New Books Network 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 who studies Cambodian and Vietnamese literature and film. She discusses how fiction and film stage ambivalence around sex work under imperialism. Topics include colonial and rescue narratives, Rithy Panh’s documentary strategies, debates over terminology, sex tourism, cross-border marriage, and archival oral histories.
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Fiction Cultivates Ambivalence About Sex Work
- Fiction and creative nonfiction can cultivate ambivalence rather than moral certainty about sex work.
- Leslie Barnes argues that sustaining contradictory perspectives (e.g., sex workers as neither simply victims nor purely agents) opens space for nuanced understanding.
Be Responsible When Representing Marginalized Lives
- Scholars with privileged positions must take responsibility to avoid constructing harmful narratives about marginalized people.
- Barnes stresses careful language and narrative choices when representing sex workers to avoid inflicting further harm.
Words Shape How We See Sex Work
- Terminology shapes ideology: 'sex work' resists the delegitimizing history of 'prostitution'.
- Barnes opts for specific local terms (con gai, debt-bonded) and uses colonial language carefully to map power relations.
