Cambodia Daily, Reporter and weekend editor, Hannah Hawkins, wrote a piece about the Hooters chain of restaurants coming to Phnom Penh. I
was asked to comment. Some, but not all of my commentary was included: "Risqué Business"” July 9, 2016:
"Heidi Hoefinger, an academic who authored 'Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia,' about the country’s sex and entertainment industry, is more direct in her criticism....Describing the opening of Phnom Penh’s first Hooters branch as 'the globalization and corporatization of
the hostess bar scene...'"
was asked to comment. Some, but not all of my commentary was included: "Risqué Business"” July 9, 2016:
"Heidi Hoefinger, an academic who authored 'Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia,' about the country’s sex and entertainment industry, is more direct in her criticism....Describing the opening of Phnom Penh’s first Hooters branch as 'the globalization and corporatization of
the hostess bar scene...'"
Global Post, Senior Correspondent, Patrick Winn conducted an interview with Hoefinger: "Why Cambodian Sex Workers Don't Need to Be Saved"
March 23, 2016:
"Most sex workers in Cambodia, Hoefinger says, are not trapped by brothel overlords. They’re instead trapped in a shattered economy where alternative options include back-breaking toil in the field or stitching jeans for export to America."
Voice of America, Khmer Correspondent, Ten Soksreinith wrote a piece based on a second interview with Hoefinger: "Understanding Intimacy and Economic Pragmatism in Cambodia" | February 26, 2016:
"For Cambodian women with foreign partners, Hoefinger said that love and material needs are inevitably intertwined. 'For the women, emotionality and love are attached to material needs and economic pragmatism,' she said, noting that Cambodian culture has its own ideas about reciprocal exchange linked to marriage."
Voice of America, Khmer Correspondent, Ten Soksreinith wrote a piece based on a second interview with Hoefinger: "Understanding Intimacy and Economic Pragmatism in Cambodia" | February 26, 2016:
"For Cambodian women with foreign partners, Hoefinger said that love and material needs are inevitably intertwined. 'For the women, emotionality and love are attached to material needs and economic pragmatism,' she said, noting that Cambodian culture has its own ideas about reciprocal exchange linked to marriage."
Cambodia Daily, Reporter, Ben Paviour quoted Hoefinger's research in "Cambodians Warm to Smartphone Dating Apps" | February 15, 2016:
“Traditionally, most marriages were arranged and therefore most relationships were deprived of the ‘romance’ associated with the individual autonomy of choosing one’s partner,” writes anthropology academic Heidi Hoefinger in “Sex, Love, and Money in Cambodia.”
Pop songs, karaoke videos, films and magazines have edged aside older cultural mores, according to Ms. Hoefinger. “The dominant sexual culture for contemporary young people in Cambodia is filled with strong themes of romance, love, and heartache.”
Cambodia Daily, Reporter, Ben Paviour quoted Hoefinger's research in "Cambodians Warm to Smartphone Dating Apps" | February 15, 2016:
“Traditionally, most marriages were arranged and therefore most relationships were deprived of the ‘romance’ associated with the individual autonomy of choosing one’s partner,” writes anthropology academic Heidi Hoefinger in “Sex, Love, and Money in Cambodia.”
Pop songs, karaoke videos, films and magazines have edged aside older cultural mores, according to Ms. Hoefinger. “The dominant sexual culture for contemporary young people in Cambodia is filled with strong themes of romance, love, and heartache.”
Voice of America, Khmer Correspondent, Ten Soksreinith wrote a piece based on an interview with Hoefinger: "For Some Women, Sex Work is a Matter of Choice, Not Trafficking" | November 20, 2015:
“The work that they do in the bars is often conflated with trafficking, and it’s assumed they are exploited victims that have not made a decision to do this,” Hoefinger said. Many women are making “active decisions” to participate in sex work within their constrained circumstances, she said. “Bar work is a viable means of labor and employment for some of them—that they choose—and what they are calling for is recognition and respect for their decision.” To conservative Cambodians, sex workers are defying traditional values. But they are also often valued for their work in supporting their families. “They experience this double value system, where they are heavily stigmatized as broken women and as criminals,” she said. “But at the same time they are highly praised in their family if they can contribute to their family’s economic wellbeing.” A movement to abolish sex work in Cambodia then becomes “problematic,” she added.
Voice of America, Khmer Correspondent, Ten Soksreinith wrote a piece based on an interview with Hoefinger: "For Some Women, Sex Work is a Matter of Choice, Not Trafficking" | November 20, 2015:
“The work that they do in the bars is often conflated with trafficking, and it’s assumed they are exploited victims that have not made a decision to do this,” Hoefinger said. Many women are making “active decisions” to participate in sex work within their constrained circumstances, she said. “Bar work is a viable means of labor and employment for some of them—that they choose—and what they are calling for is recognition and respect for their decision.” To conservative Cambodians, sex workers are defying traditional values. But they are also often valued for their work in supporting their families. “They experience this double value system, where they are heavily stigmatized as broken women and as criminals,” she said. “But at the same time they are highly praised in their family if they can contribute to their family’s economic wellbeing.” A movement to abolish sex work in Cambodia then becomes “problematic,” she added.
Voice of America, Khmer Correspondent, Ten Soksreinith interviewed Heidi Hoefinger: "US Professor Examines the Idea of 'Professional Girlfriends' in Cambodia" | November 13, 2015:
"Editor’s note: A new book from a US professor looks at the world of “professional girlfriends,” Cambodian women who have gift- based relationships with foreign men. In her book “Sex, Love, and Money in Cambodia: Professional Girlfriends and Transactional Relationships,” Professor Heidi Hoefinger, who teaches in the Science Department of Berkeley College, in New York, looks at the intimate lives of Cambodian women and the idea of “transactional relationships.” Women are often praised for these relationships, which bring in money to support their families, but also stigmatized for breaking social codes. In an interview with VOA Khmer Hoefinger said the women are often seeking respect and recognition for their choices, something they don’t always get."
Voice of America, Khmer Correspondent, Ten Soksreinith interviewed Heidi Hoefinger: "US Professor Examines the Idea of 'Professional Girlfriends' in Cambodia" | November 13, 2015:
"Editor’s note: A new book from a US professor looks at the world of “professional girlfriends,” Cambodian women who have gift- based relationships with foreign men. In her book “Sex, Love, and Money in Cambodia: Professional Girlfriends and Transactional Relationships,” Professor Heidi Hoefinger, who teaches in the Science Department of Berkeley College, in New York, looks at the intimate lives of Cambodian women and the idea of “transactional relationships.” Women are often praised for these relationships, which bring in money to support their families, but also stigmatized for breaking social codes. In an interview with VOA Khmer Hoefinger said the women are often seeking respect and recognition for their choices, something they don’t always get."
The Times Higher Education, British sociologist and criminologist, Laurie Taylor, discusses Hoefinger’s Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia,
shortlisted (top 6) for the BBC 4 / British Sociological Association's inaugural “Ethnography of the Year Award,” in his article:
"Laurie Taylor on the Endangered Art of Ethnography"
In a very similar manner, Heidi Hoefinger’s Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia: Professional Girlfriends and Transactional
Relationships (2013), one of the studies shortlisted for the award, began from the common belief that encounters in the so-called
“sex bars” of Cambodia would be entirely cash-based and essentially sleazy. Only after spending long periods of time talking to
the women who worked in the bars and their male clients was she able to show that the relationships fashioned in the bars also had an important emotional component. Another stereotype had been exploded.
BBC 4 Thinking Allowed Ethnography of the Year Shortlist Announcement Listen to the podcast as host Laurie Taylor announces the shortlist of the 2014 Ethnography of the Year award, while discussing Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia with award committee members Bev Skeggs and Dick Hobbs | April 23, 2014
Letter to the Editor of Phnom Penh Post Heidi Hoefinger's response to the problematic Valentine's Day study of youth sexuality in
Cambodia, and the resulting media attention and moral panic it spurred | February 18, 2014.
Huffington Post Interview with Dr Heidi Hoefinger about Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia | October 18, 2013
'I think the most important thing I learned is that no matter how women identify, and no matter what circumstances they happen
to be in, they are capable of -- and should be valued for -- the decisions they make and that includes their decisions to sell
sex, trade sex, and have sex with the people of their choosing. It's my hope that public understanding of the issues outlined in
the book might ultimately help to reduce the stigma that most bar workers experience there, which is really at the root cause
of all the discrimination and violence they experience.' --Heidi Hoefinger
Voice of America, Daybreak Asia Interview with Dr Heidi Hoefinger about Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia, 2013
I was featured on Voice of America's 'Daybreak Asia' radio program with Jim Stevenson. The interview
can be heard here at minute 16.14 on the VOA Daybreak Asia website. | September 4, 2013
Southeast Asia Globe Magazine Interview with Dr Heidi Hoefinger about Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia, 2013
Time Out London Sex Worker Open University Spread
Interview with Heidi Hoefinger, Co-Organiser of SWOU, 2011
London Metro Showing the Pros and Cons | June 6, 2011
Hoefinger dismisses people's preconceptions about prositution being synonymous with violence, murder, trafficking and
drug addiction as products of media sensationalism. 'They sell stories,' she says. 'It's less interesting to cover sex
workers working towards decriminalization.'
Londonist Interview with Heidi Hoefinger: The Sex Worker Film Festival 2011 | June 3, 2011
'In order to fight the stigma and stereotypes of the sex industry, which either victimise or demonise sex workers, we
wanted to put together a programme of films and documentaries, by and about sex workers, which instead offers a more
nuanced look at the diversity, contradictions and even pleasures of the industry. Specific themes include self
determination and empowerment, identity, sexuality, intimacy, migration and the global movement for sex workers’ rights.'
--Heidi Hoefinger
Good Time Girl A dirty job? The London Sex Worker Film Festival
Exploitative and degrading? Empowering and lucrative? A little bit boring? The life of a scarlet woman (or man, or
transgendered individual, as it goes) can be all this and more, according to Sex Worker Film Festival organiser Heidi
Hoefinger.
Sarah Cope's Blog Review of the Sex Worker Film Festival | June 15, 2011
The festival also included a panel discussion. The directors of several of the films, the coordinator of the festival (Dr
Heidi Hoefinger), plus a sex worker and a stripteases artist attempted to answer some very tough questions from the
audience.
Global Post Evangelicals offer redemption at Cambodia's girlie bars | December 27, 2010
'Moralism is dangerous — particularly when one group or another is pathologized as 'good' or 'bad,'' Hoefinger said.
Maggie McNeil: The Honest Courtesan
Bad Fantasy, Good Reality | October 27, 2011
Western female academic [Heidi Hoefinger] studied Asian hostess bars and discovered that the women there are neither
“degraded” nor “victimized”, but rather following a deliberate strategy.
Frieze Art Fair Prostitution Notes, by Suzanne Lacy | August 3, 2011
In a rare solo performance, Suzanne did a dramatic reading from The Prostitution Notes, with a guest appearance from
Heidi Hoefinger (as the voice of the prostitute), for the annual Serpentine Gallery Marathon. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
and Julia Peyton-Jones, the multi-dimensional Map Marathon featured non-stop live presentations by over 50 artists,
poets, writers, philosophers, scholars, musicians, architects, designers and scientists, including Gilbert and George,
Marina Abramovic, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Ai Weiwei. Lacy created a new video with Peter Kirby, comprised of photographic
stills from the original Prostitution Notes project (1974), for this Frieze Art Fair week event.
*Heidi's voice interjects at min 3.29, and approximately every 3 minutes after that.*
