Prostitutes' Clients' Perception of the Prostitutes and of Themselves

Abstract

HIS is a report on an attempt to obtain some clues to the psychodynamics T of men visiting prostitutes, in terms of the men. It is curious that the wealth of professional and popular literature on prostitution almost always ignores the men and tends to be exclusively concerned with the prostitute. The literature is thus like the law, under which a prostitute may go to jail, while her partner is not even arraigned. That this is not entirely a function of male chauvinism of male investigators is seen in the several reports by madams and prostitutes on their work, in which the male customers are seldom discussed except in picturesque or picaresque terms Kinsey and his associates report that 69 per cent of the total white male population of the United States visits a prostitute at some time, and from 15 to 20 per cent visit prostitutes more than a few times a year. (4) They also report that single men visit prostitutes from three to four times as often as married men, and that the lower socio-economic groups are most likely, while collegeeducated men are least likely, to visit prostitutes. Other investigators have reported that college students visit prostitutes relatively infrequently. (2) Various reasons have been suggested for married men visiting prostitutes What functions does a visit to a prostitute serve in the personality economy of the man, and how does he perceive himself and the prostitute? In order to get some answers to these questions, interviews were conducted in five cities in the north-east United States, the smallest of which had a population of 125,000. Two of the cities had a population of over 750,000. Access to the subjects was obtained through several colleges, unions, and fraternal and business organizations, as well as non-organizational sources. The organizations and individuals co-operating in the study acted as intermediaries in locating subjects and engaged in a screening process of their members and friends in order to locate men who would admit visiting a prostitute and who were willing to discuss it. The only requirement for being interviewed was that the subject had visited a prostitute within the preceding six months and was willing to discuss the visit with the investigator, who personally conducted all the interviews. The subjects were not paid for co-operating in the study. It is of course possible that men who are willing to discuss a visit to a prostitute are not representative of the total universe of prostitutes' clients, but the very nature of this universe makes it almost impossible to obtain a probability sample of it.The interviews were conducted over a period of seven years, from 1953 to 1959. They were conducted in various places, with the great majority conducted in restaurants and other informal and non-institutional settings in order to make the interview as non-threatening as possible. The investigator took notes during the interview. A total of 732 men were interviewed, of whom 674 were white and 58 Negro. The age range was from 18 to 61, with an average of 44. Ther...

New directions in research on prostitution

“…), but we are only beginning to understand their motivations, attitudes, and behavior patterns (Atchison et al, 1998;Campbell, 1998;Hoigard and Finstad, 1992;Holzman and Pines, 1982;Jordan, 1997;McKeganey and Barnard, 1996;Monto, 2000;Simpson and Schill, 1977;Winick, 1962;Wortley et al, 2002). This literature suggests that customers patronize prostitutes for several reasons:…”

A comparative-ethnographic study of a massage parlor and nude modeling studio

“…Data, focusing on perceived differences from other women, support some earlier research on the centrality of sexuality to the female sex role (Rosenblum, 1975) (Winick, 1962;Hirschi, 1962;Kinsey, 1948;Winick and Kinsie, 1971). Greenwald, 1958;Bryan, 1965, Winick andKinsie, 1971;Sheehy, 1973;Rosenblum, 1975).…”

Men procuring sexual services from women: everyman or peculiar man?

“…The current findings appear to lend some support to this, particularly when requiring intimacy is also indicated as a procurement motivation. An examination of services procured was primarily conventional, further refuting the notion of peculiarity 6,5 . The services sought were commonly associated with conventional sexual relationships 15,17 .…”

“…This is either on the grounds they are ill 5 or 'deviant' in the context of displaying 'abnormal' behaviour driven by sexual health challenges 6 . This view of 'ill' or 'abnormality' was extended by factions within feminism, in particular Radical and Marxist feminists.…”