Revelation, Economics and Sex: The Bible and Sex Work in South Africa

Abstract The setting for this article is the ongoing debate about the legality of sex work in South Africa, which received renewed attention when the African National Congress as ruling party passed a resolution in 2017 to decriminalise sex work. In the Global South in particular, entanglements between gender, sexuality and economics are most pronounced in sex work. In South Africa, desperate socio-economic inequalities, alienating gender patterns, and distrusted sexualities are interrelated and interspersed with explicit and subtle appeals to the Bible. It is proposed that the book of Revelation with its rich and at times disturbing, sexualised imagery offers some contours for debates pertaining to the decriminalisation of sex work. Given the spread of Christianity in South Africa, in faith communities and through cultural impact, the popular use of the Bible and the discursive presence of Revelation with regard to sex work is understandable, revealing, and worrying, all at the same time.