-
neity of the debate on the modern conguration of these agents through
MPSCs (Private Military and Security Companies). Moreover, for com-
parison, the gure of the mercenary is the one that best aligns with the
role of prostitutes by traversing a path inverse to them in a process of
displacement from their idealized locations.
As seen in this article, the eld of International Relations is mar-
ked by the presence of gender positions that ideally delimit the scope of
the masculine in counterpoint to the space supposedly belonging to the
feminine. The construction of gender identities in the international envi-
ronment, in the case of mercenaries, reproduces the same logic of domi-
nation found in the local sphere for the prostitute, reserving for each cate-
gory a space considered legitimate for the stabilization of their identities.
What we can perceive is that the debate about the legitimacy of
MPSCs is based on subjective standards of judgment that go beyond
the nature of the services provided by these companies. When questio-
ning the lawfulness of the MPSCs, we are tacitly wondering how much
their activities can be considered as belonging to the public sphere or
not. Any private connotation of their services can generate destabi-
lization in the construction of their identities due to their supposed
proximity to the role of the mercenary. Considering the employees of
PMSCs (Private Military and Security Companies) as mercenaries not
only places these companies in a legal limbo – due to the prohibition
of mercenary activities by International Law – but also disqualies the
work of these agents by linking their activities to merely private inte-
rests. This portrayal of PMSC employees as mercenaries distorts the
idealized nature of war as a phenomenon of public character with col-
lective goals to be achieved.
The same occurs, only in reverse, in relation to the construction
of the feminine role. As the ideality of the woman is situated in the
private sphere (mother, wife, daughter, etc.), any activity of a public
nature by these will be considered as undue. The legitimacy of female
activities depends on the private nature of their intentions. The public
85
Wagner Santos, Crisano Mendes Prostutes, Mercenaries and Feminism: The Public and the Private in Internaonal Relaons
oering of the woman’s body generates gender identity destabilization
because it places women in an inappropriate environment according to
social conventions.
In this way, mercenaries and prostitutes have something in com-
mon. Both have diculty securing their legitimacy because they are su-
pposedly in undue spaces (public or private) according to gendered social
constructions. The former would be private soldiers, deprived of the su-
pposed public nature of the profession. The latter would be public women,
thus counteracting the ideally deprived character of the feminine role.
Conclusion
Feminist studies in International Relations have brought to the fo-
refront issues of gender, public and private spaces, and relations of domi-
nation. Approaching post-positivist theoretical currents, the authors of
these approaches have always tried to identify and denounce the cons-
tructions of assumptions that would delegate to the feminine marginali-
zed places in the international environment when compared to the cons-
tructions of masculine gender present in this space.
First, the present article has demonstrated how the feminine gen-
der gure is socially located as the occupant par excellence of private spa-
ces. In this way, the ideal woman (wife, mother) should occupy activities
that always place her in the domestic/private sphere as opposed to in the
public world. Any woman who dares to occupy a culturally reserved area
(in this case a public space) would be viewed negatively by society as she
is in an undue place relative to her social condition. Prostitutes would
thus be targets of prejudice and marginalization precisely because they
transpose these conventions.
Then, we try to demonstrate that similar phenomena also occur
with employees of Military and Private Security Companies. While they
are still in the process of growing and consolidating in the international
arena, these companies would be building their own identities between
the role of soldiers in the regular armed forces (public/legitimate) and that
of mercenaries (private/illegitimate). The more these companies approa-
ch the identity of the mercenary, the less legitimacy they gain from the
fact that they occupy the private space and therefore, are inadequate to
those who serve and defend the homeland motivated by pure love of cou-
ntry. The opposite is also true. By approaching regular soldiers (or blue
helmets), the MPSCs would emphasize their role of stabilizing conicts
and humanitarian work, which would place them in the public arena,
thereby increasing their legitimacy vis-à-vis other international actors.
Prejudice, present both in relation to prostitutes and mercenaries,
would have a common, but inverse, subjective basis. In the case of pros-
titutes, they would be marginalized due to the fact that they are women
who take place in the public sphere, considered inappropriate according
to the idealization of women. The mercenaries, on the other hand, would
suer prejudice by positing themselves in the private sphere, also consi-
dered improper for a soldier in defense of the motherland.
In this way, what can be seen in the discussions on prostitution
and mercenarism would not be as objective questions, as the traditional
debates have tried to lead us to believe. Behind the discussions about the
86
estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 11, n. 3, (out. 2023), p. 72-88
legitimacy of prostitutes and mercenaries would be the construction of
gender identity with its respective places of action. By occupying the pu-
blic space, prostitutes, like mercenaries in the private sphere, subvert a
gender ideality by not submitting to the socially constructed spaces con-
sidered most appropriate.
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