Prostituutio - ei välttämättä mälsää

Anna Kontula: Sex Worker and her Pleasure (doc)

- My material also shows that prostitution can also work as a way to more satisfying sex in private life. Female sex workers especially estimate that even when commercial sex does not offer memorable pleasure, it can lead to more equal and thereby also more pleasurable private relationships.

- Sex workers’ feeling of being in control is remarkable, not just because it’s against common myths but also because a lot of stories about being dominated, to one extent or another, in their non-commercial sex relationships can be found in my material.

- The internal power relations of the commercial transaction also strengthen the position of sex workers in relation to their clients: the client has to pay and he is the one who wants something. In many cases, for him the successful act also requires the enjoyment of the prostitute, as we have seen. On the other hand, a sex worker can be quite satisfied just when she gets her money.

The sex workers own experience of their work as a source of self-defined sexuality is confusing. - - Still it seems that at least in some cases the internal power relation of sex work can emancipate prostitutes towards more pleasurable and self-confident sexuality.

- In the light of interviews with Finnish prostitutes it is hard to see any kind of a common link between commercial sex and sexual alienation. Sex workers seem simply to be capable of experiencing sexual pleasure, both in commercial and private relationships.

- In many cases, professional sex work requires distancing from one’s own sexual pleasure and emotions, but even in this case my interviewees were capable of maintaining romantic private relationships in which they could derive sexual satisfaction. It is also possible to find many examples of how the experience of control in commercial acts has emancipated sex workers towards more independent sexuality.