ABSTRACT
This chapter explores 'sex work', 'sexual surrogacy' and 'sexual support' through men's stories and women's silences. It focuses on informants' experiences of commercial sex and to a lesser extent their experiences of sexual support, otherwise known as 'facilitated sex'. The chapter looks at the motivations of disabled informants who purchased sex – all men – and locate them in dominant constructions of disability and masculinity. It also explores the complex power relationships between disabled men and non-disabled female sex workers within commercial sex work exchanges. The chapter examines informants' experiences of sexual support, focusing predominantly on the integral role of the personal assistant (PA) within men's commercial sex purchases, and, for some others, their experiences of assisted masturbation from paid-for support workers and carers. It concludes that both of these forms of sexuality are intimate practices embedded within conventional gendered ideologies of power, heteronormativity and masculinity.
