Perceptions of provider power among sex buyers

Abstract

This manuscript provides a framework for understanding the relative power of male customers in heterosexual prostitution exchanges. Drawing on insights from Giddens' structuration theory, as well as basic principles of social exchange theory, we describe how personal qualities, relationship characteristics, and larger structural inequalities intersect to affect power relationships between buyers and providers. Consistent with recent scholarship that documents the complex array of cultural and economic factors that affect the experience of female sex providers, we examine how those processes also shape perceptions of power among buyers. While acknowledging that sex buyers are unlikely to have accurate understandings of the motives and constraints experienced by sex workers, we observe that customers do not universally perceive themselves to have greater power in such exchanges and that larger structural inequalities are not directly translated into differences in power in buyers' dyadic relationships with providers. Further, we argue that the variety of contexts in which prostitution takes place and the diversity of individuals who buy and sell sex mean that power relationships between buyers and providers vary substantially.

Are Men Who Pay for Sex Sexist? Masculinity and Client Attitudes Toward Gender Role Equality in Different Prostitution Markets

“…That clients’ generally positive attitudes were not associated with different markets means that these client attitudes likely play no central role in providers’ greater experiences of violence or exploitation in in-person markets. Numerous studies point to a variety of contextual factors that explain violence or negative experiences among street workers, including legal and policing policies and practices, economic conditions, stigma, and other structural relations of power (Connelly et al 2018; Deering et al 2014; Monto and Milrod 2019). Many factors explain sex workers’ experiences in different markets, but attitudes towards gender role equality does not seem to be one of them, although a wider range of gender attitudes, masculine repertoires, and structural factors should be examined.…”

Women's experiences buying sex in Australia – Egalitarian powermoves

“…The concept of power in commercial sex relationships has only recently been examined in a scholarly fashion. Monto and Milrod (2019) sought to understand the degree to which male sex buyers possess and experience power when buying sex from women. They describe using Giddens' structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) to examine the reciprocal connection between social structures and inequalities, and individual interactions of paid sexual services, which actively contribute to social structures.…”

“…They describe using Giddens' structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) to examine the reciprocal connection between social structures and inequalities, and individual interactions of paid sexual services, which actively contribute to social structures. Monto and Milrod (2019) also used social exchange theory principles (Emerson, 1962) which regards all social interactions as occurring within a costbenefit analysis and that power differentials occur when one actor is less dependent on the exchange than the other. The analysis concluded the men buying sex do not universally perceive themselves as having more power than their female providers.…”

“…They suggest that personal qualities, relationship characteristics, and larger structural inequalities combine to affect power relations in commercial sex. However, Monto and Milrod (2019) acknowledge that the relative power of sex workers is also variable and unknown. In another examination of sex-buyer power, Vaughn (2019) conducted a quantitative analysis of condom use among clients of sex workers to investigate the relationship between the structural power and subsequent behaviour.…”

“…Vaughn (2019) then describes how systems of power such as race and socioeconomic status influence client-sex worker interactions including how actors perceive the interaction, and summarises that male clients determine their power based on their perceptions of sex-worker power. Monto and Milrod (2019) and Vaughn (2019) examined male clients and not the relative power of female sex workers, in efforts to begin to investigate the multiple power structures which underwrite feelings of power by individual actors. These studies demonstrate that power in commercial sex is not drawn from gender alone, and further, power in commercial sex is not necessarily harmful or destructive.…”