title: Narratives About Necessity--Constructions of Motherhood Among Drug Using Sex-Sellers in Denmark.
abstract: This ethnographic study explores norms and practices concerning motherhood among 37 drug-using female sex-sellers in Denmark. It is based on extended fieldwork in a drop-in center and narrative interviews with clients and staff in this center from 2001-2005. A strong norm guiding the staff's relation to the users is that drug-use, prostitution, and motherhood are incompatible. The women meet such institutional expectations and norms about motherhood either by constructing norm-conforming narratives or by opposing the institutional view. As the institution offers no 'backstage', the women's self-representations often appear chaotic and inconsistent. Either way their strategies often become contributions to the reproduction of the structures they resist.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University , Aarhus C , Denmark.
authors.forename: Jeanett
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bjønness
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D036301:Qualitative Research; D060386:Sex Workers / Q000523:psychology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ambivalence; class; drugs; motherhood; necessity; prostitution; stigma