ABSTRACT
In the previous four chapters we have dealt extensively with the importance of place in prostitution. However, time is also highly significant in analysing this profession. Our main interest in this chapter is therefore in the ways in which workers and punters experience time in and around the encounter; and we argue that time is typically experienced and constructed very differently by each party. That is to say, time spent with a prostitute is leisure time for the client but is also time in which he seeks, as we have noted, to buy whatever is not forthcoming via naturally occurring relationships, time which is spent seeking to bolster and enhance self-identity which may be challenged in other situations, at home and at work. Time for the prostitute, on the other hand, is work time, which must be carefully managed in order to maximize income and to ensure safety for the participants, in B&D sessions in particular, but which may also threaten self-esteem.1
