Transformational sexualities

Motivations of women who pay for sexual services

Bibliographic Data

ID19005299
AuthorsKingston (0000-0002-9226-1915, The University of Central Lancashire, UK, corresponding author), N Hammond (0000-0002-3340-2992, Manchester Metropolitan University), Scarlett Redman (0000-0003-2035-8213, Liverpool Hope University)
Year2020
Volume24
Issue4
Pages527-548
Publication date2020-04-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460720904646
OpenAlexW3003688164
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited68

Previous research on client motivations to purchase sexual services in the UK has predominantly focused on the experiences of men. Women who buy sex have largely been overlooked as it is commonly assumed that women provide, rather than purchase, sexual services. In addressing this empirical absence, this article examines data gained from 49 interviews with women clients and sex workers. It examines the reasons why women decide to purchase sexual services in the UK. We argue that the increasing importance of contemporary capitalism and consumerism has shaped women's engagement in the sex industry as clients. We show how women's sexual agency and assertiveness as clients, inverts the female sex worker/male client binary assumed to characterize commercial sex and illustrates the overlap and convergence of male and female sexuality. Our research thus contributes to an understanding of female sexuality more broadly, as exemplifying the hallmarks of ‘transformational sexualities’ in cosmopolitanism (Plummer, 2015)

Assertiveness · Human sexuality · Sexual desire · Sociology · Transformational leadership · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology