Pagkatao, pagkababae, at seksuwalidad (Self-concept, womanhood, and sexuality): A phenomenological study of the inner world of the girl child prostitute

• Main Author: Fernando, Priscilla Gonzales-
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2000
• Subjects: Child prostitutes > Philippines > Psychology; Self-perception; Child prostitution > Philippines; Gender and Sexuality; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/4159
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study sought to explore the "inner world" of female children with previous involvement in prostitution, specifically their self-concept, sense of womanhood and sexuality. Using an in-depth, multiple case-study approach, eight girls aged 14 to 17 years were interviewed and projective techniques to encourage the expression of their deepest and most personal feelings, needs, issues, and attitudes. The main finding was that and emotional/conceptual, "split" had taken place, wherein the girls' self-concept, sense of womanhood and sexuality contained two widely disparate, and yet equally present, self-images: the one that had been irreparably damaged, stained, abused, and degraded by the experiences of abuse and prostitution, and therefore deserved no honor, love, or happiness; and the one that held hope for a "new (or fantasized) me" that had dignity, was respected and loved, and had real choices and a real chance for happiness