"Whoremongers” and “Gentlemen"? Subtle masculinities in and out of island commercial sex
Keywords:
Men, masculinity, commercial sex, demand for prostitution, prostitution clientsAbstract
Payment for sexual services has recently attracted interest from feminist and gender studies. One of the main explanations offered for this behaviour, taking into account the large presence of men in the place of demand, is that it is a practice linked to a specific masculine identity: hegemonic masculinity. The present research, which explores the discourse of a group of men who have paid for sex, and another who have not, aims to identify the presence of traits of hegemonic masculinity and its influence on payment for sexual services. The results show that men’s profile of each group is varied, and that the motivations for paying for sex are heterogeneous and it is difficult to identify differentiating traits. The main conclusions are that traits of hegemonic masculinity may be present in both men who pay for sex and those who do not, being the same expressed motivation for both behaviours.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Paloma Martin Martin, Carmen Meneses Falcón, María Gómez Garrido
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