ABSTRACT
A binary-based understanding of male and female sexuality is arguably understandable. Commercial sex is one site where convergence in sexual behaviours, desires and experiences that have been categorised as gender-based are occurring. Differences between women and men are encouraged and pronounced, as similarities pose a threat to the ‘logic of difference’ which is needed for ‘compulsory heterosexual coupling’. Men want to hold and maintain power and exert that power over women to ensure their access and dominance in sexual encounters. Women then draw on meso systems such as escort agencies to seek out commercial sex. The broad sweeping theoretical claims of some feminists, that all sex work undermines the position of women within society, therefore requires critical scrutiny. The degree of similarities between male and female client experiences destabilizes the claim that their sexual engagement in commercial sex is a reflection of male and female sexuality and reveals the precariousness of the male/female sexuality binary.
