Women Who Trade Sexual Services from Men: A Systematic Mapping Review

Abstract

Self-portrait of a young man for rent', by Sterry (2002), is a memoir of the author's experiences working as a teenage gigolo with a primarily female clientele in the early 1970s. Sterry recounts the circumstances leading up to his situation, characterized by desperation, need for love, and sexual assault. According to a recent comparative study (McCarthy, Benoit, & Jansson, 2014), both immediate circumstances like limited education, and negative experiences from early life, especially childhood poverty, abuse and family instability, are independently associated with adult sex work. According to reviews, paid male sexual services are largely invisible in the global sex trade, but in growing demand. Dennis (2008) concluded that in Western countries, more adolescent boys than adolescent girls participate in sex exchange for money, and men comprise about 20-30% of the individuals arrested as vendors of sexual services each year. Recently, a content analysis of 499 male escort websites across 60 countries found that while most escorts advertise to other men, 11% of the sites were specifically for female clients and 10% for heterosexual couples (Kumar, Minichiello, Scott, & Harrington, 2017). Another website survey found comparable numbers (Scott & Minichiello, 2017). Similarly, Lee-Gonyea, Castle, and Gonyea's (2009) review identified 17% of websites that advertised male escorts as catering to female clientele only and an ongoing study conducted in the UK found that 66% of escorts advertised to female clients (Smith & Kingston, in Kumar et al., 2017). Indications of a growing market for women who seek paid sexual services with men are not only found online. Since the 1990s, Japan has seen a rapid increase in the number of host clubsvenues where men work as hosts to 'entertain' a mostly migrant female clientelewith over 200 clubs in Tokyo alone (Mahdavi, 2018). The entertainment varies by club and location, but most hosts describe it as selling romance, love and sex to their clients (

Introduction: Special section ‘female clients of commercial sex’

“…Recently, a systematic mapping review of the empirical research on commercial sex where women are the buyers and men the sellers was carried out by Berg et al (2020). Their review included 46 studies, three-quarters of them published in the last 15 years, of which 25 explicitly researched women as clients of male sex workers, although the vast majority of studies included only male participants.…”

“…Although the information about the women was limited, Berg et al (2020), based on the studies included in their systematic review, conclude that women appear to be, when compared to male sex workers, older, educated and economically comfortable and independent. Furthermore, they conclude that the motivations of women who buy sexual services arise from the satisfaction of their sexual needs.…”

“…They also argue, as we mentioned above, that 'commerce and inequalities of power and socioeconomics are strongly influential in transactional sex where women form the demand and men the supply' (Berg et al, 2020: 115). Even recognizing the possibility of the growing and diversifying female demand for male sexual services, Berg et al (2020) assert on basis of their systematic review that research on women as clients of commercial sex is relatively rare.…”

La relación de compraventa en la prostitución

“…Por otro lado, el sexo es algo que los hombres desean y hacía lo que muestran un mayor interés, siendo proporcionado por las mujeres y suponiéndoles una fuente importante de recursos económicos y de bienes (Baumeister y Voh, 2004). y aunque las mujeres pueden compran estos servicios en los que se producen aspectos similares en este tipo de intercambios de sexo por dinero, pues también existen relaciones desiguales (Berg, Molin y Nanavati, 2020), la realidad y las cifras expresan que se realiza de una manera minoritaria.…”

Are Men Who Buy Sex Different from Men Who Do Not?: Exploring Sex Life Characteristics Based on a Randomized Population Survey in Sweden

“…Transactional sex is generally defined as the trading (buying and selling) of sex for material benefit, i.e., exchanging money, drugs, food, shelter, or other items for sex (Carael, Slaymaker, Lyerla, & Sarkar, 2006 ; Stoebenau, Heise, Wamoyi, & Bobrova, 2016 ). The phenomenon has mainly been described as men paying women for sex, but increased attention has been paid to men and women paying men for sex as well (Berg, Molin, & Nanavati, 2020 ; Carael et al, 2006 ). While studies of sex workers and individuals receiving money or other types of compensation for sex are available and show considerable poor health (Halcón & Lifson, 2004 ; Miller et al, 2011 ; Seib, Fischer, & Najman, 2009 ; Ulloa, Salazar, & Monjaras, 2016 ; Wong, Holroyd, Gray, & Ling, 2006 ), studies that address the demand characteristics of sex based on robust population data are more scarce.…”