Male Sexual Scripts

Abstract

This article examines empirical qualitative data on men who buy sexual services from women who work as escorts and in massage parlours. It investigates that men give to sexual experience, their desires for intimacy and their experience of the commercial boundaries. This article argues that there are problems with initially making the distinction between normative and non-normative sexual relationships where commerce is present.The sexual scripts of the 'regular' male client are compared to heterosexual male sexual scripts, arguing that commercial sexual relationships can mirror the traditional romance, courtship rituals, modes and meanings of communication, sexual familiarity, mutual satisfaction and emotional intimacies found in 'ordinary' relationships.The findings suggest that general understandings of sex work and prostitution are based on false dichotomies between commercial and non-commercial relationships. Nuanced understanding of the micro-relationship between the sex worker and regular client beyond a structural analysis can be applied to a policy framework that reinforces responsibility in the male client role. KEY WORDScommerce / intimacy / male sexuality / sex work / sexual scripts

“I Wanted to Feel Like a Man Again”: Hegemonic Masculinity in Relation to the Purchase of Street-Level Sex

“…Every participant referenced the idea that sexual desire is a rationale for purchasing sex, making it a numerically dominant category. This echoes findings from other studies which indicate men draw on hegemonic heteronormative scripts to justify the purchase of sex (Sanders, 2008;Huysamen and Boonzaier, 2015). The second major social process is the interaction between feelings of inadequacy, failure, and vulnerability and men's motivation to purchase sex.…”

“…The growing consensus in the empirical literature is that the people most likely to purchase sex in Canada and the US are white, middle-aged, and middle-classed men (Vanwesenbeek et al, 1994;Monto, 2004;Pitts et al, 2004;Lowman and Atchison, 2006;Sanders, 2008;Atchison, 2010;Atchison and Burnett, 2016). Two large Canadian surveys completed in the past decade indicate that approximately 70% of sex buyers identify as White, are on average 41 years of age, and tend to have a slightly higher than average educational attainment and income (Atchison, 2010;Atchison and Burnett, 2016).…”

“…There is also a small body of qualitative research that attempts to understand men's subjective experience of purchasing sex (Holzman and Pine, 1982;Plumridge et al, 1997;Bernstein, 2001;Sanders, 2008;Huysamen and Boonzaier, 2015). The bulk of this research similarly focuses on the customers of indoor workers and again privileges the experiences and worldviews of middleclass men who desire intimacy and regular relationships with sex workers in off-street locations.…”

“…This is significant for men as it proves their "sexual competence" (Huysamen and Boonzaier, 2015, 550). In a commercial sexual exchange, it becomes particularly important as it allows men to lay claim to conventional masculine appeal-as sexually voracious, but also sexually desirable and skilled (Sanders, 2008). This allows them to gloss over the aspect of the exchange that threatens their masculine identity.…”

Types of Pleasures Occurring through Paid Sexual Performances among Women Offering Escort Services

“…4, No. 1 Dolnick, 2010Milrod & Monto, 2012;Milrod & Weitzer, 2012;Sanders, 2006Sanders, , 2008Welzer-Lang, Barbosa & Mathieu, 1994) about clients looking for an encounter, if not a relationship when they become regulars, in which a warm interpersonal and emotional exchange accompanies the sexual encounter (Comte, 2015).…”