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Buying Sex As a Privilege? - a Qualitative Study of Middle Class Turkish Men and Their Views on Sexuality, Gender Equality and Prostitution

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Buying Sex As a Privilege? - a Qualitative Study of Middle Class Turkish Men and Their Views on Sexuality, Gender Equality and Prostitution View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Göteborgs universitets publikationer - e-publicering och e-arkiv Buying sex as a privilege? - A qualitative study of middle class Turkish men and their views on sexuality, gender equality and prostitution. Master’s Programme in Social Work and Human Rights Degree report 30 higher education credit Academic year 2014 Author: Erika Wikström Supervisor: Jari Kuosmanen Abstract Turkey is a country with regulated prostitution and an increasing number of migrant sex workers. It is also a country that has been going through a modernization process the last two decades; from a rural conservative to a more industrialized secular country. However, there are few researches targeting the Turkish sex industry, especially with a focus on the consumer side. Western researches regarding consumers have showed that sex buyers, in general, tend to have more conservative ideas regarding gender and sexuality. The aim of this study is to, by comparing sex buyers to non sex buyers, find out how ideas about gender and sexuality among Turkish middle class men, affect the understanding of the use of sexual services. Qualitative interviews with six middle class Turkish male sex buyers and non sex buyers, analyzed with discourse analysis, expose a pattern where conservative ideas regarding sexuality and gender equality, justifies a power structure were Turkish men are expected to utilize care from women. These structures are analyzed by theories regarding power in the male- female relationship and prostitution. The results show that there is a connection between conservatism and sex buyers, particularly a conservative view on male sexuality. There is a pressure on men in the Turkish society to sustain a position of superiority by sexual exploitation. In order to explain how the superior position is operationalized, the author has developed Westerstrand’s model based on Svalastog’s theory of the fragmented female sexuality. This model is called “The sustained male sex right” and it explains how the pressure to exercise the male sex right creates a privilege where exploitation and denial of women’s subjectivity is normalized. Turkish men that don’t buy sexual services are more convinced that sexual and social inequalities are socially constructed. Based on moral arguments, they are, to a bigger extent, able to deconstruct norms of exploitation and thus, abstain, the male sex right. Title: Buying sex as a privilege? - A qualitative study of middle class Turkish men and their views on sexuality, gender equality and prostitution. Author: Erika Wikström Key Words: sexuality, gender equality, prostitution, sex buyers. 1 Acknowledgements When I started the process of writing this thesis, I was in the middle of my life’s biggest struggle; the one to recapture my freedom. As a single mom I had to work fulltime to support my child. Writing a thesis at the same time as being a full time working single mom, wasn’t easy. The idea that this thesis would ever be finished often felt like utopia. Many times, I was about to give up. There were many other struggles on the road and the horizon felt far away. I can, without doubt, say that to complete this goal would never have been an option if it wasn’t for some significant people in my life. First of all I would like to thank my parents for believing in me and for equipping me with the gifts of being stubborn, never give up and to always go after my dreams. I would also like to thank my children who gave me strength and inspiration. My supervisor, Jari Kuosmanen, who never gave up on me, deserves standing ovations. Jari has been available as a sounding board through the whole time, and his guidance has been crucial to me. However, there is one person, which has made this possible more than anyone else that came into my life when things were really tough, and supported me one hundred percent. Who, by his care (helping out with babysitting and practical chores, standing by my side, believing in me, exchanging ideas, love and laughter), made it possible for me to set aside time to write: My personal superhero, Arnór Hermannsson. Thank you. 2 Contents 1. Introduction and problem area ......................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Aim ............................................................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Research questions ..................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Perspective and preconceptions regarding prostitution .............................................................. 7 1.5 Definition of concepts ................................................................................................................ 8 1.6 Limitations ............................................................................................................................... 11 2. Sociocultural context ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Turkey ..................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Sexuality Turkey ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.3 Traditional views on gender .................................................................................................... 13 2.4 The view on sex workers in Turkey ........................................................................................ 13 2.5 Prostitution in Turkey .............................................................................................................. 14 2.6 Turkish law .............................................................................................................................. 14 2.7 Turkish prostitution in practice ............................................................................................... 15 3. Literature review ........................................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Research on sex buyers ........................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Comparing sex buyers to non- sex buyers ............................................................................... 18 4. Theoretical perspective .................................................................................................................. 20 4.1 The sexual contract .................................................................................................................. 20 4.2 Fragmented female sexuality and coherent male sexuality ..................................................... 21 4.4 Different points of view in explaining the reasons for buying sex .......................................... 23 4.5 Analytical Framework ............................................................................................................. 24 5. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 27 5.1 Qualitative interviews .............................................................................................................. 27 5.2 Selection .................................................................................................................................. 27 5.3 Data collection ......................................................................................................................... 29 5.4 Transcribing the data ............................................................................................................... 30 3 5.5 Analyzing ................................................................................................................................ 30 5.6 Validity and reliability ............................................................................................................. 32 5.7 Generalization ......................................................................................................................... 33 5.8 Ethical considerations .............................................................................................................. 33 6. Findings and analyses .................................................................................................................... 36 6.1 Gender ..................................................................................................................................... 36 6.2 Sexuality .................................................................................................................................. 39 6.2.1 Sex buyers ............................................................................................................................. 39 6.3 Prostitution .............................................................................................................................. 42 6.3.2.1 The non-sex buyers view on prostitution ........................................................................... 44 6.4 Buying sex as a privilege ......................................................................................................... 50 7. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................
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