Theorizing Sex Buyer Power: Macro and Micro

• In Event: 1466 - Section on the Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 5. Sexualities and Economies

Abstract

Amid a polarized cultural dialogue on sex work, in which providers are characterized either as exploited and trafficked victims or willing and empowered workers, this paper explores 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 are not universally or equally powerful in their exchanges with providers. Additionally, larger structural inequalities, such as those associated with gender, race, age, and class 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 means that power relationships between buyers and providers vary substantially.

Authors

• Martin A. Monto, University of Portland

• Christine Milrod, Licensed Psychotherapist/ Independent Researcher