Social Problems
Darryl Hall
Department of Sociology
University of Nevada, Reno
The Sex Industry
• Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (of oneself or another) for money or goods and without emotional attachment. More broadly defined, prostitution refers to any industry in which one’s body is bought, sold, or traded for sexual use and abuse. According to this definition, systems of prostitution include pornography, live sex shows, peep shows, international sex slavery, and prostitution as narrowly defined.
• The vast majority of prostitutes around the globe are women and children. A certain amount of male prostitution does exist, although most boys and men in the sex industry engage in sexual encounters with other men.
• Not all prostitutes are alike—life experiences, family backgrounds, years of formal education, locales of operation, types of customers, and methods of doing business vary widely. Nevertheless, sociologists have identified five levels or tiers of prostitution:
1) Escorts or call girls/call boys are considered the upper echelon in prostitution because they tend to earn higher fees and have more selectivity in their working conditions and customers than do other prostitutes. They typically have more years of formal education, they tend to dress conservatively, and most of them do not think of themselves as prostitutes.
2) Bar girls/bar boys are hustlers, strippers, and table dancers who engage in prostitution on the side. People in this tier work out of night clubs, bars, and strip joints primarily. Most hustlers are not paid by the bar but earn their livelihood by negotiating sexual favors with potential customers, who often are lonely and want someone to talk to as well as to have sex with.
3) House girls work in brothels (houses of prostitution) run by a madam or a pimp who collects up to half of the fees earned by the women. Customers choose “dates” from women lined up in a parlor or receiving room. House prostitutes are not allowed to turn down a customer. Since prostitution is illegal in most states, houses of prostitution typically operate as body-painting studios, massage parlors, or other businesses.
4) Streetwalkers are prostitutes who publicly solicit customers and charge by the “trick.” Most street prostitutes work a specific location and defend it from other prostitutes. Streetwalkers derive status and some degree of protection from their pimps; however, researchers have also documented the exploitative and sometimes violent nature of the pimp-prostitute relationship.
5) The very bottom tier of prostitution is occupied by women who are addicted to crack cocaine and engage in crack-for-sex exchanges. Researchers have found that many crack-addicted women perform unprotected oral sex on men in crack houses in exchange for crack.
Prostitution in the United States
• Estimates of the number of prostitutes in the United States range from 100,000 to more than 500,000, but accurate estimates are impossible for several reasons:
1) There is the question of how prostitution is defined
2) Because of its illegal nature, much prostitution is not reported
3) Arrest records—which are about the only source of official information on prostitution—do not reflect the extent of prostitution. Because they visibly solicit customers, streetwalkers are more likely to be apprehended, tried, and convicted of prostitution than those who work for exclusive escort services
4) Many people drift into and our of prostitution, considering it temporary work between full-time jobs or as part-time work while attending school
Sociological Perspectives on Prostitution
The Functionalist Perspective
• The functionalist perspective argues that the presence of a certain amount of deviance in society contributes to its overall stability. According to Emile Durkheim, deviance clarifies social norms and helps societies to maintain social control over people’s behavior. By punishing those who engage in deviant behavior such as prostitution, the society reaffirms its commitment to its sexual norms and creates loyalty to the society as people bind together to oppose this behavior.
• According to Kingsley Davis, in societies that have restrictive norms governing sexual conduct—including the United States—prostitution will always exist because it serves important functions:
1) Prostitution provides quick, impersonal sexual gratification that does not require emotional attachment or a continuing relationship with another person
2) Prostitution provides a sexual outlet for men who do not have ongoing sexual relationships because they are not married or have heavy work schedules
3) It provides people with the opportunity to engage in sexual practices (e.g., multiple sex partners, fellatio, cunnilingus, anal intercourse, sadomasochism) that regular sex partners or spouses may view as distasteful or immoral
4) Prostitution protects the family as a social institution by making a distinction between “bad girls” and “bad boys”—with whom one engages in promiscuous sexual behavior—and those “good girls” and “good boys” with whom one establishes a family
5) Prostitution benefits the economy by providing jobs for people who have limited formal education and job skills
The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
• The symbolic interactionist perspective examines people’s lived experiences to determine such things as why people become prostitutes, whether prostitutes like their work, and why men seek out prostitutes—in short, how people define social realities.
• According to Howard Becker, entering a deviant career is similar in many ways to entering any other occupation. The primary difference is the labeling that goes with a deviant career. Public labeling of people as deviant and their acceptance or rejection of that label are crucial factors in determining whether or not a person stays in a deviant career.
• Symbolic interactionists suggest that the need of men to validate their sexual prowess or reaffirm their masculinity is an important factor in their seeking out prostitutes
The Conflict Perspective
• The conflict perspective highlights the relationship between power in society and sex work. The laws that make prostitution illegal are created by powerful dominant group members who seek to maintain cultural dominance by criminalizing sexual conduct that they consider immoral or in bad taste.
• Conflict theorists argue that women become prostitutes because of structural factors such as economic inequality and patriarchy. Capitalism and patriarchy foster economic inequality between men and women and force women to view their bodies as commodities.
• Conflict theorists suggest that criminalizing prostitution uniquely affects poor women, especially poor women of color, who are overrepresented among street prostitutes.
Pornography
• Pornography is the graphic depiction of sexual behavior through pictures and/or words—including by electronic or other data retrieval systems—in a manner that is intended to be sexually arousing.
• Obscenity is the legal term for pornographic materials that are offensive by generally accepted standards of decency. In Miller v. California (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court held that material can be considered legally obscene only if it meets three criteria:
1) The material as a whole appeals to the prurient interests (lustful ideas or desires)
2) The material depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way as defined by state or federal law
3) The work as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
The Nature and Extent of Pornography
• As part of the multibillion-dollar sex industry, pornography is profitable to many people, including investors, film makers, and owners of stores that distribute such materials. Hardcore pornographic films (those that explicitly depict sexual acts and/or genitals) gross over $400 million a year in the United States alone. It is not uncommon for a small production company that shoots, manufactures, and distributes such videos to gross more than $1 million a year.
• Technological innovations such as digital media have greatly increased the variety of pornographic materials available as well as methods of distribution. Although some people visit live peep shows and “X-rated” adult bookstores and video arcades, sexually explicit materials are available at home or in the office through mail-order services, movies on “X-rated” cable television channels, dial-a-porn, and private computer bulletin boards and Usenet newsgroups specializing in adult chat areas and graphics exchanges on the Internet.
Research on Pornography
• During the past three decades, two presidential commissions have examined pornography and reached contradictory conclusions. The 1970 U.S. Commission on Pornography and Obscenity found no conclusive links between pornography and sex crimes. In 1986, however, the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (also known as the Meese Commission) concluded that pornography is dangerous, causes sex crimes, increases aggression in males, inspires sexism against women, and encourages pedophilia (i.e., adults engaging in sexual intercourse with children).
• Gloria Cowan and her colleagues found that more than 80% of X-rated films in one study included scenes showing women dominated and exploited by men. The vast majority of these films portrayed physical aggression against women, and about half explicitly depicted rape. However, sociologists do not agree on the extent to which pornographic images of violence and domination of one person over another affects behavior.
Perspectives on Pornography
• There are a few main ways in which people seem to view pornography:
1) According to the liberal point of view, pornography may offend some people but brings harmless pleasure to others. It may even serve as a safety valve for those who have no other sexual outlet. The social problem to liberals is not really pornography but censorship—people attempting to impose their moral on others and thereby violating First Amendment rights.
2) From a conservative point of view, pornography is a threat to the moral values of society, especially family values. Pornography encourages people to have sexual intercourse outside marriage and to engage in deviant sexual behavior. Therefore sexually explicit and violent materials should be censored to protect families and societal values.
3) Feminists are generally critical of pornography because it is sexist in its portrayal of women, emphasizes male dominance and female submission, and encourages the valuing of women according to their ability to please men. However, not all feminists agree on what should be done about pornography.
- Antipornography feminists believe that pornography is a primary source of male oppression of, and violence against, women. Viewing pornography as a form of sexual discrimination that diminishes women’s opportunities in all areas of life, they believe that it should be restricted or eliminated.
- Anticensorship feminists do not believe that any single factor such as pornography causes women’s subordination. Focusing on pornography as the primary source of sexual oppression downplays the sexism and misogyny within various social institutions, including judicial, legal, familial, occupational, scientific, and religious institutions. Pornography should not be censored because open discussions about sexuality and sexual practices promote women’s sexual freedom.
