Read Male Sex Work and Society Online
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Tags: #Psychology/Human Sexuality, #Social Science/Gay Studies, #SOC012000, #PSY016000
Male Sex Work and Society (34 page)
Regulation and Criminalization
As Serughetti (2013) points out, the focus on the most degrading and coercive aspects of sex work, including the construction of clients as violent and dangerous, has played a major part in its stigmatization. In the last part of the 20
th
century, the most negative characterizations of clients shifted interest away from sex workers and toward their (male) clients. This shift fostered not only more research on clients but also a trend in many parts of the world toward criminalizing those who purchase sex. Clients have been blamed for the proliferation of the sex market and thus for the oppression of the workers in that market. This association of blame explains why some countries, among them Sweden, Northern Ireland, Norway, and England, have legalized the selling of sex but made its purchase illegal. In some large U.S. cities, clients have become the target of police crackdowns, and the shifting bounds of criminalization in some parts of the world now include programs aimed at decreasing sex work re-offense, which were originally called “john schools.” The first john school was started in San Francisco in 1995 and has since been renamed the First Offender Prostitution Program. This program has helped to reduce the number of clients arrested for re-offending (Shively et al., 2008), but a study of the program found that while re-offense rates did drop among clients who participated in the program, a similar drop was observed among men who did not attend (Monto & Garcia, 2001). Programs based on the john school model have been introduced in Canada, South Korea, the UK, and elsewhere in the U.S., but as Cook (2013) points out, they are almost exclusively aimed at the male clients of street-based FSWs. Nevertheless, they represent part of the regulatory shift toward the clients of sex workers.
th
century, the most negative characterizations of clients shifted interest away from sex workers and toward their (male) clients. This shift fostered not only more research on clients but also a trend in many parts of the world toward criminalizing those who purchase sex. Clients have been blamed for the proliferation of the sex market and thus for the oppression of the workers in that market. This association of blame explains why some countries, among them Sweden, Northern Ireland, Norway, and England, have legalized the selling of sex but made its purchase illegal. In some large U.S. cities, clients have become the target of police crackdowns, and the shifting bounds of criminalization in some parts of the world now include programs aimed at decreasing sex work re-offense, which were originally called “john schools.” The first john school was started in San Francisco in 1995 and has since been renamed the First Offender Prostitution Program. This program has helped to reduce the number of clients arrested for re-offending (Shively et al., 2008), but a study of the program found that while re-offense rates did drop among clients who participated in the program, a similar drop was observed among men who did not attend (Monto & Garcia, 2001). Programs based on the john school model have been introduced in Canada, South Korea, the UK, and elsewhere in the U.S., but as Cook (2013) points out, they are almost exclusively aimed at the male clients of street-based FSWs. Nevertheless, they represent part of the regulatory shift toward the clients of sex workers.
Normalization and the Internet
Among FSWs and MSWs alike, there appears to be a significant decrease in the number of street sex workers and an increase in those who use the Internet to advertise their services and engage clients (Gaffney, 2003). While the online context does not completely negate the risks associated with sex work, given the strong connection between street sex work and violence, it does show some promise of improving the working conditions for sex workers and the safety of their clients.
The Internet has brought the previously deviant and largely solitary behavior of clients into a public forum (Holt & Blevins, 2007). Online forums enable clients to discuss hiring sex workers, which, it has been pointed out, may also enable law enforcement to monitor sex work (Holt & Blevins, 2007; Soothill & Saunders, 2005). As noted earlier, MSWs’ online profiles can give clients insight into their characteristics and motivations. It also provides a venue for sex-worker reviews, which are often quite detailed and address a variety of issues, such as safety, performance, and cleanliness (Holt & Blevins, 2007). In
table 6.2
we have compiled some characteristics found in reviews posted online by MSW clients, which are taken from the sample noted earlier in this chapter.
table 6.2
we have compiled some characteristics found in reviews posted online by MSW clients, which are taken from the sample noted earlier in this chapter.
Clients often review sex workers’ physicality and the sexual experience, and, to a lesser extent, personality and penis size. Our review also found that a central aspect of these posts is to describe client satisfaction with the MSW experience. The vast majority posted about positive experiences.
Conclusions, Contrasts, Comparisons
This review describes the ways past research has approached concepts related to the clients of sex workers. Historically, the conceptualization of clients and, to some extent, sex workers has differed greatly between MSWs and FSWs. It is hard to make demographic comparisons between client groups, as the available research generally fails to agree on what makes a “typical” client, other than an increasing recognition of the diverse characteristics of those who purchase sex. Motivations for purchasing sex among the clients of MSWs and FSWs may be similarly diverse but comparable. Thus, while broad descriptive and motivation categories may be useful, attempts to neatly define demographic or behavioral profiles seem to be limited. It does appear that a lot can be gained, however, from engaging directly with clients, which may address gaps not only in our understanding of sex work and clients but also, more broadly, in our notions of masculinity and gender.
TABLE 6.2
Attributes of Escorts and Sex Described by Clients (
N
= 799)
N
= 799)
Historical intolerance of homosexuality has been influential in the construction of MSWs and their clients. Only through a recognition of the earlier legal and pathological paradigms associated with homosexuality can we truly unpack the historical position of MSWs and their clients, which is markedly different from the position of FSWs and their clients. Recent shifts in gendered discourse hints at major changes in the face of male sex work, and future research will be enriched by attempting to capture the new contexts from which clients are emerging. Two broad understandings of sex work clients already have emerged—one that views sex work as an expression of male power and hegemonic masculinity, and another that views it as a product of more diverse and even fragile forms of masculine expression—which does not discount the possibility that such experiences may be socially positive.
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