Sexual Marketplace Research Articles

Trafficking Narratives and the Prosecution of NXIVM

ABSTRACT Although cults often inflict significant damage upon their followers, the prosecution of cult abuse is a challenging feat because of the legally incoherent nature of the harms. Increasingly, prosecutors have addressed cult abuses by prosecuting cult leaders for human trafficking. We examine the 2019 trial of Keith Raniere, the founder of a group called NXIVM. Raniere never placed his followers in a sexual marketplace, and the operations of the organization lacked several hallmarks of trafficking, yet prosecutors were able to attain a guilty verdict. We argue that the prosecution’s success substantially derived from the attention paid to three “trafficking-adjacent harms”: gaslighting, coercive control, and trauma-coerced attachment. The convincing demonstration of these harms allowed prosecutors to establish a persuasive case against Raniere. The testimonies of Daniela, Nicole, and Sylvie, three victim/survivors of NXIVM, reveal how prosecutors use anti-trafficking legal frameworks to address cult exploitation.

Singing of Sex and Freedom: Courtesans and Erotic Arts in “Zabet”

Abstract: This article examines depictions of mixed-race courtesans in the eighteenthcentury Creole courtesan song “Zabet” which was originally transcribed in an unpublished document by the travel writer Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750–1819). My analysis of “Zabet” interrogates the intersecting oppressions of racism, sexism, and imperialism. Specifically, this article demonstrates how the lyrics of this song present a woman-to-woman sexual mentorship that provides a space of resistance for women of color to these intersecting oppressions. Through this mentorship, the song’s narrator/singer provides important lessons for mixed-race women in how to manipulate racialized and gendered stereotypes of the sexual marketplace in colonial Saint-Domingue.

The Sense in Senseless Violence: Male Reproductive Strategy and the Modern Sexual Marketplace as Contributors to Violent Extremism

The Sense in Senseless Violence: Male Reproductive Strategy and the Modern Sexual Marketplace as Contributors to Violent Extremism

The Black Pill: New Technology and the Male Supremacy of Involuntarily Celibate Men.

Involuntary celibates, or “incels,” are people who identify themselves by their inability to establish sexual partnerships. In this article, we use analytic abduction to qualitatively analyze 9,062 comments on a popular incel forum for heterosexual men that is characterized by extensive misogyny. Incels argue that emerging technologies reveal and compound the gender practices that produce involuntarily celibate men. First, incels argue that women’s use of dating apps accelerates hypergamy. Second, incels suggest that highly desirable men use dating apps to partner with multiple women. Third, incels assert that subordinate men inflate women’s egos and their “sexual marketplace value” through social media platforms. We argue that incels’ focus on technology reinforces essentialist views on gender, buttresses male domination, dehumanizes women, and minimizes incels’ own misogyny. We discuss findings in relation to theories of masculinity and social scientific research on the impacts of emerging technology.

Dating and sexualities across the life course: The interactive effects of aging and gender

Research on aging and sexuality has proliferated in recent years. However, little is known about the gender-specific effects of aging on dating and sexuality. Using survey data from the 2014 wave of Singles in America (SIA), a comprehensive survey on adult singles' experiences with dating and sexuality, we examine whether age differentially affects heterosexual women's and men's dating and sexual attitudes and behaviors and whether gender differences persist across the life course. We find that men remain active in the dating and sexual marketplace longer than women. Although main effects of gender differences are documented in dating and sexual attitudes and behaviors, the results show that gender does not operate the same across the life course. Notably, gender differences shrink or are eliminated in attitudes and behaviors surrounding partnering in midlife and late adulthood, suggesting that age is integral to understanding gendered heterosexuality.

Networked Intimacy, Data-driven Dating, and Gendered Social Meanings in the Online Sexual Marketplace

Networked Intimacy, Data-driven Dating, and Gendered Social Meanings in the Online Sexual Marketplace

Geolocation-based Phone Dating Apps, Digital Intimacies, and Social Matching Systems in the Online Sexual Marketplace

Geolocation-based Phone Dating Apps, Digital Intimacies, and Social Matching Systems in the Online Sexual Marketplace

High Mate Value Men Become More Accepting of Intimate Partner Abuse When Primed With Gender Equality

Although attempts to rectify intimate partner violence (IPV) predominantly target gender inequality as its socio-structural source, evolutionary insights cast doubt on the notion that gender equality unambiguously lessens IPV. Here we test whether the effect of gender equality on male-to-female IPV will depend upon men’s relative position in the sexual marketplace (i.e., their mate value). We primed 350 subjects (218 men) with one of three different prime types (high or low gender equality, or neutral control) each replicated five ways (total 15 primes). We measured support for coercive IPV and attitudes to abortion (to see if gender equality cues men’s urges to control female reproduction). Mate value moderated the effect of gender equality on men’s (but not women’s) attitudes towards IPV, and there was no effect for abortion. High-value men were supportive of IPV in conditions of gender equality, yet we found the reverse for low-value men. We interpret our results in light of the fitness costs and benefits IPV poses to perpetrators in high and low gender equality environments. Our findings show that phenotypic plasticity in male-to-female IPV can depend upon both broader socio-structural conditions between men and women and on an individual man’s position in the sexual marketplace.

“I can be your Tinder nightmare”: Harassment and misogyny in the online sexual marketplace

On Instagram, the accounts Bye Felipe and Tinder Nightmares feature screen-grabbed messages of sexist abuse and harassment women have received from men on dating apps. This paper presents a discursive analysis of 526 posts from these Instagrams. Utilising a psychosocial and feminist poststructuralist perspective, it examines how harassing messages reproduce certain gendered discourses and (hetero)sexual scripts, and analyses how harassers attempt to position themselves and the feminine subject in interaction. The analysis presents two themes, termed the “not hot enough” discourse and the “missing discourse of consent”, which are unpacked to reveal a patriarchal logic in which a woman's constructed “worth” in the online sexual marketplace resides in her beauty and sexual propriety. Occurring in response to women's exercise of choice and to (real or imagined) sexual rejection, it is argued these are disciplinary discourses that attempt to (re)position women and femininity as sexually subordinate to masculinity and men. This paper makes a novel contribution to a growing body of feminist work on online harassment and misogyny. It also considers the implications for feminist theorising on the link between postfeminism and contemporary forms of sexism, and ends with some reflections on strategies of feminist resistance.

The Evangelical Sexual Marketplace: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Exchange and Conversion of Erotic Capital in an Evangelical Church

Since the development of the early church, sexual ethics and the regulation of heterosexual relationships have been integral parts of Christian religious practice. Evangelical Christian communities are no exception to this pattern of regulation. In particular, this article makes three key arguments regarding Evangelical sexual practices. First, heterosexual relationships and marriage have become one of the most important (if not the most important) aspects of Evangelical religious and social practice, surmounting both Baptism and the Eucharist. Second, those in the Evangelical sub-culture tend to find several qualities more or less attractive in a potential mate, some of which differ from those outside the sub-culture. Finally, within many Evangelical churches a defined social space—a sexual marketplace—exists where individual agents exchange and convert this commodity, among others, to attract potential marital partners. The author derives these conclusions from the ethnographic observations and interviews he conducted while attending an urban Canadian Pentecostal Church in 2009 and 2010.

Who's the Man? Fragile Masculinities, Consumer Masculinities, and the Profiles of Sex Work Clients

Some research on male clients of female prostitutes argues that clients are simply seeking unemotional sexual release or looking for wild and varied sexual experiences. Yet other sex workers portray clients as lonely, vulnerable, and desiring of emotional connection with women. Rather than view this as an “either-or” scenario—in which all clients fit one profile—we construct two dichotomous models of masculinity for clients and explore their attitudes toward women and sex. Men in the fragile masculinities category feel uncomfortable around women, unattractive to women, and rejected by women in the sexual marketplace, while consumer masculinities men get excited by approaching a prostitute, seek a variety of partners, and do not want the responsibilities of a relationship. We find that fragile masculinities men may be more dangerous to women than consumer masculinities men.

Cultural Variations in the Sexual Marketplace: Gender Equality Correlates With More Sexual Activity

ABSTRACT Sexual economics theory assumes that heterosexual communities can be analyzed as marketplaces in which men offer women resources such as love, respect, money, and commitment in exchange for sex. In response to economic, political, and other disadvantages, women collectively restrict their sexuality to maintain a low supply relative to male demand, thereby ensuring a high price. Hence, we tested the hypothesis that sexual norms and practices would be more restrictive in countries marked by gender inequality than in countries where the genders were more equal. An international online sex survey (N>317,000) yielded four measures of sexual activity, and 37 nations' means on all four measures were correlated with independent (World Economic Forum) ratings of gender equality. Consistent with predictions, relatively high gender equality was associated with more casual sex, more sex partners per capita, younger ages for first sex, and greater tolerance/approval of premarital sex.

Internet Sex Ads for MSM and Partner Selection Criteria: The Potency of Race/Ethnicity Online

The explosive growth in Internet use by men who have sex with men (MSM) to find sexual partners has been noted in the research literature. However, little attention has been given to the impact of participating in this online sexual marketplace for MSM of color, despite race and ethnicity as frequently used selection criterion in personal ads or profiles. Six focus group discussions (n = 50) and 35 in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with African American, Latino, or Asian and Pacific Islander MSM in Los Angeles, which included discussion of their use of Internet sites to meet or interact with other MSM. Men reported race and ethnicity as a pervasive and powerful factor in facilitating or derailing Internet-mediated sexual encounters. The racialized interactions that MSM of color reported ranged from simple expressions of race-based preferences, to blatantly discriminatory or hostile interactions, and often demeaning race-based sexual objectification. Experiences of rejection and a perceived hierarchy of value in the sexual market based on race had definite costs for these MSM using these online sites. Furthermore, the private and solitary nature of seeking partners online meant that there was little to buffer the corrosive aspects of those negative experiences. These online dynamics have implications for the power balance in Internet-mediated sexual liaisons, including sexual decision making and sexual risk.

Reciprocity of laughing, humor, and tickling, but not tearing and crying, in the sexual marketplace

AbstractLaughing, humor, and tickling, but not tearing and crying, involve the give-and-take that provides value and a basis for exchange in the psychosexual marketplace.

No room for a regulated market? The implications of the co‐ordinated prostitution strategy for the indoor sex industries

In the UK the indoor sexual marketplace of brothels, saunas and massage parlours has historically been left to manage itself, with limited regulation from policing agencies. This paper examines the current nature of the indoor sex markets in light of the Home Office's co‐ordinated prostitution strategy. It looks critically at the impact of ‘disrupting sex markets’, and examines the arguments for rejecting a system that regulates the indoor sex venues. It also discusses the proposal to change the law to enable ‘two (or three)’ women to work together indoors and plans to minimise exploitation through an action plan on trafficking and the implications for practitioners and policy are assessed.

Infectious Behaviour: Imputing Subjectivity to HIV Transmission

This paper examines the sometimes implicit models of human behaviour circulating in science, government, and media that assign agency to HIV transmission, and contrasts these institutional ideas with the narratives of people at risk as they go about their everyday lives. Three kinds of risk talk, arising from interviews, show the limitations and paradoxes of leading constructions of the subjectivity of HIV transmission. The first shows a lack of fit, when the social conditions and presumptions that hold up the leading discourses are missing, and so choices and actions correspondingly follow alternative logics. The second type concerns ‘semiotic snares’ that lead risk calculators to increase their vulnerability to transmission, and the third concerns the explicit use of discourses of individual responsibility to postulate a sexual marketplace governed by the principle, ‘buyer beware’. The conclusion considers how people are both influenced by, and slip away from, the ‘calculating, rational, self-interested subject,’ that Barry Smart identifies as the paradigmatic subject of contemporary neoliberalism.

Typing, doing, and being: Sexuality and the internet

The increasing salience of sexuality on the internet, whether cybersex or use of the internet to make sexual contacts, has focused interest on how internet‐mediated sexuality informs social theory. This article reviews social theory and sexuality in relation to the internet, with specific reference to the development of intimacy, the association of texts with sexual scripts, the emergence of cybersexuality as a sexual space midway between fantasy and action, and the question of boundaries and the location of the person in sexual interaction. Also, the supplanting of the real by the symbolic, the internet as a sexual marketplace, its important role in creating sexual communities, particularly where sexual behavior or identity is stigmatized, its impact as a new arena for sexual experience and experimentation, and its impact in shaping sexual culture and sexuality are noted. Finally, the importance of the internet as a medium for the exploration of human sexuality and as an opportunity to illuminate previously challenging areas of sexual research is discussed.

Primary source of income is associated with differences in HIV risk behaviors in street-recruited samples.

BackgroundThe relationship between primary source of income and HIV risk behaviors and the racial/ethnic differences in risk behavior profiles among disadvantaged populations have not been fully explored. This is unusual given that the phenomenon of higher risk in more disadvantaged populations is well-known but the mechanisms remain unclear. We examined the relationship between primary source of income and differences in HIV risk behaviors among four racial/ethnic groups in the southern United States.MethodsSelf-reported data on primary source of income and HIV risk behaviors were collected from 1494 African American, Hispanic, Asian, and White men and women in places of public congregation in Houston, Texas. Data were analyzed using calculation of percentages and by chi-square tests with Yates correction for discontinuity where appropriate.ResultsData revealed that a higher proportion of whites were involved in sex for money exchanges compared to the other racial groups in this sample. The data suggest that similar street sampling approaches are likely to recruit different proportions of people by primary income source and by ethnicity. It may be that the study locations sampled are likely to preferentially attract those involved in illegal activities, specifically the white population involved in sex for drug or money exchanges. Research evidence has shown that people construct highly evolved sexual marketplaces that are localized and most unlikely to cross racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic or geographical boundaries. Thus, the areas that we sampled may have straddled a white sexual marketplace more than that of the other groups, leading to an over-representation of sex exchange in this group. Drug use was highest among those with illegal primary sources of income (sex exchange and drug dealing and theft), and they were also those most likely to have injected drugs rather than administered them by any other route (p < 0.001). In addition, bisexual or homosexual identification was reported by more respondents in the sex exchange as primary source of income category. The number of sexual partners in the last three months followed a similar pattern, with those whose primary source of income was drug dealing or theft reporting relatively high partner numbers.ConclusionsThese data suggest that social disadvantage is associated with HIV risk in part by its association with drug and sex work for survival, and offers one variable that may be associated with the concentration of disease among those at greatest disadvantage by having an illegal and unstable primary income source.

'Money, for the night is coming': Jean Rhys and Gendered Economies of Ageing

The published collection of Jean Rhys's correspondence opens with two undated photographs of Rhys on facing pages. The author's pose is nearly identical in the two images: her head rests on her hands and her large, dark eyes, rimmed with black liner, look directly out at the viewer. In both pictures, Rhys's hairstyle is exactly the same - though the colour and texture have changed - and the vivid pattern on her clothing is also similar. Both are portraits of a strikingly beautiful woman, and together they suggest a narrative embodying several concerns central to Rhys's early fiction: the exhibition of feminine beauty, the passing of time, and the social, biological and economic consequences of ageing for women. The strong continuities between the two photos, along with their striking differences, serve as a visual representation of the need for women to appear unchanging, to weave a narrative or create an image of the self that keeps the past and present contemporaneous in order to maintain value in the sexual marketplace. The inter-relations of gender, value, age and expenditure suggested by the two photographs are articulated in Jean Rhys's early novels, which depict the economy of investment and loss that women face as they age. In Rhys's texts - and particularly in her two first-person narratives - there is an attempt to recreate in prose the simultaneous experience of past and present, not simply as an example of modernist experimentation with narrative continuity, but also as a specifically gendered response to the economic and social consequences of ageing for women.

Masculine Purity and “Gentlemen's Mischief”: Sexual Exchange and Prostitution between Russian Men, 1861-1941

Sexual exchanges between men in modernizing Russia can be a window on the comparatively unexplored problem of Russian masculinities. Traditional forms of mutual male intimacy occurred within the patriarchal structures of gentry and merchant households, workshops and bathhouses.Arteliof peasant bathhouse attendants engaged in “sodomy” with clients, observing customary work practices (zemliachestvo, krugovaia poruka). By the 1890s an urban sexual marketplace characterized Russia's male homosexual subculture. Sexually knowing youths and men systematically offered sex for cash to “pederasts”, ortetki, who were perceived as predominantly attracted to men. After 1917, Bolsheviks evaluated same-sex love not through a single prism but by class and national contexts. Russia's male homosexual subculture was mistrusted in part because it was a clandestine sexual market, creating suspicious dependency relationships and threatening the “purity” of “innocent” young men.