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Male Sexual Scripts

Intimacy, Sexuality and Pleasure in the Purchase of Commercial Sex

Teela Sanders

University of Leeds, t.l.m.sanders{at}leeds.ac.uk

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 Words: commerce • intimacy • male sexuality • sex work • sexual scripts

Sociology, Vol. 42, No. 3, 400-417 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038508088833
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[Abstract] [PDF]