Chapter Eighteen Commercialization of Sex

1. Chapter EighteenCommercialization of Sex

2. Sex in Advertising • Sex sells because sex is arousing. • Advertisers get viewer attention using sex and then switch this attention to the product. • Although most advertisements are designed for the heterosexual market, gays and lesbians are shown in advertisements with increasing frequency.

3. Sexuality and the Internet - 1 • Sexuality on the Internet • Erotic photos • Videos • Live sex acts by webcam artists • Photo exchange • Phone sex arrangements • Personal meetings • Prostitution solicitation • Triple-A engine • Access • Affordability • Anonymity

4. Sexuality and the Internet - 2 • Demographics of Internet Users • Have more education • Be White • Have higher income • Be younger • Be married • Women and men use the Internet at the same rate with men more likely to access sex sites.

5. Sexuality and the Internet - 3 • Benefits of Sexuality on the Internet • Sex education • Anonymous STD testing • Mate finder • Sex partner • Maintenance of long-distance relationships • Sex fantasies/cybersex • Connect disenfranchised or marginalized groups • New identity

6. Sexuality and the Internet - 4 • Disadvantages of Sexuality on the Internet • Spread of STDs/HIV • Cybersex crime • Unwanted sex solicitation • Deception • Pedophiles on the Internet

7. Sex and the Law • An unending debate in U.S. society concerns the issue of private rights versus social morality. • Criminal Classification of Sex Acts • Category I: Criminal acts that require enforcement to protect society. • Category II: Sexual acts with potential victimization. • Category III: Sexual acts midway between those considered morally reprehensible and those creating victims. • Category IV: Sex acts between consenting adults, including homosexual behavior and behaviors within marriage. • Category V: Behaviors that do not involve sexual contact, but are either criminalized or considered to be sex crimes

8. Sexuality Businesses • Phone sex or “guided masturbation” • Strip clubs • Table dance • Lap dance • Erotic massage parlors • Differentiated from therapeutic massage • Community attitudes toward Adult Businesses • Attempt to control by controlling location

9. Pornography - 1 • Defining Pornography and Erotica • Pornography: Sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other images, usually pairing sex with power and violence. • Erotica: Sexually explicit material that is neither a degrading nor violent portrayal of consensual sexual activity. • Degrading pornography: Sexually explicit material that degrades, debases, and dehumanizes people, typically women. • Violent pornography: Sexually explicit visual images of sexual violence usually directed by men against women.

10. Pornography - 2 • Defining Pornography and Erotica • Obscenity: Label for sexual material that meets three criteria: • (a) the dominant theme of the material must appeal to a prurient interest in sex • (b) the material must be patently offensive to the community • (c) the sexual material must have no redeeming social value

11. Pornography - 3 • Prevalence of Pornography • 700 million hard-core pornographic movies rented annually • $800 million annually from pornography over cable and satellites • 11,000 pornographic films annually versus 400 Hollywood films • Sexually explicit magazines • Strip clubs • Internet

12. Pornography - 4 • Pornography and the Law • Courts have distinguished obscenity from child pornography with the latter being prosecuted • Child Online Protection Act (1998): Potential of adult pornographic sites must verify that they are over 18 • Children’s Internet Protection Act (2000): Libraries must install software preventing minors from accessing harmful material to receive federal funds

13. Pornography - 5 • Effects of Pornography • U.S. Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (1967): no evidence that pornography causes individual or social harm. President Nixon rejected the Commission’s findings. • Meese Commission on Pornography (1985): pornography is harmful to both individuals and society and called for more stringent law enforcement regulation. • Surgeon General’s Workshop on Pornography and Public Health (1986): conclusions to the effect that pornography has harmful effects.

14. Prostitution - 1 • Prostitution: Act of providing sexual behavior (typically manual manipulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, anal sex) through the use of one’s body in exchange for money, drugs, or other goods. • Types of Prostitutes • Streetwalker • Apartment prostitute • Erotic massage parlor worker • House prostitute • Call girl (escort) • Courtesan • Male prostitute

15. Prostitution - 2 • Becoming a Prostitute • Research indicates that factors associated with becoming a prostitute include: • Early introduction to sex • Lack of parental supervision • Estrangement from parents • Need for money • Peer influence

16. Prostitution - 3 • Life as a Prostitute • Research indicates that prostitutes are: • Likely to be poor • Subject to HIV infection • Subject to violence • Call girls, however, may not be subject to these conditions and report being harassed by authorities

17. Prostitution - 4 • Clients of Prostitutes • Research indicates that men who use the services of prostitutes are: • Older • Less likely to be educated beyond high school • Less likely to report having a regular partner in the last 6 months • More likely to report that their most recent partner was a casual partner

18. Prostitution - 5 • Prostitution and the Law • Prostitution is legal in the U.S. only in some areas of Nevada (see Brothel) • Trafficking as related to prostitution is using force and deception to transfer victims into situation of extreme exploitation. Trafficking is an international industry and has been expanded by the Internet. Legal efforts to stop prostitution have begun to focus on the clients of prostitutes.

19. Prostitution - 6 • Prostitution and STDs/AIDS • Prostitutes are at high risk of infecting, and being infected by, their clients with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. • Sex tourist: person (usually a man) who takes an organized tour, in which the tour operator arranges access to prostitutes along with flights, hotels, airport transfers, etc. • Problem: opportunities provided for pedophiles to have sex with children. • Organized efforts by feminists to end human trafficking for sex—through NGOs and United Nations