Prostitution clients’ attitudes toward gender equality are important indicators of how masculinity relates to the demand for commercial sexual services. Research on male client misogyny has been inconclusive, and few studies compare men in different markets. Using an online survey of 519 clients of sexual services, we examine whether male client attitudes toward gender role equality are related to the main methods customers used to access prostitution services (i.e., through print or online media vs. in-person contact). We found no differences among men in these markets in attitudes toward gender role equality in the workplace and home. This is in a context where all clients had more egalitarian attitudes toward women’s roles than the U.S. male population in the General Social Survey (GSS). However, clients in in-person markets were less supportive of affirmative action than in online markets in a context where all clients were less supportive compared to the national average. These findings point to need to rethink how masculinity and gender role attitudes affect patterns of male demand for paid sex.
Introduction The debate over the classification of dyspareunia as a sexual dysfunction or as a pain disorder raises the question of the comparative cognitive salience of sex and/or pain in the experience of women who report pain with intercourse. Refinements in our understanding of cognitive factors in the experience of pain with intercourse may be important in the development of effective treatments. Aim This study aimed to compare the cognitive salience of sex and pain word stimuli in women reporting pain with intercourse and in a control group of women without sexual dysfunction. Methods Twenty women reporting pain during sexual intercourse and 20 women reporting no sexual dysfunction (controls) participated in a memory protocol designed to detect differences as a function of group membership and type of stimulus (sex, pain, and two other control stimuli). Main Outcome Measures Dependent measures were recall, recognition, intrusions, and false positives for sex words, pain words, and two other control word types. Results Regardless of group membership, women had best recall for sex-related words; however, women reporting sexual pain evidenced more false memories for pain words than did control women, and pain words elicited more false memories than any other type of word for women with sexual pain. Conclusion Results are interpreted to suggest that repeated activation through experience with persistent sexual pain may have contributed to the: (i) development of stronger semantic networks related to pain in comparison to no sexual dysfunction controls and; (ii) activation of pain networks more easily triggered by pain-related stimuli in women with sexual pain than in no sexual dysfunction controls. Sex, however, had not attained the cognitive salience of pain.
Humans have sex for a multitude of reasons, many of which are unrelated to desire. But what are the conditions in which sexual desire does not lead to sex? We investigated reasons college students refrain from sex despite desire and having an attractive, willing partner along with relationships between these reasons and other aspects of sexuality and personality. For item generation, 604 college participants identified 109 reasons why individuals may refrain from sex despite desire. For construct validation, 712 participants (70% women, 39% White, 26% Hispanic/Latino, 20% Asian-American/Pacific Islander, 11% African American, 4% “Other”) reported the frequency they experienced these reasons on a novel No Sex Despite Desire measure. Every reason that evidenced discernible gender differences was endorsed more by women. These items largely concentrated in the factors that emerged of Personal Insecurities (negative emotions or self-evaluations surrounding the act) and Principled Concerns (values and morals inhibiting sex). However, women and men did not discernibly differ on the Partner Issues factor (perceiving issues with potential partner). These factors also differentially related to sexual and personality variables. Principled Concerns negatively related to sociosexual behavior and attitudes, and positively related to sexual traditionalism, for men and women. Partner Issues positively correlated with sociosexual behavior and desire for women. Personal Insecurities negatively correlated with sociosexual attitudes for men. Principled Concerns related to issues of sexual functioning for women, whereas Personal Insecurities and Principled Concerns related to worse sexual functioning for men. Finally, Personal Insecurities was related to Neuroticism for both men and women.
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