Chapter Summary

CHAPTER 7: PROSTITUTION, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE SEX INDUSTRY

Sex work is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States. This includes money made from prostitution, the adult film and video trade, printed pornography, escort service, massage parlors, and strip and table dancing clubs. Whether or not the industry presents a social problem is subject to controversy. Many analysts consider it a purely victimless crime and behavior between consenting adults. Others see the sex industry as degrading to women, a violation of a woman’s right to equal protection under the law, and an institutionalized license of men to dominate, dehumanize, and victimize women. Analysts who view the sex industry as a social problem consider sexually explicit behavior as deviance. The study of deviance can take one of three major approaches. These include the objectivist approach which is based on conformity to social norms. The social construction approach views deviance as a label bestowed by moral entrepreneurs. The third approach to deviance states that it is rooted in the social structure of society.

Traditionally, at least four types of behavior between heterosexual partners are considered as deviant: premarital sex, extramarital sex, promiscuous sex, and underage sex. Prostitution is considered as deviant behavior because it involves sex between two, or more, people, who may be married to other people, and it sometimes involves underage participants.

Prostitution, the sale of sexual services for money or goods without emotional attachment, includes a wide variety of activity including pornography, live sex shows, peep shows, and international sexual slavery in addition to the narrowly defined view of being an individual transaction of one woman to one man. Although most prostitutes are women and children, there is a demand for a certain amount of male prostitution.

Although it may be debated if prostitution is actually “the oldest profession in the world,” references to it have existed throughout history. The status of prostitutes fluctuated from being not only accepted but admired in ancient Greece to being strongly adverse by Martin Luther and other theologians on moral grounds.

The past three decades have seen the industrialization, normalization, and globalization of prostitution. The demand for prostitution is greatest where large numbers of men are congregated for extended periods of time. This includes large cities at home and military bases over seas. The global sex industry reflects the economic disparity between the poorest and richest regions of the world. In addition, prostitution is a hazardous occupation that places women at risk of disease, violent victimization, psychological harm, and other health risks.

In the United States prostitution is a social problem affecting women and children in the lower classes the most. But not all prostitutes are alike. There is a wide difference in their personal characteristics and the types of sex in which they engage. A five tier level of stratification has been suggested based primarily on the working conditions of prostitutes. Top-tier prostitutes are called call girls or call boys. This class of prostitutes earns higher fees, have a selective client list, and have more formal education. At the bottom of the stratification list is the drug addicted “crack whore” who engages in common casual sex for only a few dollars a trick to feed her habit. Between the two are hustlers and strippers, house girls working in brothels, and streetwalkers.

The estimate of the number of prostitutes in the United States ranges from 100,000 to more than 500,000. The exact number is impossible to pinpoint because the profession is illegal and the definition of what constitutes prostitution widely varies. The ages of prostitutes range from the early teens to women and men classified as elderly. The majority are between 17 and 24 with the prime earning age being about twenty-two.

Sociologists use a variety of perspectives to examine prostitution as a social problem. Functionalists believe the presence of a certain amount of deviance in society, such as prostitution, contributes to its overall stability. Some sociologists believe that prostitution will always exist because it serves important functions. It provides quick, impersonal sexual satisfaction, a sexual outlet for men without romantic ties, an opportunity to engage in unusual sex practices, it protects the family as a social institution, and benefits the economy by providing jobs for people who have limited formal education and job skills. Symbolic interactionists use a social psychological framework to examine the life experiences of prostitutes. Conflict theorists highlight the relationship between the power in society and sex work. From the conflict perspective 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 using a liberal feminist framework believe that prostitution should be decriminalized because they classify it as a victimless crime. Marxist feminist and radical feminist frameworks suggest women become prostitutes because of the structural factors in society.

Pornography is another major component of the sex industry. It 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. Whether or not pornography qualifies as obscenity becomes a matter of opinion. In Miller v. California material was classified as obscene if it met three criteria: (1) The material as a whole appeals to lustful ideas or desires (2) the material portrays sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and (3) the work as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, ort scientific value. Pornography may be classified as either hard-core or soft-core depending on the explicitness of sexual acts and exposure of genitalia. The social construction of pornography as a social problem involves both a cognitive and moral framework. The cognitive framework refers to the reality of factualness of the situation and constitutes the “problem.” The moral framework refers to arguments to whether something is immoral or unjust.

Research on pornography and its link to sex crimes and antisocial behavior have received contradictory conclusions. The 1970 Commission on Pornography and Obscenity found no conclusive link between pornography and sex crimes and antisocial behavior. In 1986 the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (the Meese Commission) concluded there was a dangerous link between these variables. Sociologists also disagree on the extent to which the viewing of pornography affects behavior.

Data on the profile of the consumer of pornographic films and printed material is difficult to collect because of the secretive nature of the industry. Some studies suggest the typical customer of an adult bookstore is a white, relatively well-educated, middle-class man between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-six. Overall, men watch more sexually explicit material than women and hold more favorable attitudes toward it than women. This difference may be the result of gender role socialization. In recent years, more women have become subscribers to Playgirl magazine, erotic novels, and videos.

Whereas prostitution has been a part of society for over 4,000 years it is likely it will continue into the future. In American cities prostitution is dealt with in a number of ways by police. Vice-squads have an on-going responsibility to protect the moral interests of the public. If the behavior is viewed as a public nuisance police are more likely to be involved. On the global level women and children continue to be kidnapped and sold into slavery, often for sexual purposes. Sex tourism has also emerged, especially in underdeveloped countries, where young women are encouraged to become “patriotic prostitutes.”

In the United States there is little consensus over how to solve the social problem pornography and prostitution have created. In some circles, there may even be debate that the sex industry does not qualify as a social problem. People seem to view pornography in one of four ways, each suggesting a different solution to the problem. The four views include the liberal, religiously conservative, anti-pornography feminist and anti-censorship feminist views. Whether or not there will be any major changes in society’s response to pornography is unlikely, however. This is primarily due to the rapid sources of communication that link the world and the disagreement over which community’s standards should be applied to these issues.