Prostitution and Sex Work

Prostitution is the exchange of sexual services for money. Prostitution is typically thought of in terms of a woman selling sexual services to a man, although transac­tions between two males are also common. Payment for a man’s services to a woman is less common. Sex worker is a term for a person involved in prostitution and related

activities, such as phone sex, nude dancing, erotic massage, Internet sex, and acting in porn movies. Most people who are sex workers for more than a few months often move from one type of commercial sex work to another (Farley, 2004).

Relationships that involve exchanging sex for money also occur outside sex work. Advertising frequently portrays the "trade goods for sex" theme, and in 2000, one of the first reality-TV shows, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, highlighted the prostitution­like aspects sometimes present in common male/female relationships (Peyser, 2000). A case could be made that the wife who is especially sexually pleasing before asking for extra money from her husband, or the woman who wants out of her marriage but stays in order to maintain her standard of living, plays out the dynamics of prostitution (Ridgeway, 1996).

Updated: 16.11.2015 — 18:13