ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Key themes in existing literature include characteristics of persons who buy sex, strategies for buying sex, forms of sexual services clients buy, different types of relationships with/to sex workers, clients’ perspectives on sex work, client-perpetrated violence against sex workers, and the criminalization of clients. The vast majority of literature focuses on providers of sexual services, who are almost always of lower socio-economic status than their clients. The part argues that “objectification” and “male domination” incorrectly assess the behavior of men in brothels, which instead can more effectively be characterized as an inversion of the heteronormative socio-sexual order that requires men’s sexual pursuit of women. It examines cultural configurations of masculinity and modernity that encourage men to purchase sexual labor from women who are cultural “rebels” through unique client–sex worker relationships centered on intimacy, friendship, trust, emotional exchange, love, care, and money.
