Top

Sexuality Research and Social Policy

Published in:

05-10-2019

“Not a Real Prostitute”: Narrative Imagination, Social Policy, and Care for Men who Sell Sex

Authors: Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen, Ditte Andersen, Lois Presser

Published in: Sexuality Research and Social Policy | Issue 3/2020

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

The dominant cultural narrative of sex-selling involves female sellers and male buyers, consistent with governing notions of sexual desire and sexual performance more generally. Likewise, needing and receiving care is conventionally coded as feminine. Analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews with 21 cisgender male sex sellers in Denmark leads us to consider how storylines and discursive boundaries having to do with sex work, sexuality, gender, and care shape narrative imagination in ways that inhibit the participation of male sex sellers in programs that provide the kind of care they may need. Respondents described different experiences of and pathways into sex work. However, both respondents who enjoyed selling sex as well as respondents who suffered found it difficult to imagine themselves as participants in service-providing programs. Rather, they deemed programs designed to provide care and support to sex sellers the exclusive province of women. The paper clarifies the importance of cultivating narrative imagination among male sex sellers, policymakers, and care providers in order to develop and deliver more adequate policies and effective programs for male sex sellers in need of care.

previous article Prejudice Against Gender and Sexual Diversity in Brazilian Public High Schools

next article Delaying Gratification: How High School Health Textbooks Portray Marriage and Sex

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

We use the term “sex seller” as opposed to “sex worker” and “sex selling/selling sex” as opposed to “sex work.” This nomenclature accords with that of our interviewees who typically did not talk about themselves as sex workers, but simply referred to themselves as being paid to provide sexual services. None of the men had sex selling as their sole income and many resisted using the terms “sex work” and “sex workers” as they associated these terms with more professional and regular sex selling than their own.

Escort services are defined as a type of prostitution where the client contacts the sex seller, often by calling a telephone number from a print or website ad, and arranging a meeting at a specific location for instance in the client’s home, or at a hotel or similar site.

Aggleton, P., & Parker, G. R. (2015). Male sex work: Current characteristics and recent transformations. In P. Aggleton & G. R. Parker (Eds.), Men who sell sex: Global perspectives (pp. 1–14). New York: Routledge.

Andersen, D., & Sandberg, S. (2019). ‘Of course you like to fight’: Frames for storytelling in a liberal anger management programme. Acta Sociologica, 62(1), 96–109.

Andrews, M. (2014). Narrative imagination and everyday life. New York: Oxford University Press.

Andrews, M. (2004). Opening to the original contributions: Counter-narratives and the power to oppose. In M. Bamberg & M. Andrews (Eds.), Considering counter-narratives: Narrating, resisting, making sense (pp. 1–6). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Bacon, O., Lum, P., Hahn, J., Evans, J., Davidson, P., Moss, A., & Page-Shafer, K. (2006). Commercial sex work and risk of HIV infection among young drug-injecting men who have sex with men in San Francisco. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 33(4), 228–234.PubMed

Bengtsson, T. T., & Fynbo, L. (2018). Analysing the significance of silence in qualitative interviewing: Questioning and shifting power relations. Qualitative Research, 18(1), 19–35.

Bimbi, D. S. (2007). Male prostitution: Pathology, paradigms and progress in research. Journal of Homosexuality, 53(1–2), 7–35.PubMed

Bimbi, D. S., & Parsons, T. J. (2005). Barebacking among internet-based male sex workers. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, 9, 89–110.

Bjønness, J. (2012). Between emotional politics and biased practices - prostitution policies, social work, and women selling sexual services in Denmark. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 9(3), 192–202.

Brockmeier, J. (2009). Reaching for meaning: Human agency and the narrative imagination. Theory & Psychology, 19(2), 213–233.

Browne, J., & Minichiello, V. (1995). The social meanings behind male sex work: Implications for sexual interactions. British Journal of Sociology, 46, 598–622.PubMed

Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Calhoun, T. C., & Weaver, G. (1996). Rational decision-making among male street prostitutes. Deviant Behavior, 17(2), 209–227.

Carbone-Lopez, K., & Miller, J. (2012). Precocious role entry as a mediating factor in women’s methamphetamine use: Implications for life-course and pathways research. Criminology, 50(1), 187–220.

Castañeda, H. (2014). Migrant male sex workers in Germany. In V. Minichello & J. Scott (Eds.), Male sex work and society (pp. 396–425). New York: Harrington Park Press.

Copes, H. (2016). A narrative approach to studying symbolic boundaries among drug users: A qualitative meta-synthesis. Crime, Media, Culture, 12(2), 193–213.

Crofts, T. (2014). Regulation of the male sex industry. In V. Minichiello & J. Scott (Eds.), Male sex work and society (pp. 178–197). New York: Harrington Park Press.

Dalla, R. (2000). Exposing the “pretty woman” myth: A qualitative examination of the lives of female streetwalking prostitutes. Journal of Sex Research, 37(4), 344–353.

Dennis, J. (2008). Women are victims, men make choices: The invisibility of men and boys in the global sex trade. Gender Issues, 25(1), 11–25.

Ellison, G. (2018). Drifters, party boys and incumbents: The life patterns of male street-based sex workers. Sociology, 52(2), 367–383.

Ellison, G., & Weitzer, R. (2018). Young men doing business: Male bar prostitution in Berlin and Prague. Sexualities, 21(8), 1389–1408. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717708139.CrossRef

Farley, M., Baral, I., Kiremire, M., & Sezgin, U. (1998). Prostitution in five countries: Violence and post-traumatic stress disorder. Feminism & Psychology, 8(4), 405–426.

Ferguson, J. L. (2017). From the heart: Sex, money, and the making of a gay community in Senegal. Gender and Society, 31(2), 245–265.

Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245.

Gottschall, J. (2012). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Grov, C., Rodriguez-Diaz, C. E., Ditmore, M. H., Restar, A., & Parsons, J. T. (2014). What kinds of workshops do internet-based male escorts want? Implications for prevention and health promotion. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 11(2), 176–185.

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2009). Analyzing narrative reality. Los Angeles: Sage.

Henriksen, T. D., Mehlsen, L., Kjaer, A. A., & Amilon, A. (2017). Exit prostitution. Copenhagen: SFI The Danish National Center for Social Research.

Hoigard, C., & Finstad, L. (1992). Backstreets: Prostitution, money, and love. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Hulusjö, A. (2013). The multiplicities of prostitution experience. Narratives about power and resistance. Malmö, Sweden: Malmö University.

Järvinen, M., & Demant, J. (2011). The normalisation of cannabis use among young people: Symbolic boundary work in focus groups. Health, Risk & Society, 13(2), 165–182.

Järvinen, M., & Henriksen, T. D. (2018). Controlling intimacy: Sexual scripts among men and women in prostitution. Current Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392118815945.

Kaye, K. (2007). Sex and the unspoken in male street prostitution. Journal of Homosexuality, 23, 37–73.

Kearney, R. (1995). Narrative imagination: Between ethics and poetics. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 21(5/6), 173–190.

Kerby, A. P. (1991). Narrative and the self. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Kofod, J., Dyrvig, T., Markwardt, K., Lagoni, N., Bille, R., Termansen, T., Christiansen, L., Tolddam, E., & Vilshammer, M. (2011). Prostitution in Denmark. Copenhagen: SFI - The Danish National Center for Social Research.

Koken, J., Bimbi, D., Parsons, J., & Halkitis, P. (2004). The experience of stigma in the lives of male internet escorts. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 16(1), 113–132.

Koken, J., & Bimbi, D. (2014). Mental health aspects of male sex work. In V. Minichiello & J. Scott (Eds.), Male sex work and society (pp. 222–238). New York: Harrington Park Press.

Kramer, L. A., & Berg, E. C. (2003). A survival analysis of timing of entry into prostitution: The differential impact of race, educational level, and childhood /adolescent risk factors. Sociological Inquiry, 73, 511–528.

Lautrup, C., & Heindorf, J. (2003). Mandlig prostitution 2003 - En interviewundersøgelse. Copenhagen: Videns og formidlingscenter for socialt udsatte.

Loseke, D. R. (2007). The study of identity as cultural, institutional, organizational, and personal narratives: Theoretical and empirical investigations. The Sociological Quarterly, 48, 661–688.

Mariño, R., Minichiello, V., & Disogra, C. (2003). Male sex workers in Córdoba, Argentina: Sociodemographic characteristics and sex work experiences. Pan American Journal of Public Health, 13(5), 311–319.PubMed

Minichiello, V., Scott, J., & Callander, D. (2015). A new public health context to understand male sex work. BMC Public Health, 15(282), 1–11.

Moran, R. (2015). Paid for: My journey through prostitution. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Morse, E. V., Simon, P. M., Osofsky, H. J., Balsom, P. M., & Gaumer, H. R. (1991). The male street prostitute: A vector for transmission of HIV infection into the heterosexual world. Social Science & Medicine, 32, 535–539.

Nussbaum, M. (1997). Cultivating humanity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Oselin, S. S. (2018). Challenging stigma: Identity talk among male sex workers in a recovery program. Sociological Perspectives, 61(2), 240–256.

Presser, L. (2009). The narratives of offenders. Theoretical Criminology, 13(2), 177–200.

Presser, L. (2018). Inside story: How narratives drive mass harm. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Presser, L., & Sandberg, S. (2015). Introduction: What is the story? In L. Presser & S. Sandberg (Eds.), Narrative criminology: Understanding stories of crime (pp. 1–20). New York and London: New York University Press.

Sanders, T. (2005). Sex work: A risky business. Devon: Willan.

Sanders, T. (2007). Becoming an ex-sex worker. Feminist Criminology, 2(1), 74–95.

Scott, J. (2003). A prostitute’s progress: male prostitution in scientific discourse. Social Semiotics, 13(2), 179–199.

Scott, J., & Minichiello, V. (2014). Introduction. In V. Minichiello & J. Scott (Eds.), Male sex work and society (pp. XII–XXVII). New York: Harrington Park Press.

Sheaffer, R. (2014). Representations of male sex work in film. In V. Minichiello & J. Scott (Eds.), Male sex work and society (pp. 50–81). New York: Harrington Park Press.

Socialstyrelsen. (2015). Prostitutionens omfang og former 2013–2014. Copenhagen: Socialstyrelsen.

Somers, M. R. (1994). The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach. Theory and Society, 23, 605–649.

Spanger, M. (2011). Human trafficking as a lever for feminist voices? Critical Social Policy, 31(4), 517–539.

Spanger, M. (2013). Doing love in the borderland of transnational sex work: Female Thai migrants in Denmark. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 21(2), 92–107.

Ugelvik, T. (2015). The rapist and the proper criminal: The exclusion of immoral others as narrative work on the self. In L. Presser & S. Sandberg (Eds.), Narrative criminology: Understanding stories of crime (pp. 23–41). New York and London: New York University Press.

Vanwesenbeeck, I. (2001). Another decade of social scientific work on sex work: A review of research 1990-2000. Annual Review of Sex Research, 12(1), 242–289.PubMed

Vanwesenbeeck, I. (2013). Prostitution push and pull: Male and female perspectives. Journal of Sex Research, 50(1), 11–16.PubMed

Walby, K. (2012). Touching encounters. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Weeks, J. (1992). Against nature: Essays on history, sexuality and identity. London: Rivers Oram.

Weitzer, R. (2005). New directions in research on prostitution. Crime, Law and Social Change, 43, 211–235.

Title: “Not a Real Prostitute”: Narrative Imagination, Social Policy, and Care for Men who Sell Sex
Authors: Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen
Ditte Andersen
Lois Presser
Publication date: 05-10-2019
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Sexuality Research and Social Policy / Issue 3/2020
Print ISSN: 1868-9884
Electronic ISSN: 1553-6610
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-019-00407-y

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 3/2020

Factors That Have an Impact on Educator Pedagogues in Teaching Sexuality Education to Secondary School Learners in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Awareness of Sex Offender Registration Policies and Self-Reported Sexual Offending in a Community Sample of Adolescents

Personality Traits and Individual Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage: Evidence from Taiwan

Understanding Risk and Resilience for Sexual Minority Emerging Adults: a Longitudinal Outlook on Minority Stress, Mental Health, and Academic Perseverance

The Campaign Against Sex Work in the United States: A Successful Moral Crusade

Talking About Teen Talk: Young People’s Experiences in a Sexuality Education Program