Contemporary Nevada, Amsterdam, & Tuxtla

Clients of indoor workers tend to be more affluent, white collar, and well educated. Many of them seek a more personal or intimate experience, often spending more time with the sex worker. Brothels can also offer different activities for which customers can partake, including drinking at the bar, playing pool, relaxing in a Jacuzzi or sauna, or lounging in a main social area. Clients of indoor prostitution are also much more likely to caress, kiss, massage, perform oral sex, or hug the sex worker than those of street prostitution. Unlike the more depersonalized interactions in outdoor prostitution, encounters in brothels generally provide more romance, friendship, or companionship. Customers seek out sex workers for a variety of different reasons, not all of which are even inherently sexual. It is a common misconception that all clients want rough, impersonal sex. In reality, many clients want soft lovemaking or simply seek intimacy.

One man with AIDS expressed he was only looking for kindness and compassion at the Mustang Ranch in Nevada. The sex worker who serviced him said, “‘He announced to everybody that he had AIDS and didn’t want to have sex.  He said that everybody had been treating him badly since they found out he had AIDS.  He just needed somebody to talk to, some companionship, and some human touch. I gave him a long backrub.’” [1] Some have more specific needs; Harvey was a necrophiliac and asked the sex worker to pretend to be dead during intercourse.

Clientele also depends on location. A sex worker in Silicon Valley describes her clientele as mostly computer workers that spend over forty hours behind a monitor and have no time to socialize, while a sex worker in Brazil describes his clientele as mostly gay African American man who are cultural-heritage tourists. The relationship status of clients also has a wide range.  Clients who are both single and married will go to brothels to fulfil their sexual needs.  Don, a 47 year-old house painter, said,

I’m by myself a lot, used to it, but sometimes I crave physical contact. I’d rather get it from someone I don’t know because someone I do will want more. You get lonely. There’s this girl right now I’m seeing. I like the attention. But that’s it, in a nutshell. I find [prostitution] exciting, kind of fun. It’s amazing that it’s there. More people would participate if it weren’t illegal. A lot of frustration in both sexes could be eliminated. [2] 

Don is single and seems social but still wants to participate in sex. Not all transactions are innocent. Steve, a 35 year-old insurance manager is married but still goes to a brothel.

I feel guilty every time I cheat on my wife. I’m not a psychopath. I try to hide it as much as possible. I had a nonprofessional affair once. It was nice, and intimate, and I didn’t have to pay! But I felt more guilty about that, messing with someone else’s life, even though she knew I was married. You don’t ever have to worry about that when you pay for it. I’m conservative by nature, but I believe in freedom of choice. If a woman wants to do it, more power to her! She’s providing a service. I’m not exploiting her. Exploitation would be finding some hot 25-year-old who doesn’t know any better and taking her to lunches, then to bed. [3] 

The clients felt comforted by the knowledge that brothel workers had professional integrity and thus no one would have to know that they had been unfaithful.

A recent study by the anthropologist Katharine Frank in a strip club concluded that men are more often looking for authenticity with their interactions with strippers.  Clients would like to have a meaningful conversation and look for those who personify the “natural” or  “girl next door” looks.  Frank argues that clients are now starting to deter from “postmodern simulations” of makeup, costumes, breast implants, stage names, and especially cash exchanges. [4]  Since a cash transaction lowers the authenticity, clients try to find other ways of payment through gifts or cocktails to make the transaction more ‘real.’  Because of this, sex workers are now starting to advertise themselves as ‘girlfriends for hire,’ not only offering sexual activities but also authentic intimate connections.  This transformation is starting to attract middle aged clientele who are just looking for companionship. [5]

The GFE (girlfriend experience), in which sex workers provide a more emotionally intimate, loving, and supportive experience for the customer means that while there might be less physical wear to the body, one is also required to do emotional labor in a way that can be exhausting. Unlike street workers in general, brothel workers can experience their clients being obsessed with them, demanding a date with them, and refusing to pay for services because they were supposed to be authentic. At the same time, brothel workers can have returning clients who they find to be positive and enjoyable.

[1] Hursley, Timothy, Alexa Albert, Timothy Hursley, and Timothy Hursley. 2004. Brothels of Nevada: candid views of America's legal sex industry. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 95.

[2] Bernstein, Elizabeth. 2008. Temporarily yours: intimacy, authenticity, and the commerce of sex. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. p. 119. 

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid. 7.

[5] Ibid. 103.