When examining sex work critically consider why the focus of interest tends to be on ‘workers’ rather than the ‘consumers’.
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Course
Sex, Sexuality, Power and Oppression
Institution
Coventry University (West Midlands) (CU)
This essay question explores the relationship between sex, sexuality and political and moral definitions of crime and deviance. Drawing on key theoretical perspectives, it examines a range of issues from the perspective of both victim and perpetrator and explores the relationship between
sexuality...
When examining sex work critically consider why the focus of interest tends to be on
‘workers’ rather than the ‘consumers’.
Academic prostitution studies focus on the prostitute rather than the consumer, restricting our
knowledge of the techniques and motives people use to pay for sex, statistics show the majority
of women are sex workers and this will be specifically examined in this assignment (Autor:
Michael Shively et al., 2013). There are a variety of reasons why the focus of interest tends to
be on the ‘worker’ rather than the ‘consumer’. The core foundation being the historical gender
roles and distinct relations to sex, this is contributed by the idea that sex is a social construct in
society and hence why women are perceived as inferior in a society which again can be used to
argue this question. This is further explained with the swinging sixties and growing
commercialization of sex which affected women in society and specifically the sex work
industry. However, this is ultimately challenged by changes in legislation which will further be
examined.
The positions that men and women are supposed to fill depending on their identity are gender
roles (Planned Parenthood, 2020). Men are considered to be superior by conventional views on
gender roles. Therefore, the conventional understanding of the male gender position implies
that men should be the head of their household by caring for the family financially and making
crucial family decisions (2020). Women had one key function in society during the Victorian era,
which was to get married and take part in the desires and company of their husbands. They
would study housewife skills like sewing, cooking, bathing, and sweeping before marriage
, unless they came from a rich family (UKEssays.com, n.d.). Typically, because we live in a male-
centred society, women were often not permitted to be taught or acquire experience beyond
the household. Richard D. Altick stated “a woman was inferior to a man in all ways except the
unique one that counted most [to a man]: her femininity. Her place was in the home, on a
veritable pedestal if one could be afforded, and emphatically not in the world of affairs” (Altick
54). Women specifically played the role the “sex worker” in the family, providing the sexual
needs of a man exclusively in exchange for a stable lifestyle, this role is then reflected in the
way society now views women and similarly sex workers. Society now views sex work as the
norm as this typically the norm in the family, therefore the focus of interest tends to be on the
sex worker rather than the consumer (generally the male) which reflects the family. Anti-
prostitution feminists see prostitution to be a form of male superiority over women, they argue
that the act of prostitution is not an act of reciprocal and fair sex, since it places the prostitute
in a place of subordination, restricting her to the client's mere instrument of sexual
gratification. In order to question the notion that pornography often includes men
subordinating women, others have researched lesbian pornography (Ross 2000). These
feminists see prostitution as the product of an oppressive social order that reduces women to
men, and where gender discrimination is prevalent in all facets of existence (Feminist views on
prostitution, 2020). Hence, we can argue that the interest in sex workers who are
predominately female is a product of male domination hence why consumers are often looked
over.
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