A gap in science's and the media images of people who use drugs and sex workers: research on organizations of the oppressed.

This paper discusses organizations of the oppressed, such as drug user and sex worker groups, and the images of themselves that they construct. We suggest that analysis of these organizationally-produced collective self-images -frequently overlooked in scholarly research -is crucial to understanding the complex internal dynamics of users' and sex workers' organizations and struggles they engage in when defining their collective (organizational) identities and course of action.