ABSTRACT
Violence by male procurers has been highlighted by many commentators. The client's physical violence is deemed acceptable when it is aimed at a sex worker from a low socioeconomic group. Physical violence in the barrio was by no means solely perpetrated by clients and the male partners of sex workers. In literary and media discourses of prostitution, there has been little discussion about whether or not a client enjoys sex with a sex worker. Few men actually spoke of the enjoyment of the sexual act. Some spoke of giving a particular sex worker pleasure, but there was little acknowledgement of enjoyment of sex for themselves. Some sex workers were keen to promote the notion that they were indeed subject to bad, even traumatic sex at the hands of insensitive, selfish men. Many clients refused to have sex with a sex worker who was menstruating.
