New Books in Critical Theory Leslie Barnes, "Sex Work in Southeast Asia: Scenes of Ambivalence in Literature and Film" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)
Apr 7, 2026
Leslie Barnes, Associate Professor of French Studies at ANU and author of Sex Work in Southeast Asia, studies literature and film from Cambodia and Vietnam. She discusses how fiction and documentary cultivate ambivalence around sex work. Conversations touch on colonial histories, Rithy Panh’s films, rescue narratives, terminology debates, and visual tropes that shape our understanding of transactional sex.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Representation Should Cultivate Ambivalence
- Leslie Barnes frames her project as reading cultural representations to sustain ambivalence instead of enforcing a political verdict on sex work.
- She argues fiction and creative nonfiction can hold contradictory truths about agency and victimhood, creating space for pause rather than moralizing.
Discourses Flatten Complexity Around Sex Work
- Barnes observes dominant sex work discourses (NGOs, media, policy) rely on moral and epistemic certainty that flattens complexity.
- She intentionally resists being partisan, using close readings to reveal the double negative: sex workers can be both harmed and agentic depending on context.
Be Responsible When You Speak For Others
- Scholars with privileged outside access must take responsibility to avoid further harm when narrating marginalized lives.
- Barnes emphasizes careful language choices and specificity (e.g., debt-bonded street worker, con gai) to minimize damage.
