Emotional Confrontation over and Public Deliberation on Paid Sex. The struggle between disgust and shame

Abstract

In this paper, we address affective and motivational aspects in relation to the controversy, which can be articulated around a mediatised public issue. We are interested in how emotions are a part of the experience and definition of a phenomenon that is seen as intolerable and for which intervention is demanded and the strategic appeal to an affective repertoire in reaching a position on the issue. We analyse the systems of meaning and emotions mobilised in the current controversy about prostitution and trafficking of persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The goal here is to grasp how the perspectives involved employ
emotional strategies in which basic affective dispositions and transitory emotions intersect, and how this affects deliberation on the issue. Discourses and stories, as well as defining and framing the emotions of the actors in the controversy furnish emotional experiences to their publics, encouraging them to incorporate certain rules of feeling that form part of the moral and ideological perspectives promoted. Methodologically, we use an ethnographic approach to follow the conflict and a socio-semiotic discourse analysis. Our case study covers two linked viral campaigns in social networks (Hola Putero and Hola Abolicionista). The goal is to reflect on the way in which
setting and affective strategies hinder resolution of the issue.